Inflation has become so high in all regions of the world, regardless of the income bracket of the population.
And the inflation, paired with automatic digital payments, results in most people sitting and worrying about their bills and payments.
Most importantly, the unavoidable service charges, transaction costs, hidden costs, etc., soar up the actual base cost of a service you have bought.
As a result, you might have subscribed for a low-base-cost service, but hidden costs will add to your overall bill.
You can only locate such costs when you are well aware of different reasons why a certain charge has been made to your account.
Besides, the lack of regular reviews also ends us in spots where we cannot do anything about the charges deducted from our cards and bank accounts.
It is also true that you cannot review your statements if you are not well aware of the types of charges and scenarios when these charges are deducted from your accounts.
In today’s article, we will talk about PNP BILLPAYMENT, an expense you might have often noticed while analyzing your bank statements.
We will dig into the type of charges, possible reasons why the charge is appearing on your statements, and what you can do for error rectification.
So let’s get into it.
What is PNP BILLPAYMENT?
The first thought that hits your mind might be considering PNP BILLPAYMENT to be a scam pulling out money from your checking accounts or credit cards.
Several people have reported on different platforms about automatic payments drawn from their accounts. The amounts have also been high, even reaching $11000 in one case.
So what is PNP BILLPAYMENT?
PNP BILLPAYMENT is a 100% legitimate charge made on your account in most instances. It relates to the charges from companies you have bought services.
As reported by most users, the PNP BILLPAYMENT appeared on their bank statements when they had paid their rent, water, electric, and sewage bills.
Therefore, it would be safe to say that PNP BILLPAYMENT is usually charged to the customers who have bought municipality services.
However the problem is that some users also reported a charge when paying their pet’s license payments. So, we cannot generalize PNP to be something related to municipal charges.
On further research, we discovered that it is a technology called Plug’n Pay. When a business uses it to charge its clients, the PNP BILLPAYMENT item will appear on your bank statements.
What is Plug’n Pay?
Before we move forward, let’s have a quick overview of Plug’N Pay technology.
Plug and Pay is a faster payment technology introduced by a fintech company for the facilitation of merchants, businesses, and their customers.
The plug’n-pay tech owned by the company under the same name has revolutionized how merchants and customers transact.
When you use the technology, it relies on a cloud-based payment processing solution with a secure and reliable gateway.
It would be wrong to say that Plug’N Pay has proven to be a more reliable payment bridge between businesses and customers. Although people not aware of the technology might believe it to be an unauthorized charge or a scam, the service has brought a lot of convenience.
Who Charges PNP BILLPAYMENT?
Now you know about Plug’N Play company but might be confused about why and who charges the PNP payment.
Understand the payment as a processing fee for your expenses. For instance, you had to pay your electricity bill, and the municipality used the PNP technology.
The payment was made, but the transaction processing with PNP resulted in a nominal charge on your bank account.
PNP BILLPAYMENT is charged by your bank on behalf of the company, offering a secure payment gateway and solution for both the business and the client.
What Charges Can Come Under PNP and Reasons It Appears On Your Statements?
You must have understood how the PNP Payments work, but the questions about what charges can fall under this umbrella remain there.
So here is what you need to know about categories relating to the PNP BILLPAYMENT on your bank statement.
Here is the list of diverse charges and expenses resulting in an item appearing to be a charge on your account under the name of PNP BILLPAYMEMT:
- Rent
- Water Bill
- Property Taxes
- Sewage Charges
- Electric Bills
- Pet License Payments
Last time, when you chose to pay your utility bills like water, electricity, house rent or sewage bill from your home comfort and relied on technology, you had to bear the cost of technology.
Therefore, PNP BILLPAYMENT is the cost of comfort you didn’t leave for paying your bill. Any of these charges might appear under the item ‘PNP BILLPAYMENT.’
After reading the above discussion, if you still wonder why the charge has appeared on your bank account, you might be wrong.
Yet another reason why the charge has appeared on your statement despite the fact you didn’t make any such payment can be related to someone at your home.
One of your close family members or spouses might have paid to any business or municipality for the utilities, property taxes or any other charges that can be made with the Plug’N Pay system.
How To Review Your Bank Statements For Identification and Rectification Of Unfamiliar Charges?
Here is the step-by-step guide on how to review your bank statements on a regular basis:
1. Conduct scrutiny
The first thing you need to do is an initial scrutiny of your bank statements and transactions to make sure that any charges appearing on your statements relate to your account. If you find any unauthorized or suspicious charges.
1. Contact Your Bank
Once you have located unrelated charges or unauthorized expenses, you next should contact your bank and inquire about the suspicious charges appearing.
2. Check your mails
When your bank confirms that the payments made from your account have been authenticated, the next step is to check your old emails to retrieve any information about invoices, receipts, etc.
3. Discuss with other users of your account
Even if you cannot retrieve any information, you should discuss it with your family members who might be sharing your account or card.
4. File dispute for discrepancies
After confirmation from all sources, you might reach a conclusion if the payments are authorized or unauthorized.
Depending on the review conclusion, you can initiate a dispute with your bank or the company that has charged your account without your agreement.
Can You Claim a Refund For the PNP BILLPAYMENT Charge?
After review and detailed analysis of your statements, emails, and discussion with account users, you might not be able to identify any payment related to PNP.
Is it possible that the PNP appearing on your statement can be wrongly debited or a fraudulent payment?
What is your last resort if you are unable to identify the charge being made to your bank account?
You will need to reach out to your bank or credit card company and explain the scenario you are experiencing.
Depending on the charge history, the bank will provide you with the necessary information to help in payment identification.
However, suppose the bank is also unable to justify why such a charge has been made to your account. In that case, you should file a dispute for an appropriate resolution or refund of the illegitimate charge on your bank account or card statement.
Case Study: $11000 Charge Under PNP BILLPAYMENT
An online user has reported the following details about a PNP BILLPAYMENT charge on his bank account that has totaled $11000:
The PNP BILLPAYMENT was pulled out of my checking account through the bank, not a credit card! I looked at my bank account and saw that 3 different charges were pulled out in one month, totaling about $11,000.
I thought maybe it had something to do with my automatic monthly payments that come out of my bank, paying for the power, water, trash pickup, internet, credit cards, cell phone, etc.
I call my bank but they are closed for the holiday weekend.
I tried calling the PNP via the number. It comes up as a non-working number.
Does this mean I am the subject of a huge scam? How am I supposed to get this money back? Why would my bank allow this to go through without my authorization?
Conclusion
We have discussed everything you need to know about PNP BILLPAYMENT and why the charge is appearing on your bank or card statements.
There is a very low probability of such payments being charged to your accounts without your knowledge or legitimate reasons.
After reviewing the information, you can verify the charges, understand their nature, or even file a dispute when necessary.
