Credit card charged twice -- for the 4th time!!!

[Rojo]

Ok, I'm really getting pissed off now.

My boyfriend's from Spain and moved to NYC to be with me several months ago. He's had a rough time settling in and finding work (he's currently here on a journalist's visa). And to complicate matters he is always being taken advantage of! Lots of people see he's a foreigner right away, and then try to cheat him out of things, assuming he wouldn't know any better (he does).

Lately, whenever he uses his Spanish credit card (which isn't that often), he's been charged TWICE almost every time -- different amounts on different days. Today we discovered it's happened again -- the 4th time in about two months. Luckily, he checks his account online quite often and catches the charges. The second charges are almost always about a week later (when they assume a foreign visitor would be back in their own country, I guess), and the amounts are always different by 5-10 euros (obviously to make it harder to catch since it's not a duplicate charge).

It's really sad that he has to deal with this kind of thing all of the time. And it's a total bitch to then call these places or go to them in person and get the charges reversed. The places always have some kind of lame excuse as to why it happened, too.

As a journalist, I think he should seriously write an article for some Spanish media on how foreigners are taken advantage of here. Of course, he's going to try and NOT use his Spanish credit card when he can from now on -- but why should he be limited like this?

Anyway, just wanted to vent. Anyone have any suggestions on how to appropriately deal with this kind of thing?

[SMM]

You cannot stop it, per se. Every once in awhile some company will do this to me too. I actually made up a form where I record all of the information to send to my credit card company. They have always reversed the charges. Then I send the document to my state attorney general's office. I do not know if they do any follow-up. If the FBI was not so busy throwing pot smokers in jail, they could start busting these rip-off artists who must be stealing billions world-wide.

[Rojo]

I just called the place that charged twice today (a Chinese restaurant), and had the most frustrating conversation possible. This always seems to happen at places where the manager's first language isn't English, and then when I try and talk to them they act completely confused.

It's just really depressing.

I go to these same restaurants ALL the time and use my credit card -- but this never happens to me. My Spanish boyfriend uses his Spanish card 6 times in two months, and 4 of the times he's charged twice like this.

These are some of my favorite restaurants, but now I don't want to go back to any of them....

[savanahrose]

that is absolutely disgusting that that would happen to him. I would do what the other poster said and make up a form, send it to his c.c. company and the attorney general. I would definitely have him write that article about getting ripped off, not only put it in his home country's newspaper but here in the US also.

Maybe something can be done about that situation and hope it won't ever happen again.

I hope you get it taken care of real soon.

crime sucks!!

[SMM]

Originally Posted by Rojo

I just called the place that charged twice today (a Chinese restaurant), and had the most frustrating conversation possible. This always seems to happen at places where the manager's first language isn't English, and then when I try and talk to them they act completely confused.

It's just really depressing.

I go to these same restaurants ALL the time and use my credit card -- but this never happens to me. My Spanish boyfriend uses his Spanish card 6 times in two months, and 4 of the times he's charged twice like this.

These are some of my favorite restaurants, but now I don't want to go back to any of them....

Maybe it is credit card company doing it? Or, is there a middleman doing the foreign currency exchange?

[Rojo]

Originally Posted by SMM

Maybe it is credit card company doing it? Or, is there a middleman doing the foreign currency exchange?

I thought of that, and I always try and give the benefit of the doubt. But each place that's done this has had a different excuse/reason for it happening. And if I talk to more than one person at the place, the story also changes -- which just confirms he's being cheated on. Basically, they always claim ignorance or some sort of confusion/human error, and eventually reverse the charges. If this happened ONCE, I might have believed it was just a freak occurence -- but FOUR times now with a person using a foreign credit card is pretty suspect, and a quick look on the internet has shown that this has sadly become a common occurence for travellers.