Time limit for posting merchant charges?
 

I wonder if there is a time limit for a merchant to post charges. We traveled to Namibia in May and June, and some charges just appeared on our credit card (a Schwab Visa), more than 4 months after the fact. I basically have two problems with this: 1) it happens that the exchange rate is much less favorable now than it was 4+ months ago and 2) I only keep my receipts for 2-3 months tops, so I can't verify whether I'm being double-charged or charged for the correct amount.

Does anyone know if I have some sort of recourse with Visa/Schwab? Can I at least ask for a rebate corresponding to the difference in exchange rate? I realize that it could have gone the other way around and be in my favor: however, in part my expenses were also based on considering the rough amount of charges I would incur with the then-current exchange rate. Isn't there a time limit for merchants to put a charge through?

This article suggests that merchants have a year to submit transactions...

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_there_a...;s_credit_card

However, this VISA USA document mentions that transactions deposited more than 30 days after the original transaction date may be charged back to [the merchant].

http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan...ance_guide.pdf

I know from direct experience that the 30 days is not a hard limit, older charges are accepted if the merchant or the merchant's bank experienced a technical problem. Bear in mind those are VISA USA's rules, VISA International's rules may differ.

Most likely you will be dealing with Bank of America (also known as FIA), because they are the issuer of the card. I doubt you would have any contact with Charles Schwab or VISA.

Schwab Visa seems to be the only card in our myriad of cards that tend to have very late postings.

We have some charges made in Japan that are not posted until a month later. Of course the Yen against US$ has gone up 5% during that period. Luckily the absolute amount isn't very big so the exchange loss is only a few bucks.

But I can certainly see the OP's case can be a big dent in the pocket, and very annoying too.

I also had a charge from the same period (end of May/early June) which ended up on our Capital One Visa, but I didn't worry too much about it as it was a small amount. It could be an indication that something malfunctioned at some Namibian bank, then again, most charges from the same period did come through within a few days, so I'm not sure what I should do about these very late ones. The fact that Schwab Visa's issuer is BofA isn't reassuring: I've had substandard customer service from them in the past...