Nextwave Finance

Finding A Fix: 10 Tips For Resolving Financial Disputes

August 30th, 2007 | by rachel |

Account and billing mistakes are a reality of personal finances. From the cable bill to the credit card statement, at some point, errors will occur. These errors, even the small ones, become financial disputes that must be resolved. Handling these financial disputes effectively is a skill that can and should be learned. Certainly, each dispute is unique and it must be handled accordingly. These tips, however, will provide some general guidelines for getting a satisfactory result, no matter what kind of financial dispute you find yourself dealing with.

Most of time, financial disputes involve bank or credit card accounts. Don’t be surprised, however, when you find that you have a problem with a local merchant, an insurance company, a landlord or tenant, eBay, an online merchant or bank, a hotel, a car rental agency, contractors and/or other service providers. Basically, a dispute is possible anytime money is involved.

BEFORE A PROBLEM APPEARS:

1. Read, read, read

Read anything and everything you can find about your financial transactions. This includes any information that you have for your bank accounts, credit card accounts, retirement accounts, insurance policies, and investment accounts. If you have money in it, read about it. Also, be sure to read any policy information you see posted in local stores and restaurants that you patronize. It is not important that you remember everything you read about all your accounts. What is important is that you familiarize yourself with the requirements of the account AND that you understand the language that is used in the agreements. If you find something you do not understand, find someone that can explain it to you. If you find something in the agreement you are not willing to abide by, cancel your account and find another one that has terms you can accept.

Other than specific information you can find regarding your personal accounts, you may want to read about these topics:

The Fair Credit Billing Act

You will find other helpful information at:

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission

U.S. Consumer Information

The National Consumer Law Center

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

2. Anticipate possible problems

Think about all the accounts and financial interests that you hold. Are there protections available for those interests? If so, are you taking full advantage them? In the age of “identity theft”, make sure to keep up with your credit reports, bank statements, and investment accounts. If you think you need additional protection, investigate identity theft protection programs. The best way to anticipate is to know what you have, where it is and who is authorized to get to it. When you know that, you will be able to recognize, quickly, if something goes wrong with one of those accounts.

3. Cultivate personal relationships

Regardless of the problem, it is always preferable to deal with a real person instead of a machine or an institution. Knowing your bankers, accountants, brokers and store managers is one way to pave a smoother path for the day that you have a problem. To cultivate relationships with these people, make sure that you communicate regularly when you DON’T have a problem. Compliment the service you received. Notice the cleanliness of the building. Show up with doughnuts for no reason. All of these things will serve you well when you find yourself in a situation that requires the help of someone “in charge”.

4. Simplify your accounts

The more complicated your finances, the more chances there are that errors will occur. When possible, keep the number of accounts you hold to a minimum. Also, keep the locations of those accounts to a minimum. This will help you monitor your finances more closely and it will allow you the chance to handle problems with a minimum amount of disruption to your schedule.

DURING THE DISPUTE:

5. Write, write, write

In a financial dispute, the things that are written down are the things what is true. Your complaint and explanation of the problem must be submitted in writing. Any phone conversations you have should be noted in writing so that you can refer to them throughout the process. As you are able to agree about a process or resolution, that agreement needs to be in writing and all parties involved need to have copies of it. Any correspondence, receipts, emails or other communication needs to be printed and kept. All case numbers, reference numbers, phone extensions and addresses should be written down. Also, the names of the people you talk to, their titles and their contact information should be recorded. When in doubt, write it down! Any and all pieces of information MAY be important as the dispute continues.

6. Communicate confidence

There is a difference in confidence and antagonism. Confidence will always be more productive. In order to communicate confidently, make sure that you “pick your battles”. Be sure the dispute you are dealing with is worth fighting, either financially or principally. Additionally, make sure that you actually have a legitimate problem that someone can fix. This is where familiarization with your accounts and their requirements comes into play. If you know what is possible to dispute and what is not, you won’t waste time on things you cannot change.

Confidence is communicated through what you say, what you write and the actions you take. If you approach the situation as an honest mistake rather than as a calculated, personal attack, your results are likely to be more timely and more positive. There may come a time for you to press harder but you shouldn’t start out on the defensive. Stay calm unless and until you have a reason not to. Finally, don’t discount the possibility of “playing dumb” when you need to. That doesn’t mean that you have to act like you don’t know ANYTHING, just that you may need to act like you don’t know EVERYTHING!

7. Communicate directly

If at all possible, speak to people that you know and do it in person. If you have cultivated relationships of the people that handle your finances prior to this problem, this will be easy. Once you have identified the problem and a resolution that is acceptable to you, talk ONLY to people that have the authority to solve your problem. It will save you time, energy and frustration.

8. Communicate often

Unfortunately, you cannot assume that a single phone call, visit or e-mail will resolve and correct the problem. After the initial dispute/complaint, give the person, bank, and/or institution a few days to investigate and/or resolve the problem. If it has not been handled completely within 1 week, start calling regularly to check on the status of the complaint. These are NOT to be intimidating or threatening calls. Instead, they are to be short, polite conversations to let the person responsible know that you are waiting to hear from them and that you are paying attention to the resolution.

AFTER THE RESOLUTION:

9. Say “Thank You”

No matter who was at fault for the original dispute, be sure to thank the person (or people) that help you get it resolved. Many times, they are not responsible for the things that caused the problem, but they are stuck trying to clean up the mess. When they get it cleaned up, your sincere thanks are deserved and appreciated.

10. Evaluate for the future

In order to prevent the same kinds of problems from happening again, you will need to take some time to evaluate all aspects of the financial dispute to see what you might change. Did your financial institutions do what they said they would do? Did you get the correct resolution? Were you able to communicate with people that could help you? Were the people that you dealt with competent and willing to give you the information you needed? Are your accounts as secure as they need to be? This is the time to answer any questions you have about your finances and make changes to make you more comfortable about preventing problems and dealing effectively with the ones that happen anyway.