Island Drive...<<If I was even considering the gamble of entering a qualifier and sending in 2,000 $$$ it would be the last, closest qualifier to Chicago so that I could stop payment on my CCard within plenty of time.>>
There is a LOT of misunderstanding about credit card holder's rights. They are covered under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and have changed dramatically vs. before that Act was implemented.
In short...there is no such thing as "stopping payment" on a credit card charge like there is with checks...and even stopping payment on checks is not a foolproof tactic. (If the banks simply pays by mistake even though you have attempted to stop payment the bank CANNOT be held responsible.
But on credit card disputes...all you can do under the law is to dispute the charge on the basis that the product or services was defective. There is a question in my mind as to whether the unremitted payments by the IPT constitutes either a defectinve product or services...but that is a matter for lawyers.
What is clear though is that if there is a claim for a defective services, it is up to the credit card company IN THEIR SOLE DISCRETION to investigate and decide whether the IPT should be charged back for the payment. All the credit card holder can to is to refuse to pay the credit card company for the disupted amount BUT ONLY UNTIL THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY PERFORMS ITS INVESTIGATION AND INFORMS YOU OF ITS DECISION.
If the decision goes against you, then you have to pay your bill or the credit card company can start collection procedures against you and they can and WILL report you to the credit scoring agencies. All they have to do when reporting you is to include a comment that you don't agree with them BUT THE CREDIT AGENCIES WILL NOT GIVE A RIP ABOUT THAT COMMENT AND YOUR SCORE WILL BE DOWNGRADED.
If it comes to an agreement to disagree between you and the credit card company, you would then have standing to sue the credit card company right along with the "seller" of the disputed services. That is why the CC companies don't take their investigations lightly.
BUT...in my personal opinion IF the payments are not made, this entire matter becomes a breach of contract action and no CC issuer investigation is going to be comprehensive enough to form an opinion as who might be the prevailing party in such an action...so the odds of the CC issuer agreeing to charge the sums back to the IPT are VERY low IMHO.
Again, to fight that, you place your credit score at great risk which could cost you FAR MORE than the $2,000.00 you hope to recover...as, among other things, you watch your CC interest rates zoom from 10% (or whatever) to 25% overnight...and your home and car insurance premiums rise....etc. etc.
Bottom line...there is no harm in trying BUT you have only a SHORT TIME left to do so.
Interested parties can review the following brief explanation.
Regards,
Jim
If the
creditor determines that you owe a portion of the disputed amount, you must get a written explanation.
If the
creditor's investigation determines the bill is correct, you must be told promptly and in writing how much you owe and why.
Disputes about the quality of goods and services are not "billing errors," so the dispute procedure does not apply. However, if you buy unsatisfactory goods or services with a credit or charge card, you can take the same legal actions against the card issuer as you can take under state law against the seller.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fcb.htm