6. Dissatisfied with a credit card purchase? You can temporarily withhold payment.

If you're unhappy with a purchase and have a justifiable complaint about its quality, the act also grants you the right to delay paying that specific charge on your credit card bill until your complaint is resolved. However, you can't invoke this right until you've gone to the merchant first, says Wu, so move fast.

"You have to make a good faith effort to solve the problem with the merchant directly," she says. Contact the merchant as soon as you have a legitimate complaint about a good or service. If the merchant refuses to work with you, then "you can raise the complaint with the credit card company." To do so, tell your credit card company that you've been unable to resolve the problem with the merchant and are invoking your right to "withhold payment" on that purchase.

Once you complain to your issuer and ask them to charge back the purchase, the issuer must refrain from reporting the delinquent payment to the credit bureaus until your dispute with the merchant is resolved.

Your issuer might also decide to investigate the complaint on your behalf, but it's not obligated to settle the issue for you, says Feddis. "They can be the broker," she says. "If there's insufficient evidence, then they step out of it."

To take advantage of this protection, your purchase must cost more than $50 and you have to have bought the product or service in your home state or within 100 miles of your mailing address -- unless you purchased the product or service using a store card from the merchant. In that case, it doesn't matter how much the purchase cost, nor does it matter where you live. Your purchases are still protected.

"Internet purchases are a little tricky," says Wu. The right to withhold payment for Web purchases depends on state law. If your home state doesn't recognize this right, you may be out of luck.

Tip: Don't pay off your credit card bill until you've examined all the charges. You can't ask for a refund under this provision if you've already paid your credit card bill in full, says Wu. "If you've paid the amount that's being disputed, then you can't withhold payment."