How to Do a Chargeback on a Credit Card: Deadlines, Rights, and Denials

To do a chargeback on a credit card, send your card issuer a written dispute within 60 days of the statement that first shows the charge, identifying the transaction and explaining why you believe it is wrong.¹ Federal law then requires the issuer to investigate, and while the case is open you do not have to pay the disputed amount and the issuer cannot report it as delinquent.² The rules come from the Fair Credit Billing Act and its implementing regulation, Regulation Z.

When You Can File a Chargeback

The Fair Credit Billing Act treats most bad charges as “billing errors” you can dispute. You have grounds when:

Someone used your card or account number without your permission.
The charge on your statement does not match what you agreed to pay.
You were charged for goods or services that were never delivered, or what arrived did not match what was agreed.
Your issuer made a math mistake on your statement.
A payment you made or a refund the merchant issued never posted.

All of these fall under 15 U.S.C. § 1666.¹ A chargeback is not the same as asking the merchant for a refund. It is a formal challenge to the issuer’s right to collect the charge, and once you file, the issuer must follow specific procedures.

Quality Disputes Have Extra Conditions

A separate provision, 15 U.S.C. § 1666i, lets you raise against your card issuer the same claims you would have against the merchant when a product is defective or a service was substandard. Two extra conditions apply before this rule kicks in:

The transaction must exceed $50.
The transaction must have occurred in your home state or within 100 miles of your mailing address.

You also have to make a good-faith attempt to resolve the problem directly with the merchant first.³ The $50 and 100-mile limits fall away when the merchant is the same entity as the card issuer, is controlled by or shares ownership with the issuer, is a franchised dealer of the issuer’s products, or obtained the transaction through a mail or online solicitation the issuer participated in.⁴ Many online purchases fit one of those carve-outs. Whatever you can recover under this rule cannot exceed the balance still owed on the specific transaction at the time you first notify the issuer, so paying off the charge before you dispute it can weaken your position.

What You Owe on an Unauthorized Charge

If someone uses your credit card without authorization, federal law caps your personal liability at $50, and only for charges made before you notified the issuer.⁵⁶⁷ Those network policies do not cover commercial cards or anonymous prepaid cards like gift cards.

The 60-Day Deadline

Timing is the single biggest factor in whether your dispute succeeds. Your notice must reach the card issuer within 60 days after it sends, or makes available online, the first billing statement that contains the error.¹ Miss the window and the issuer has no obligation to investigate under federal law.

How to Submit the Dispute

The statute requires a written notice sent to the address the issuer designates for billing inquiries. That address is not the same as the address where you send payments, and your issuer must disclose it on or with your statement.¹ A note on a payment stub does not count. Certified mail with a return receipt gives you clear proof of delivery.

Most issuers now accept disputes through online banking portals or their mobile apps, and phone lines work too. Those channels resolve many disputes without any friction. But the statute itself specifies written notice to the designated address, so if a case escalates or the issuer pushes back, only a properly addressed letter guarantees your full statutory protections. A safe approach: file quickly online or by phone to start the clock, then follow up with a written letter.

What the Notice Must Include

The law requires three things:

Your name and account number.
A statement that you believe the bill contains an error, and the dollar amount involved.
The reason you believe it is an error.

You do not have to prove the error at this point. You just have to explain why you believe one exists.¹

Documentation That Helps

A stronger file speeds the investigation. Include the transaction date and the merchant name exactly as it appears on your statement, along with receipts, order confirmations, shipping tracking records, or screenshots of what you were promised. If you contacted the merchant first, keep dates of calls and copies of emails. That log of your good-faith effort matters, especially for quality disputes where it is a legal prerequisite.

