What does the bank do when there is an unrecognized charge?
Users of bank cards frequently experience an unrecognized charge; in these situations, Condusef verifies that the bank is abiding by its responsibilities.
Thousands of Mexicans and those with Mexican bank accounts have experienced the problem of receiving an unrecognized charge on their credit or debit card statement, so the law in Mexico has established mechanisms to protect the user and impose obligations on the banks involved.
According to the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Financial Services Users (Condusef), the first step to follow when receiving an unrecognized charge on a bank card is to remain calm, report the charges to the financial institution, and cancel the card, in order to avoid further transactions.
Subsequently, the user must go to the specialized unit of the bank in question, submit a request for clarification, and an investigation will be initiated. From that moment on, the law imposes obligations on the institutions in order to protect the user.
Obligations of the bank in the face of unrecognized charges
According to Condusef, these are the bank's obligations when there is an unrecognized charge:
Condusef says that the first point is that any bank that gets a request for clarification about unrecognized charges must send an acknowledgement of receipt with the folio and date of the request.
Subsequently, and within a maximum of 48 business hours after the claim, the bank must pay the amount by which the user was affected. However, the investigation will continue and may last up to 45 days.
During this time, the bank can take back the credit if it can be shown that the charge was made with permission from the cardholder or any of the accounts linked to the card.
After 45 business days, if there is no official ruling from the bank and the credit has not been reversed, the request has been successful.
The bank cannot charge late interest generated by the lack of payment of the claimed charge nor report you to the credit bureau.
The latest provision of this law came into force as of 2019 and was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), where it was added that the bank's mandatory credit must be made if the charge did not use at least two authentication elements.
If the claim was wrong, the opinion must include proof of the authentication factors that were used to make the unrecognized charge and how the verification was done.
