Amex and Microsoft

[Packard]

I got my American Express bill the other day.  There was a charge of $76.11 from Microsoft.

I did not remember making a purchase and I did not recall any subscription with MS, so I called Amex. 

They said that they would investigate.  Last night I got a letter from them saying that the $76.11 charge was deleted and that they had turned the matter over to their enforcement department.

I have the Amex app.  I also get notified, almost instantly, whenever a charge is made to my card.  It always pays to go to the app and read over the charges. 

My Visa card does not give me notifications.  Perhaps there is some way for that to be done.  I will visit the bank tomorrow and ask.

 

[ChuckM]

It's not the VISA card, but the institution that we bank with -- at least that's the case north of the border.

I receive an electronic notice instantly every time I spend on my Scotia Passport Visa Card:

[attachimg=1]

I do get a balance update for my AMEX Business Card regularly throughout the weeks whenever I use the card (but electronic notifications are not instant like the Scotia's):

[attachimg=2]

In terms of disputing a charge, Amex's process was really simple and efficient for the only one time that I had to subject myself into years and years ago.

 

[Packard]

Years ago, I got a charge on my Visa card for flowers delivered to an address.  It was on a card that I only used for business.  And I had just one account on Long Island where the charge was made.

I called the florist to get the name of the recipient of the flowers.

I called the recipient to find out who sent the flowers.

I called the only vendor I had on Long Island and asked if the sender wan an employee.  (He was.)

I laid out my investigation for the vendor and he confronted that employee and fired him.

I called Visa with my investigation and they said, “We will not pursue this.  We will issue a new card.”

I guess they were looking at a cost/benefit ratio. 

Of course, Amex was potentially looking at thousands of bogus charges.  They had to investigate.  But it was disappointing that after I went through the effort of finding the bad guy, that Visa chose to do nothing at all except send me a new card. 

Side note:  My Amex card is made from aluminum.  They provided me with a mailer to send the card back for destruction and recycling.  I guess trashing an aluminum card is too much to ask for if you don’t have a workshop in the basement.  I’m sending it back.  It’s easier. 

Tomorrow I will go to the bank and see if notifications are available for the Visa card.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Tomorrow I will go to the bank and see if notifications are available for the Visa card.

I would guess that it is more about which bank you use, rather than VISA itself.
My bank makes this possible through their website. You can adjust the $ amount limit at which point you get a text notification.
I did it for the card that I gave my daughter, when she was a teen/early 20s. She was supposed to text me when she used it, just so I knew about it and could pay the bill. She forgot several times  [huh]

 

[ChuckM]

Snip.
I did it for the card that I gave my daughter, when she was a teen/early 20s. Snip.

Fresh out of college in the 70s, I got a job but was still considered not financially strong enough to qualify for a credit card. Nowadays, as soon as you can show a university student ID, they want you to have one of their credit cards!

 

[kevinculle]

That seems to line up with the annual subscription price for the Microsoft 365 software and cloud storage package.

 

[Packard]

That seems to line up with the annual subscription price for the Microsoft 365 software and cloud storage package.

It was well thought-out.  When I went to the Amex app, there is a link for the charge that will yield a copy of the receipt. 

When I clicked the link, which looked 100% identical to the real ones, it said “Receipt not available at this time.”  And it suggested I click another link, linking directly to MS.  I did not click that.  I thought about clicking it, but then decided to call Amex instead. 

So not only were they adding appropriate sounding charges to my account, they were embedding risky links within Amex’s app.  So I would imagine that they are making an actual investigation into this and not just saying so to placate me.  It seemed likely that it was part of a much larger effort than just my $76.00.