There are many evils associated with credit cards, but there are benefits that are hard to ignore. One benefit is having the credit card company act in your behalf to recover funds from a disputed transaction. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act the credit card company has to investigate the dispute and either take the charge off your bill or explain why it is correct. Even better, you don't have to pay the portion of the credit-card bill or related interest charges while the dispute is being investigated.

The types of blling disputes/errors covered by the Fair Credit Billing Act are:

• Charges that list the wrong date or amount.

• Charges for goods and services you didn't accept or weren't delivered as agreed.

• Math errors.

• Failure to post payments and other credits, such as returns.

• Unauthorized charges.

Before you dispute any of issues you must first contact the retailer and try to settle the dispute. If they ignore you, or the dispute is not

If contacting the credit card company doesn't resolve the dispute, you may contact the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's Customer Assistance Group. Their website is www.occ.treas.gov/customer.htm and phone number is 800-613-6743.

Christine Breen is the owner of 1stop-creditcards.com a site helping consumers find a better credit card.

kokopoko2000@yahoo.com