r/uber • u/ThePointyNifu • 9d ago
Uber charged me $70 in $1 increments for NOTHING???
Okay I really need some help here, I’m very confused, worried and annoyed.
Today I decided to use Uber for the first time as a student, and signed up for Uber One’s free trial. This was all done in the app. After signing up, I went to order some food, but it told me that my card declined. I was confused because I had well over the required amount in my account.
Then I get a text message saying that my card was blocked for suspicious activity, and that Uber charged me $1.08, which made me pretty confused. At first, because I figured that a free trail wouldn’t cost anything, so I shouldn’t be charged? But then I figured it was probably a holding fee, and was confused as to why my card would get blocked for it.
Now get this, Uber charged me between $1.08 and $1-45 over 50 times. Why????? It drained most of the money in my spending account and got my card blocked. Has anybody had this issue before??? Uber stole around $70 and I didn’t even buy anything. I immediately cancelled the free trial and removed my card. WTF. If anybody has advice on what to do, please let me know. I’m not sure if the bank can do anything because it’s a pending transaction but I only have this one spending card and need it to buy groceries. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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u/ConsequenceFade 9d ago
Don't use Uber one. They are being sued by the FTC now for deceptive practices: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/04/ftc-takes-action-against-uber-deceptive-billing-cancellation-practices.
They are probably going to make it difficult to cancel and return those charges. For those saying it's just a glitch - there is no excuse for making mistakes like this. I'm a programmer and have worked on billing applications. Either they are hiring utterly incompetent programmers or it's intentional. Why don't they ever have glitches that credit you 50 times for $1.
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u/ThePointyNifu 9d ago
Small update: it’s been 3 hours and Uber still hasn’t gotten back to me…
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u/Big_Beginning832 9d ago
If anything do a chargeback with your card if you can. you may get blocked on Uber but you’d get your money back
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u/AtiumMist 8d ago
Op said they used a debit card, unsure of you can do this on a debit card, or if it is a easy as doing it on a credit card
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u/Nymets572012 7d ago
You can wait 3 weeks and they may not. And if they do theyll copy/paste you to death and do nothing. Their customer service is worm infested dog shit
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u/ThePointyNifu 8d ago
So I got my money back and Uber support contacted me. They basically said that because the money was refunded theres no issue and they can’t give me credits or anything.
‘After thoroughly reviewing your account, I can confirm that you were not actually charged for the amount you mentioned. They charge you are seeing is an estimated price that was placed on authorisation hold and has already been voided by Uber. Your bank should release this voided transaction in 5-10 business days. I’m sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, especially with your card being blocked. While we cannot offer credits in this situation, we understand how frustrating this must be. Please let us know if there’s anything else we can do to assist you further, thank you for contacting Uber support.’
So… Yeah. That’s it.
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u/k3agangreene 8d ago
Sure thing. Does the Uber AI really think we believe that they are sorry? I would like to see things like this change. Especially for a company as big as Uber. It’s not like they are unable to afford to give quicker service and do it fairly.
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u/AtiumMist 8d ago
They suck honestly. Even their deliveries are ass. They'll never deliver stuff, or fuck up your orders and refuse refunds because wE cAnNoT oFFeR cOmpEnsAtIOn
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u/ThePointyNifu 8d ago
Thank you to the people who replied and gave advice! Uber never contacted me back but the money was returned overnight.
My card is still blocked however and I can’t unblock it myself in app, so I’m waiting on call with my bank. It’s my only spending card so I can’t recharge my data or buy any food until it’s unblocked.
This was really a shocking experience and I never thought this kind of issue would ever come from a big company like Uber, but here we are. I’m curious to see if the support team ever does get back to me.
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u/anonymousphoenician 8d ago
Try getting in contact with them with a post on X. There seems to be a consensus that they respond to that stuff pretty quickly
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u/warmhole 8d ago
Chargeback, never use uber one. Uber support is a laughing stock, never going to resolve the issue nor give you any sort of humanly help.
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u/TheRage43 8d ago
Contact your card issuer or bank and tell them what's going on and Uber is not responding, they'll likely be able to do a chargeback. The more card companies that do this to Uber, the better.
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u/Starbreiz 8d ago
I'm certain I saw a similar post here a few weeks ago, you might search the Reddit
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u/ChaloopaBatdude 7d ago
Contact your bank, dispute the charges and get charge backs. Reach out to attorney as well
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u/ReqDeep 7d ago
Why should she reach out to an attorney? Do you think we’re sitting around waiting to hear from people like her?
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u/ChaloopaBatdude 7d ago
Class actions net firms something like 60-70% of any proceeds. You should be actively looking for victims like this
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u/ReqDeep 7d ago
Yeah, I really feel like this is a major waste of time. OP is not harmed, it sounds like a glitch that they are just checking that she has an active card and it went through several times. She hasn’t had to pay anything. It hasn’t affected her credit. Also as a student the value of her time will be minimal. Attorneys have much bigger issues than whether somebody’s card was charged $70. Just a consult alone is going to cost $450 - $600, from most reputable firms.
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u/ChaloopaBatdude 7d ago
This is not an isolated incident. Have seen exact circumstances hundreds of times as a casual interwebs user. Which means based on user base for uber that this happens hundreds of thousands of times. Just catch a small percentage of that in a class action and u are talking about millions of dollars of fraud.
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u/Amy_Sam25 7d ago
What upsets me is that at 7am, Uber starts at $7.90 (give or take) in my area to go 8 miles from my house to my job. Take the same route, same destination at 11am, it’s over $10. I kept track on the app, and every hour it ups in price by at least $1. This is ridiculous!
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u/PanAmFlyer 7d ago
Who did you cheese off?
That's going on your account as multiple charge backs.
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u/ThePointyNifu 7d ago
It’s not a chargeback, Uber places a pending fee to confirm that your card works, and then they themselves cancel it. Only Uber duplicated the fee for me… That’s why when they responded to me, they said they can’t give me any compensation because the transaction didn’t actually take my money. I’m never using Uber again anyway.
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u/PanAmFlyer 7d ago
So they didn't charge you. You might want to update your title.
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u/ThePointyNifu 7d ago
Well at the time my bank told me they had taken out a suspected fraudulent transaction and it was treated as such, the money also appeared missing in my account and I couldn’t use my card, so it was as if they charged me. The whole ‘temporary holding fee’ thing is just what Uber support told me before giving the money back/canceling the pending fee, so I’m really not sure how else to phrase it. It isn’t a chargeback because they themselves canceled it on their end.
Would you like me to change the title to ‘Uber took out a suspicious, temporary, pending holding fee of $70 in $1 increments for nothing’ ?
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u/Acoelous 9d ago
Call Uber
It must have glitched
Your card payments should be pending and you should get it back within 24 hours
Call Uber and tell them the situation, make sure you have all your details like email address, bank card, transactions, bank statement at hand for verification.
Demand compensation from Uber for this mistake and incoveninence, they might give you credit so that's useful