Credit card claim from abroad

[jockblue]

Hi Fools? Lemons? Whatever...

This is probably not the board to post this, but there's an element of legal advice and credit advice required, so bear with me.

Long story short, but my parents have been on a tour of Vietnam. My dad has had type 1 diabetes for many years, and so their travel insurance has always been pretty solid. However, three days before flying home, my dad contracted pneumonia and was admitted to hospital in Ho Chi Min City, where he remained for a week. The insurance company (AXA) have been excellent albeit it was tiring to get all of the information and forms approved, and finally my dad (and mum) flew home 10 days late accompanied by a specialist nurse flown from the UK to assist on the flight. As I say, excellent service from the insurers.

However, the hospital have been somewhat more difficult. When my dad was first admitted, and obviously before the insurance company had given the green light to pick up the tab, they charged USD1000 to my mum's credit card to get him treated, and have promised to refund this after the insurance green light for all the time they have been in the hospital. They still haven't refunded. They have performed many tests on my dad, including heart murmur tests, MRI etc, all of which are chargeable. They have laughably charged USD250 per night for my mother to stay on a foldaway bed in my dad's room, which she had to find and source bedding for. Needless to say, the insurance company are now questioning some of the costs that the hospital are charging in a total bill in excess of USD10,000.

The problem is that my mum and dad had to receive a "fit to fly" letter and a discharge from the hospital. Mum tells me the hospital refused to do this unless she signed a piece of paper agreeing to meet any uninsured cost. In her desire to be on the last chopper out of 'Nam she did so, not realising that the insurers were disputing the bill. As an aside they also had to make three trips to immigration as their tourist visa had expired during their extended stay, so their mental and physical state at this point was frazzled to say the least.

Having now returned home, and on the way to recovery, they are concerned (as am I) that they will be saddled by a huge bill from the hospital that the insurers won't pick up.

Can anyone offer some advice to them - I've told them to phone the credit card company and explain the circumstances, but not sure of the legal and practical steps here.

Thanks all
jb

[didds]

IANAL and this may have of course no legal basis at all, from from the man on the Saigon Omnibuses' perspective she was clearly signing that waiver/agreement under duress.

didds

[paulnumbers]

Something I do after having any sort of altercation with a business that has my credit card details is to report the card lost, so that a new credit card number is generated and (I think) the old number will no longer work.

I'm not saying this to suggest you report the items already paid for as fraudulent, but to stop any new charges from this date getting added to the card.

[Lootman]

Something I do after having any sort of altercation with a business that has my credit card details is to report the card lost, so that a new credit card number is generated and (I think) the old number will no longer work.

I'm not saying this to suggest you report the items already paid for as fraudulent, but to stop any new charges from this date getting added to the card.

You can refuse to pay a credit card charge for a variety of reasons and not just because the item is fraudulent. I have on a number of occasions refused to pay a specific charge because I was unhappy with something. In that sense it is no different from not paying a bill that you disagree with for a product or service.

In one case it was for a foreign car rental, where a parking penalty was later charged to my card. There was no ticket placed on my hired vehicle so I had no knowledge of the alleged offence and, moreover, I was not given an opportunity to fight the ticket because the rencal company just paid it without consulting with me. I refused to pay the charge and that was the end of it.

So my first instinct here would be to formally dispute the charges on the card and not pay those charges.

[quelquod]

I agree, it's what I've done when after-the-fact charges have appeared, have a Rec.

[patrickmacqueen]

I've told them to phone the credit card company and explain the circumstances, but not sure of the legal and practical steps here.

One potentially important factor is section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, which makes credit card providers (I assume your mum's card was technically a credit card rather than, say, a high-end payment card) jointly and severally liable for misrepresentation and breach of contract claims against the supplier relating to goods or services bought with the relevant card.

It has now been established that overseas purchases are covered, so any claim which your mother has against the hospital which might amount to breach of contract or misrepresentation is, in effect, guaranteed by the credit card issuer. I should have thought that the failure to refund the initial $1,000 charge would definitely be covered. The $250 per night charge might be harder to dispute, unless there is paperwork promising that your mother would get a better service than she in fact got.

It may be that there is some requirement to raise the issue with the hospital first, but if so you need do no more than take "reasonable steps", and it is made explicit in the Act that this does not include litigation.

A practical step might be to get the insurance company, if they haven't done so already, to summarise exactly which charges they won't pay and why, and send that summary to the credit card issuer.

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