Hey folks. I have been a long time lurker, but now I have a question of my own…
I bought a diamond from a well known internet dealer using my Amex card. This was over two weeks ago, and there is still no trace of a charge on my statement. Usually even the smallest charge will show up in my online statement almost immediately. The last email I received from the merchant was a “thank you for your payment.”
All ethics aside, what should I do? If I wait and feign ignorance, could it come back to bite me in a non-karmic way? Could it really be possible that I got a $28k diamond for free? What are the risks of just sitting back and seeing if they catch their error?
Let me guarantee you that at some point a 28K error is very likely to be discovered even if it’s a month or two (or three) down the line. If you intend on having good future relationship with the seller, (assuming you are satisfied with the purchase) and not have him think you are trying to slide by it would be best to inform them.
It’ll show believe me, I’ve had errors like this. My mother died in 1980 and was getting social security sent automatically to her account. I called social security and they said “Keep it, it’ll stop soon.” I was only 16 at the time but I knew better. I kept the money but didn’t spend it. And boy am I glad I did, it took about 18 months to stop payments to her and then they demanded the money back.
Same thing for a phone bill. I called a friend overseas and the bill was around $250.00 and it took them 11 months to post that bill. I was hoping for a free ride but no.
I have worked with credit cards and occasionally what will happen is the credit card numbers will get crossed and the bill will go to someone else. For an amount like five or ten dollars many times the wrongly billed person will just pay not even noticing. But for $28,000 they will notice and dispute the charge then it’ll come back to you.
With a service it’s not so obvious. I had cable installed and they didn’t bill me. I went down, not once, not twice but three times to tell them I haven’t received a bill. The third time the clerk said “Look you’ll get billed when you’re billed.” I never got billed for 2 years.
There is no risk of not telling them. Just make darn well sure you have the money, cause later on down the road it’ll come back.
Am I reading that right? A $28,000 diamond? If so, someone with that much dough isn’t going to post on a message board this kind of problem. People that spend that much on a product (and a relatively frivolous one at that) don’t look at their bills. Just my .02 cents. Now, on the off chance this post is legit, I don’t think there’s any problem with waiting, although it isn’t the most honest thing to do. You will pay, sooner or later, as you owe the money. If it takes AmEx a while to figure it out, well, that’s their error. I doubt you get any kind of benefits from them by bringing it to their attention now, aside from your own personal peace of mind that you’re doing the right thing.
In the meantime, enjoy the extra interest-free credit.
Vaguely related: the only time I ever failed to get billed for anything on my credit card was when I was at university and went for a meal at a restaurant which used old-fashioned paper credit-card slips, rather than online terminals. A day or two later, the restaurant burnt down. (And no, I had nothing to do with it!) Presumably the credit-card slip was destroyed in the fire, and I never got billed.
Edited to add: I am not of course recommending this as a method of evading payment…
For the record, I had one VISA debit transaction take 10 weeks to clear, but that one was done by a gas station on one of the old ‘knuckle grinder’ machines.
Apparently the crazy Russian guy that ran the place couldn’t be bothered to take that one to the bank for a few weeks… made me bounce a few checks, since my accounting system at the time assumed all VISA debits cleared within 45 days.
I have had credit card charges that didn’t show up for six to eight weeks. Give it time, I’ll bet it will be charged without any further action from you.
It’s not an error. Some merchants bulk process CC payments once a month, rather than each as it comes in. It will show up on your statement sooner or later, I assure you.
The benefit amount is based on the earnings of the person who died. The more the worker paid into Social Security, the greater your benefits will be.
Social Security uses the deceased worker’s basic benefit amount and calculates what percentage survivors are entitled to. The percentage depends on the survivors’ ages and relationship to the worker. Here are the most typical situations:
[ul][li]A widow or widower, at full retirement age or older, generally receives 100 percent of the worker’s basic benefit amount; [/li][li]A widow or widower, age 60 or older, but under full retirement age, receives about 71-99 percent of the worker’s basic benefit amount; or [/li][li]A widow or widower, any age, with a child under age 16, receives 75 percent of the worker’s benefit amount. [/li][li]Children receive 75 percent of the worker’s benefit amount. [/ul][/li][/quote]
I had a credit card charge take a YEAR to show up. I couldn’t figure out what it was for. I finally called the store, and figured out that it was for a watch a bought on ebay a year before. He was very glad I called, and didn’t just dispute the charge…
Per Visa rules (pdf) merchants are required to submit requests for payment within five days of the transaction. Requests more than 30 days old may not be honored.
I assume the card company would try to contact him to recover the amount. If that failed, they would sell the debt and sooner or later Big Vinnie would show up on the doorstep in a shiny suit with two of his biggest friends.
