Query Transaction

If you find a transaction on your credit card or debit card statement that you do not recognise or believe to be incorrect, there are a few things you should do:

1. First, check your statement thoroughly:

a. Review the date and the amount of the transaction to see if you are able to remember if you used your card at the time and place.

b. Sometimes companies and retailers use a different trading name to the billing name that appears on the statement. If you have Internet Banking with HSBC, you can also see more information about where you used your card.

c. If the date or amount looks incorrect, check your purchase receipt. If the amount is different make sure it's not a result of the exchange rate on an international transaction or a surcharge applied by the merchant or retailer.

2. If you have an additional card holder on the account check with them to see if they made the purchase.

If you’ve checked everything and you still don’t believe the transaction or purchase is yours, contact us immediately and we will investigate the matter for you. If you don’t tell us immediately, we may lose our right to exercise a chargeback right on your behalf as the card scheme rules prescribe timeframes for making chargeback requests. We will investigate disputed transactions under the ePayments Code where they are reported to us outside of the card scheme timeframes or where chargeback rights do not apply for another reason.  The ePayments Code regulates electronic payments including ATM, EFTPOS, credit  and debit card transactions, online payments, internet and mobile banking and BPAY.

Ways you can dispute a transaction

You can contact us as follows to dispute a transaction. If you don’t recognise a transaction or you haven’t authorised a transaction, you should act immediately and tell us by calling us (instead of using the other contact methods listed below).

• Phone – 1300 308 008 (+61 2 9005 8220 if calling from overseas)
• Branch – visit your nearest branch
• Email – complete a Cards Transaction Dispute Form and email to cardoperations@hsbc.com.au

How we process disputes

Once we receive a transaction dispute for your HSBC credit or debit card, we will investigate:

• Transactions you believe are incorrect (amount or merchant),
• Transactions you believe you did not authorise,
• Transactions you may suspect are fraudulent,
• Duplicated transactions,
• ATMs that have given you the incorrect amount of money,
• Goods or services that you did not receive or that were faulty (in these cases we may ask you to contact the merchant in the first instance before raising a Transaction Dispute); or
  
• Re-occurring direct debits and regular repayment authorities that you have previously cancelled with the merchant or you do not recognise (for example: Gym membership or Health insurance).
  

Our ability to help, including in relation to reoccurring payments, will be limited by contracts that you may have signed with the store/merchant. For example, in some cases where you are subscribing to something online you may think you are subscribing for a free trial but you are actually agreeing to continue with the services at the end of the free trial period. You need to make sure you cancel your subscription with the merchant prior to the end of the free trial period if you don't want to keep paying. We may not be able to help in some cases such as billing disputes, contract related disputes or disputes about the quality of service provided by a merchant. In these instances, we will ask you to contact the merchant or service provider directly.

We will confirm that we have received your disputed transaction request, and will endeavour to keep you updated as we progress with the investigation. We may also contact you to discuss your dispute by giving you more information about the disputed transaction, or by performing a quick internet search to help you locate details about the merchant or to obtain more information if we need it.

As part of our investigation, we will act as a liaison between you and the merchant's bank. In some instances, we may request more information and evidence from you to progress the dispute. Specifically, if you believe you are a victim of fraud, identity theft or other illegal activity, we may ask you to report the matter to the police in the first instance and may require you to complete a statutory declaration.

We aim to complete any investigation and provide you with a written response within 60 days from the date we receive your transaction dispute request. The timeframe can exceed 60 days if there are delays in receiving the necessary information to process the dispute from you or the merchant. We will inform you in writing if this is the case.

What happens when our Dispute process is complete?

When we have completed our investigation you will be informed of the outcome in writing. Upon receipt of our letter you will need to consider whether you agree with the outcome or if you wish to further dispute the transaction This includes disputing matters the merchant has raised when declining a chargeback. 

If you agree that you are responsible for the transaction after we have provided you with supporting information, you do not need to do anything further. However, if you disagree with our findings and wish to investigate further, you will need to provide a written reply to the documentation we sent you, outlining your reasons for wanting to further dispute the transaction. When we receive this, we will continue with the investigation until a decision can be reached.

When a transaction dispute is found in your favour the transaction may be charged back to the merchant's account and the funds re-credited to your account. If the dispute is not found in your favour, we will inform you of the next steps and advise you how to escalate the matter should you feel that we have not adequately addressed your concerns.

During the transaction dispute process, you may see the following entries on your statement:

DISPUTE ITEM RAISED – your transaction dispute has been received and is being investigated. The amount in dispute is not included in your outstanding balance and interest will not be charged against this amount.

DISPUTE ITEM RESOLVED – the investigation has been finalised and the transactions have been released from disputed status. This entry is not included in your outstanding balance.

DISPUTE RESOLVED CREDIT – the dispute has been resolved in your favour and the amount credited to your account.

CHARGEBACK CREDIT – in accordance with Card Scheme regulations, we have charged the disputed transaction (full or partial amount) back to a merchant's bank and credited your account.

Disputes about direct debits

If your dispute is about a direct debit from an HSBC bank account, we can block the direct debit for you immediately. When cancelling these types of direct debits, you must notify the merchant to permanently cancel the Direct Debit before or at the same time as you notify us about your transaction dispute. If you would like us to cancel the direct debit, please complete a Direct Debit Cancellation Form to provide us with authority to cancel the direct debit with the merchant on your behalf.  If you have already attempted to cancel your direct debit directly with the retailer or service provider and your attempt has been unsuccessful, we may be able to help you access a chargeback to your account.

Chargebacks

A chargeback is where a bank reverses all (or part of) the amount of a disputed transaction back to a Merchant's bank in accordance with the applicable card scheme rules set by Visa, MasterCard or American Express.

You can ask for a chargeback when you make a purchase using a credit card or debit card and:

• Item was not received: you don't receive the goods you ordered.
  
• Item was significantly different: you paid for an item but received an item significantly different than expected.
  
• Unauthorised use: your credit or debit card number is used fraudulently.
  

If you made this transaction using an HSBC credit card or debit card, you can request us to try and get your money back from the merchant/shop where you bought the goods from. It is important that you raise a chargeback immediately as soon as you realise something has gone wrong.

For more information and to find out if you are eligible to claim a chargeback, visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.

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For existing customer with access to online banking