Since I posted my issues with Paypal, we've gotten into a discussion about taking Credit Cards and the possibility of a charge back.

Many photographers take credit card payments because they don't want something trivial, like payment acceptance, to get in the way of sales. On the one hand, some brides don't have the cash in a checking account. On the other hand, most brides can get that money in a checking account, and checks cost less and have fewer problems.

With CC payments, there's always the chance of someone suddenly requesting their money back through their CC company. I'm pretty sure CC companies will always choose in favor of the client, not the company. Therefore, it is probably not in your best interest to accept large CC payments for a wedding balance. If they request their retainer back before the wedding, they're in breach of contract and you don't shoot the wedding. If they take it back after the wedding, you are in trouble.

BUT - how often has this actually happened? I know we all need to be aware of it, but I wonder if anyone has any actual experience with this.

And - if so - were you actually surprised? Or could you see something like that coming b/c of the client's personality?

From my limited knowledge about the issue, its very hard to issue a chargeback (as a consumer) after 60-90 days. Would your CC company really thing that you were "fradulantely" charged or that the vendor you bought services from (that defaulted on the service agreemenet) and you did not notice it 200 days ago? Within the first 30 days I could see this happening, anything past 90 and I doubt they have a case . . .

BUT, I'd rather not try it. Cash is king, and thats what I prefer to accept. Less cost, immediate funds.

I worked for the corporation division for the state of Michigan, and I dealt with people who started charge backs - simply because they "forgot" they had filed paperwork with us to start a corporation or an LLC.
That being said, our job was to explain WHY the person had allowed us to charge the card. In the same notice that was sent to the credit card company justifying our charge - we indicated to the customer that if this went through, we rescinded their filings (i.e., they no longer had a valid entity, etc.) 9 times out of 10, they said "oops" and please go ahead with the charge.
There isn't really any way to rescind a wedding already shot - other than withholding the images, and I am not sure what types of legal ramifications there would be there either.
Sounds complicated, but FWIW I haven't heard of anyone doing that before...but anything is possible I suppose with a disgruntled bride.

I used to manage chargebacks for a bank in my former life. In this situation your client would not have much of a case and your chance of losing is slim to none. The only real case would be if you charged them and never showed up to shoot the wedding or never provided them their album or deliverables.

Being in the online jewelry business for many years and selling high end pieces charge backs were not a issue as long as you could prove delivery of the product and had a defined return policy.In over $2 million in sales I never had one charge back because if something got lost we told the client and sent a replacement. No one left in the dark.
In my photography business it has never been a issue. If you have the client sign off that the photos paid for are delivered you have proof of providing the service charged for and you should not have a problem.Even a copy of the photos would work to prove services were provided depending on the contract. On the other hand if the issue is bad quality then the photographer has a lot more to think about than a charge back. Add in small claims court to pay for the re-do of a wedding etc!

One of the greatest tools you can use to help ensure you don't get nabbed with a charge back is making an imprinted copy of the credit card and having the customer sign that as well. There shouldn't be an issue if you have the online payment authorization and an imprinted copy with signature.

To double up the protection, you can even imprint the credit card right to the contract they are signing to validate the purchase even further.

At my company I work at presently, we had a very big problem with our credit card processor with partial settlements and about a months worth of transactions had to be manually entered in almost 2 months after the initial sale. We received boatloads of charge back notices from various banking institutions and as long as we provided copies of the original transaction authorization code and also proof from our processor that the payment was not collected, none of the charge backs were granted.

Nearly 5,000 brides over the last nine years (tiara designer, not a super-human photographer), three charge back attempts, and not one has gone through. All three were very difficult customers from the beginning, who thought that if they squealed loudly enough they could get out of clearly stated contract terms. At least the JD gets put to use every few years. ;-)

My experience lines up with what jamphan describes. If it's covered in the contract, there's basically no chance the bride will prevail in a chargeback. If *you* violated the contract, I can't imagine you'd be charging them, anyway.

On the other hand, I can't tell you the times I've had to pester and pester for a check, or how the check got deposited--but oops, three weeks later, that money was taken back out of the account, because it was only "provisionally cleared," not *actually* cleared. Not that I can tell the difference in my online statement. Again, different business, and I have a much quicker turnaround time so I'm screwed in such circumstances because the product typically has already been shipped. But for me, credit cards are much more reliable and offer way more security.

Twice in over ten years I have had clients file for a charge back. Both for weddings that did not take place and I refused to return the retainer. Both times the money was immediately withdrawn from my account and I was faxed paperwork with a very tight timeline to reply. I would reply and fax back the contract highlighting the vital parts. Both times the funds were passed back to me after about 30 days.

had on and my merchant "people" told me the client has up to a year to dispute. it was a rookie mistake on my part as the CC info and auth. was via email. now I have all my clients fil out a CC Auth form with billing address, totals and most importantly their printed name and signature.

but yeah the charge back was a NIGHTMARE to deal with. $2200 retainer..thankfully it all happened before the wedding