What Is a Credit Card Chargeback: Rules, Deadlines, and Filing

A credit card chargeback is a reversal of a disputed transaction that your card issuer initiates on your behalf, giving you back the money while the issuer investigates whether the charge was a billing error, unauthorized, or otherwise improper. The Fair Credit Billing Act sets the ground rules: it caps your liability for unauthorized charges at $50, gives you 60 days to raise a dispute, and blocks your issuer from collecting the amount or damaging your credit while the investigation is open.¹

What You Can Dispute

Federal law defines the specific problems that qualify as a “billing error” under 15 U.S.C. § 1666:¹

A charge you did not make or authorize, common with stolen card numbers or identity theft.
A charge for a different amount than what you agreed to pay.
Goods or services you paid for but never received as agreed.
A refund or credit the merchant promised that never posted to your statement.
A calculation mistake on your statement.

Chargebacks are not limited to fraud. A double charge, a missing refund, or a failed delivery all qualify. Regulation Z carries these same categories into the rules issuers must follow.²

Quality Disputes Have Extra Conditions

If you received the item but it was defective or significantly different from what the merchant described, a separate statute lets you raise that claim against your card issuer. Three conditions apply under 15 U.S.C. § 1666i:³

You first made a good faith attempt to resolve the problem with the merchant.
The transaction was more than $50.
The purchase happened in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address.

The dollar minimum and geographic limit don’t apply if the merchant is affiliated with your card issuer, or if the purchase came through a mail or internet solicitation the issuer participated in. They also don’t apply to the billing error categories above: unauthorized charges, wrong amounts, and non-delivery can be disputed regardless of amount or location.

What You Can Owe for Unauthorized Charges

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1643, the most you can be held responsible for when someone uses your card without permission is $50, and even that requires your issuer to have met specific notice conditions.⁴ If you report the card lost or stolen before it’s used, you owe nothing. If someone uses only your account number without the physical card ever being lost, you also owe nothing.⁵

The major card networks go further. Visa’s Zero Liability Policy states that cardholders will not be held responsible for unauthorized charges on their accounts, and Mastercard offers a similar policy.⁶ These network protections effectively push your exposure on most consumer credit cards to zero, though they may exclude certain commercial cards and anonymous prepaid products.

How to File a Chargeback

Start by pulling together what your issuer will need. At a minimum: the transaction date, the exact dollar amount, and the merchant’s name as it appears on your statement. Add a plain description of the problem, something like “item never delivered” or “charged twice for same order.” If it’s a quality dispute, note that you contacted the merchant first and what happened.

Supporting evidence strengthens the case. Order confirmations, tracking records, return receipts, screenshots of the product description as advertised, and any emails or chat logs with customer service all help. For unauthorized charges, a police report or identity theft affidavit can be useful.

Most issuers let you file through their online banking portal or mobile app, usually with a “dispute this charge” option next to the transaction. You can also call the number on the back of your card, or send a written dispute by mail.⁷ A mailed dispute has to reach the billing inquiries address, not the payment address, within the deadline below.

The Deadlines That Control the Process

Three federal deadlines shape the timeline:

60 days to file. You must notify your issuer within 60 days of the date the first statement containing the error was sent. Missing that window can forfeit your federal dispute rights for that charge.¹
30 days to acknowledge. Your issuer must send written acknowledgment within 30 days of receiving your dispute, unless it resolves the issue in that window.⁸
Two billing cycles, 90 days maximum, to resolve. The investigation has to be completed within two full billing cycles and never longer than 90 days from receipt of your notice.⁸

Card networks add their own deadlines on the merchant’s side. Visa, for instance, gives merchants 30 days to submit rebuttal evidence. If the merchant misses that window, the dispute typically resolves in your favor by default.

Your Protections While the Dispute Is Open

From the moment you file until the investigation ends, Regulation Z gives you three key protections:²

You don’t have to pay the disputed amount, and your issuer can’t try to collect it or the related finance charges. You still owe any undisputed portion of the bill.
Your issuer can’t report the disputed amount as delinquent to credit bureaus or threaten to do so.⁹
Your issuer can’t accelerate your debt, restrict your account, or close it just because you filed a dispute in good faith.

If you have autopay set up on the card, your issuer must stop deducting the disputed amount from your bank account as long as you file at least three business days before the next scheduled payment. Many issuers also apply a provisional credit during the investigation, but that’s voluntary, not required by federal law.

How the Investigation Resolves

Your issuer reviews the claim against the legal definition of a billing error. If it’s valid on its face, the issuer routes the dispute to the merchant’s bank, which passes it to the merchant. The merchant then has its response window under card network rules, typically 30 days, to submit rebuttal evidence: a signed delivery receipt, proof of refund, the terms of service you agreed to.

If the merchant doesn’t respond or can’t prove the charge was correct, the issuer resolves the dispute in your favor. Any provisional credit becomes permanent, or the charge comes off your balance. If the issuer sides with the merchant, any temporary credit is reversed and the original charge is restored. Either way, the issuer must send you a written explanation.⁸

After a denial, you have at least 10 days, or the number of days your credit agreement gives you to pay undisputed amounts, whichever is greater, before the amount can be reported as delinquent. If you send written notice that you still disagree, the issuer can only report the delinquency if it simultaneously reports that the amount is in dispute and tells you who received the report.⁹

If Your Chargeback Is Denied

A denial isn’t necessarily final. Card networks operate multi-stage dispute systems that allow escalation beyond the initial decision. Under Mastercard’s process, a denied chargeback can move through a second presentment, a pre-arbitration case, and ultimately formal arbitration in which Mastercard itself reviews the evidence and rules. The losing party can appeal within 45 calendar days of the arbitration decision.¹⁰ Your issuing bank handles these escalations for you, so contact them to ask whether further steps are available in your case.

If you think your issuer mishandled the dispute or violated the Fair Credit Billing Act, file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB forwards complaints to the company, which generally responds within 15 days. Submit online or call (855) 411-2372.¹¹

When a Chargeback Is the Wrong Move

Chargebacks exist to protect consumers, but misusing the process has real consequences. Filing a dispute over a purchase you actually received and were satisfied with, sometimes called “friendly fraud,” can lead merchants to block you from future purchases. Many businesses keep internal records of customers with repeated disputes and refuse to serve flagged accounts.

A knowingly false chargeback can also constitute fraud. If a merchant or bank determines you received the goods as described and fabricated the dispute to get a free product, you could face account closure, reversal of credits, and in extreme cases criminal liability under state theft or fraud law. A pattern of excessive disputes can also lead your issuer to stop processing your future claims.

The safer path is to use chargebacks only after a genuine attempt to work things out with the merchant, and to keep records of that attempt. If the merchant refuses to cooperate or stops responding, your chargeback stands on much stronger ground.

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 Arising Out of Credit Card Transaction
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1643 – Liability of Holder of Credit Card
5
Federal Trade Commission. Lost or Stolen Credit, ATM, and Debit Cards
6
Visa. Visa Zero Liability Policy
7
Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC Chapter 41, Subchapter I, Part D – Credit Billing
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666a – Regulation of Credit Reports
10
Mastercard. Chargeback Guide Merchant Edition
11
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Learn How the Complaint Process Works