One of the most important credit card benefits is zero fraud liability, which means that cardholders aren’t responsible for unauthorized charges. All Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover credit cards offer this benefit, though some commercial or prepaid gift cards might not.
A quick call to Capital One allowed us to file a dispute. A representative reviewed recent transactions with us, confirming which were legitimate and identifying two suspicious ones. One was a charge that Capital One had preemptively flagged as suspicious and declined. The other was the $300 charge we had seen in our online account. The dispute was opened within minutes.
Capital One immediately removed the charge from our balance due so we wouldn’t have to pay it while it was still under investigation. It took about three weeks for a final decision, but when the investigation was complete, and the transaction was validated as fraudulent, it was removed from the account permanently.
Admittedly, some card issuers are easier than others to work with. In the past, I’ve been happy with how American Express, Chase and Capital One have handled things. You may want to check your card issuer’s fraud detection policies before making it your go-to payment method.