When a woman was charged an extra fee from a car rental company she used, she disputed the transaction on her credit card but found her bank didn’t support her. Carolyn Johnson reports for the NBC4 I-Team on Wednesday, July 10, 2024.
A woman says a car rental company charged her for damage she didn’t cause during a trip to Southern California, and her credit card company didn’t have her back.
Licsun Wong disputed the $500 charge from Nu Car Rental with Chase and was stunned when they took the merchant’s side. She reached out to the I-Team for help.
Wong and her friends from Seattle recently flew to Los Angeles for a weekend trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. The budget-minded 20-somethings rented the cheapest car they could find, through Nu Car Rental.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
“Getting an Uber around LA just seems expensive, so we just decided on the cheapest option,” she said.
And cheap it was. The car cost just $80 for the weekend. But a few weeks later, Nu hit Wong’s credit card with a $500 charge.
“This has to be a mistake, what happened, this is so fishy, I’m going to reach out, I need to know why I'm getting charged $500,” she said.
Nu told Wong she’d damaged the car. She said she didn’t. She also said Nu didn’t point out any damage when she returned the car. And since then, Nu never shared pictures or any other proof of the damage.
Nu has a lot of other unhappy customers.
On Yelp, hundreds have slammed the company, some saying they reserved cars that weren't available at pickup, they were promised free upgrades but then later had to pay for them, and they were charged unexpected cleaning fees.
“Wow, I’m not the only victim,” said Wong.
Wong said Nu refused to refund her $500 so she disputed the charge with her credit card company, Chase. She assumed that would be a slam dunk, so she was shocked to learn it wasn’t.
Chase sided with Nu.
“It’s my word against theirs. They’re going to trust the company without even looking up the company’s credibility or anything like that,” she said.
The I-Team reached out to Chase and asked if Nu supplied pictures, or other evidence, of the damage to Wong’s rental car. It didn’t answer that question, but said in a statement that it “didn’t have enough evidence to reverse the charge.”
So we reached out to Nu, and it seemed to backpedal. Nu refunded Wong her $500 right away. It did insist that Wong damaged the car, but it said it couldn’t verify the details because the employee who noted the damage is no longer with the company.
“It just wouldn’t make logical sense for you to charge someone three weeks later. For damages for what? You can’t even provide it,” she said.
Wong said her story is a warning for summer travelers: Take pictures of your rental car when you pick it up and return it, in case you have to battle two companies over the damage you didn’t cause.
Tips for disputing a credit card charge
- Try to resolve the dispute with the merchant first.
- If it’s still not resolved, let the merchant know you’ll be filing a dispute with your credit card company. Sometimes this prompts them to act, as the dispute process costs them money.
- Supply your credit card company with all evidence you have to back your claim.
