How to Dispute a Charge: The 60-Day Deadline and Your Rights

To dispute a credit card charge, send your card issuer a written notice at its billing inquiries address within 60 days of the statement date, explaining which charge is wrong and why. That written notice is what triggers your protections under the Fair Credit Billing Act: the issuer has to investigate on a clock, you can withhold payment on the disputed amount, and finance charges on that amount are suspended until the matter is resolved.¹ Calling the issuer first is fine, and many will start looking into it right away, but only a written notice preserves your full legal rights.²

When You Have Grounds to Dispute

Federal law defines the specific problems that qualify as “billing errors” you can formally dispute. A charge is disputable if:

You didn’t authorize it, or the amount differs from what you agreed to pay.
You were billed for goods or services that were never delivered, or that arrived in a condition you refused.
The issuer made an arithmetic or accounting mistake, such as a miscalculated balance or a payment posted to the wrong account.
A payment you made or a credit you were owed doesn’t appear on the statement.
You don’t recognize a charge and want documentation or an explanation.

These categories come straight from the statute and apply to most credit cards.¹ If your situation fits one of them, the issuer is legally required to investigate.

There’s also a separate right to challenge charges for defective or undelivered merchandise when the merchant won’t make it right. That right generally requires a good-faith effort to resolve the problem with the seller first, a purchase over $50, and a transaction in your home state or within 100 miles of your mailing address. Those dollar and distance limits fall away if the card issuer is also the seller, controls the seller, or solicited the sale through a mailing.³ The most you can dispute this way is what you still owe on the charge at the time you notify the issuer, so paying the balance in full before disputing removes this avenue.

The 60-Day Deadline

Your written notice has to reach the card issuer within 60 days after the statement containing the error was sent to you.¹ The clock runs from when the statement is mailed or transmitted, not when you open it. Miss that window and you lose your right to dispute under the Fair Credit Billing Act, even if the charge is plainly wrong.

Send the letter to the address your card issuer lists for billing inquiries, not the address you send payments to. Check your monthly statement, the issuer’s website, or your card agreement for the right address.⁴ Certified mail with a return receipt gives you proof of the date the issuer received it.

What to Put in the Letter

The notice needs enough detail for the issuer to identify the problem and start investigating. Include:

Your name and account number.
The dollar amount of the disputed charge.
The date the charge appeared on the statement.
A clear explanation of why the charge is wrong: the item wasn’t delivered, the amount is incorrect, you never authorized it, and so on.

Attach copies (not originals) of any receipts, tracking information, or correspondence with the merchant that supports your position. If you tried to resolve the issue with the seller and they refused, include that exchange; it is required if you’re asserting a claim for defective or undelivered goods.² Keep a full copy of everything you send.

What the Issuer Must Do

Once your written dispute arrives, the law gives the card issuer two deadlines:

Within 30 days, send you a written acknowledgment that they received the dispute, unless they’ve already resolved it in that time.
Within two billing cycles, and no more than 90 days, complete the investigation and either correct the error or send you a written explanation of why they believe the charge was accurate.

These are statutory requirements.¹ An issuer that skips the required investigation procedures forfeits the right to collect the disputed amount, up to $50, even if the charge turns out to be valid.

Your Rights While the Investigation Runs

You do not have to pay the disputed amount while the issuer is investigating. The issuer cannot pursue collection on that portion, and finance charges on it are suspended until the matter is resolved.¹ Keep paying the rest of the balance to avoid late fees on the undisputed portion.

The issuer also cannot report the disputed amount as delinquent to credit bureaus during the investigation. If it reports the account at all, it must note that the amount is in dispute, and once the investigation concludes it has to report the outcome to any bureau it previously notified.⁵

How the Investigation Ends

If the issuer finds an error, it has to correct your account, remove the charge, credit back related finance charges or fees, and send you written notice of the correction.¹

If it concludes the statement was correct, you’ll get a written explanation, and you can ask for copies of the documents it relied on. At that point the disputed amount becomes due again and can accrue interest. The issuer has to give you at least 10 days to pay before it reports the amount as delinquent.⁵

If Your Dispute Is Denied

A denial isn’t the end. Within the payment period, you can send a second written notice saying you still dispute the amount. The issuer can then report the debt to the credit bureaus, but it must flag it as disputed and tell you who it reported it to.

If the issuer missed a deadline or otherwise failed to follow the required procedures, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through its website or by phone at (855) 411-2372. The CFPB forwards the complaint to the issuer, which generally has to respond within 15 days.⁶ For smaller amounts where the issuer won’t move, small claims court is another route, and you generally don’t need a lawyer to use it.

A Note on Debit Cards

The process above applies to credit cards. Debit cards fall under a different law, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, with a tiered liability system that rewards fast reporting: your maximum liability is $50 if you report loss or theft within two business days of learning about it, up to $500 if you report between two business days and 60 days after receiving the statement, and potentially unlimited for unauthorized transfers occurring after that 60-day window.⁷ Debit disputes also don’t get the defective-goods protection that credit cards do.⁸ Because debit fraud pulls money directly from your bank account, the funds are gone while the bank investigates, so report suspected fraud immediately.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors
2
Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666i – Assertion by Cardholder Against Card Issuer of Claims and Defenses
4
Federal Trade Commission. Sample Letter for Disputing Credit and Debit Card Charges
5
GovInfo. 15 USC 1666a – Regulation of Credit Reports
6
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint About a Financial Product or Service
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693g – Consumer Liability
8
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Can I Get a Refund on a Product or Service I Purchased With My Credit Card