Dear Clever Credit,
My ex put my credit card on his gym membership and won’t remove it. He said to cancel my card — which I’ve done — but the charges are still coming through. How do I make the gym stop charging me? It’s not even my gym account, and I have no way to find out his account number or anything. How do I get the charges to stop?
Sincerely,
He Should’ve Skipped Leg Day
Dear Leg Day,
First off, I’m so sorry this is happening to you. The right thing for your ex to have done would have been removing your credit card from his membership, not telling you to cancel your card. But I suppose he’s your ex for a reason.
If your ex wasn’t an authorized user and used your credit card without your permission, it’s technically credit card fraud. This means you are perfectly within your rights to file a police report.
If he was an authorized user when the charges were made, it gets a little murkier. You’re liable for those charges as the primary user, meaning your ex has no legal obligation to pay back the charges. But, again, that’s only if he was an authorized user at the time.
I did a little legwork and reached out to two gyms near me: Planet Fitness and Pacific Northwest Fitness. I explained the situation to both, and both offered the same next steps: You can head to the gym in question and explain what happened. Since it’s your card, the billing information will be under your name. Give the gym your name, card number and ex’s name, and it should be able to remove your card from his account/membership.
[Read: Best Rewards Credit Cards.]
There’s a reason you’re still seeing the charges even though you canceled your credit card. According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, you need to cancel all preauthorized charges by merchants before closing your account. So you need to contact the merchant — in this case, the gym — and cancel the agreement.
Once you’ve done that, reach out to your issuer to try to dispute the charges. First, take a look at your statements to make note of the exact transactions; you’ll have to give that information to your issuer. Next, call your card issuer, explain the situation while giving the dates and dollar amounts of the charges and say you’d like to dispute the charges.
The credit card company will then have to investigate the charges. If it can prove the charges were indeed unauthorized, the company should refund you the amount. You’ll receive a notification of its decision by either email or snail mail.
[Read: Best Credit Cards for Fair Credit.]
Finally, I recommend filing a police report. What your ex did was selfish and wrong, and he doesn’t deserve to just get off scot-free. Consequences of credit card fraud include fines and possibly even jail time. However, a lot of factors are considered when imprisonment is a possibility. Like the severity of the crime, your ex’s criminal history (if any), the jurisdiction where the offense occurred and more. Whatever the outcome, hopefully it will deter him from doing something similar in the future.
Again, I’m sorry this happened to you, and I hope it all works out!
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Dear Clever Credit: My Ex Uses My Credit Card. How Do I Stop This? originally appeared on usnews.com
