I was all ready to dispute, but then checked my Apple wallet, and I saw the charge at Allen Edmonds. Yeah Allen Edmonds truncates it’s online orders to “ae.com”
Someone might be reading this and think “you couldn’t remember where you spent $1000 just a week ago“. But I was genuinely flummoxed. I’m sure some psychologist can explain it, but if you had just asked me where I spent $1000, I probably would have remembered. What threw me was the “ae.com” representation. It wasn’t so much that I forgot where I spend money, but a certainty that I did not spend money at AE.com. But I really should reach out to Alan Edmonds and tell them to fix this.
They don’t even say “ae.com shoes” literally the entire description was “ae.com”
I could also see my wife making the purchase. A few weeks later, as I’m reconciling our statements, I see a transaction from American Eagle and ask her about it. She reasonably denies it, and has no reason to even consider that I might actually be talking about her Alan Edmonds purchase. I dispute the transaction online, and probably end up getting a new credit card issued because our old one seems to be compromised.
That's the problem here; ambiguous transaction descriptions. Sure, you don't buy clothes, so you aren't confused by an Allen Edmonds purchase being marked as American Eagle on your statement. But this can happen in many, many domains.
I guess if you're making $1M/year your threshold is different but I feel like larger enough transactions should still register.