Not upheld: Card / payment disputes complaint against Wise Payments Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr L complained that Wise Payments Limited wrongfully refused to refund three disputed transactions to a hotel in Tunisia totalling around £500 and closed his account without notice. Mr L claimed he made only one genuine payment to the hotel via digital wallet and did not authorise the other three payments. The ombudsman found Mr L's account inconsistent: he had reported to Action Fraud that he never used the hotel, but admitted to the FOS that he did make a genuine payment there; he initially denied recognising a payment to store Y but later remembered making it using stored card details; and he claimed the subsequent UK payments were made without the physical card, which Wise demonstrated was technically impossible as they required CHIP authentication. The ombudsman concluded it was fair for Wise to hold Mr L liable for the transactions and upheld their account closure decision.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while the transactions were authenticated via Mr L's card, this alone was insufficient under relevant legislation. However, the ombudsman was satisfied it was fair for Wise to conclude Mr L likely authorised the transactions based on several factors: (1) Mr L's inconsistent account to Action Fraud versus the FOS regarding whether he used hotel S; (2) the implausibility that a fraudster would target a merchant Mr L had recently made genuine payments to; (3) Mr L's failure to identify the payment to merchant A as unauthorised at the same time as the hotel S payments, despite later claiming it was unauthorised; (4) Mr L's initial denial of recognising the payment to store Y, despite later remembering it and admitting it was made using his stored card credentials; and (5) the technical impossibility of the transactions being completed without the physical card if it was lost in Tunisia, as the payments required CHIP authentication.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website