Your Rights While the Investigation Runs

Once the issuer receives a proper billing error notice, Regulation Z gives you a set of protections that stay in place until the case ends:

You do not have to pay the disputed amount or any related finance charges while the investigation is open.⁸
The issuer cannot report the disputed amount as delinquent to any credit bureau or threaten to do so.⁹
The issuer cannot close or restrict your account solely because you exercised your dispute rights.²
If you pay the rest of your bill minus the disputed amount, you keep your grace period on new purchases and owe no finance charges on the amount in dispute.¹⁰

The issuer can still reduce your available credit by the disputed amount and can continue to show the charge on your monthly statement, as long as it notes that payment is not required while the dispute is pending.⁸ You still have to pay the undisputed portion of your balance on time.

How Long the Issuer Has

The issuer must send you a written acknowledgment within 30 days of receiving your dispute, unless it resolves the entire matter in that window. It then has two complete billing cycles, and no more than 90 days total from receipt of your notice, to finish the investigation.⁸ “Two complete billing cycles” means two full cycles that begin after the issuer receives your notice.

Many issuers post a provisional credit to your account while they investigate, which temporarily removes the disputed amount from your balance. This is common industry practice but not legally required; the regulation says the issuer “may” provide a temporary correction.⁸

If the issuer finds a billing error occurred, it must correct your account, credit back any related finance charges, and send you a written notice of the correction.² If it decides the charge was valid, it must explain in writing why, and tell you how much you owe and when payment is due.

If Your Dispute Is Denied

A denial is not the end. You can write back within 10 days, or by the payment due date, whichever is later, stating that you still refuse to pay because you continue to dispute the charge.¹¹ The issuer can then begin collection, but if it reports the amount to a credit bureau it must also report that you dispute it, and it must tell you which bureaus it contacted.⁹

Beyond that, you have options. You can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which oversees card issuers and can intervene when one fails to follow the dispute rules. If you could sue the merchant for the underlying problem, you can also pursue the card issuer under the claims-and-defenses rule, subject to the limits above.¹¹ For amounts within your local limit, small claims court against the merchant is a straightforward alternative.

Debit Cards Are Not the Same

If your card is a debit card, none of the credit card rules above apply. Debit transactions are governed by the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E, and the protections are weaker. Liability for unauthorized use rises with delay: capped at $50 if you report within 2 business days of learning of the loss or theft, up to $500 between 2 and 60 days after the statement is sent, and unlimited for unauthorized transfers occurring more than 60 days after the statement.¹² Visa and Mastercard extend their zero-liability policies to debit cards, which can override those tiers in practice, but the money leaves your bank account immediately while the investigation runs. When you have a choice, a credit card gives you stronger dispute rights.

Do Not File a Chargeback You Cannot Justify

Filing a chargeback for a purchase you actually made and received, sometimes called friendly fraud or first-party misuse, carries real consequences. Merchants track customers who file them and many maintain internal blocklists that stop repeat filers from buying again. Card networks are building data-sharing programs to help merchants identify these patterns.¹³ On the issuer’s side, a pattern of disputed charges can trigger account reviews, loss of chargeback privileges, or account closure. And if the merchant rebuts a frivolous dispute, the charge returns to your statement with any finance charges that had paused during the investigation. Save chargebacks for genuine billing errors and legitimate grievances the merchant refused to fix.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors
2
eCFR. 12 CFR 1026.13 – Billing Error Resolution
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666i – Assertion by Cardholder Against Card Issuer of Claims and Defenses
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR Part 1026 – Regulation Z – Section 1026.12 Special Credit Card Provisions
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1643 – Liability of Holder of Credit Card
6
Visa. Zero Liability Policy
7
Mastercard. Zero Liability Protection Policy
8
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR Part 1026 – Regulation Z – Section 1026.13 Billing Error Resolution
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666a – Regulation of Credit Reports
10
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can They Charge Me Interest on a Charge I Told Them I Did Not Make
11
Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
12
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR Part 1005 – Regulation E – Section 1005.6 Liability of Consumer for Unauthorized Transfers
13
Mastercard. Sellers Beware – Getting to the Bottom of First-Party Fraud