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

To dispute a charge on your credit card, send a written notice to your card issuer’s billing inquiries address within 60 days of the statement date, explaining which charge is wrong and why. That written notice is what triggers your full protections under the Fair Credit Billing Act: the issuer must investigate, and you can withhold payment on the disputed amount while they do.¹ Calling first is fine, and often faster, but only the letter locks in the statutory deadlines.²

When You Can Dispute a Charge

The Fair Credit Billing Act defines the specific situations that count as a “billing error.” If your problem fits one of these, the issuer is legally required to investigate:

A charge you never authorized, or one for a different amount than you agreed to pay.
A charge for goods or services that were never delivered, or that you refused on delivery.
A math or accounting mistake, such as a miscalculated balance or a payment applied to the wrong account.
A payment or credit that doesn’t appear on your statement.
A charge you don’t recognize and want documented or explained.

These categories come straight from the statute and apply to open-end credit accounts, which covers most credit cards.¹

There’s also a separate right, specific to credit cards, to raise the same claims and defenses against your card issuer that you’d have against the merchant, for example if a product arrived defective. To use this route you generally need to have tried to work it out with the merchant first, the purchase must have been more than $50, and it must have occurred in your home state or within 100 miles of your mailing address. Those geographic and dollar limits fall away if the card issuer is also the seller, controls the seller, or solicited the transaction by mail. The most you can dispute under this provision is the amount still unpaid on that transaction when you first notify the issuer.³

The 60-Day Deadline and Where to Send the Notice

Your written notice must reach the card issuer within 60 days after the statement showing the error was sent to you. The clock runs from when the statement was mailed or transmitted, not from when you opened it. Miss that window and you lose the right to dispute the charge under the FCBA, even if the error is real.¹

Send the letter to the address your issuer lists for billing inquiries, which is not the same as the payment address. Check your statement, the issuer’s website, or your card agreement to find it. Using the payment address can delay or defeat the process.⁴ Certified mail with a return receipt gives you proof of delivery and the date the issuer received it.

What to Put in the Letter

The statute requires enough information for the issuer to identify the account and look into the problem. 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 — for example, that it was unauthorized, the item never arrived, or the amount is incorrect.

Attach copies, not originals, of anything that backs you up: receipts, tracking information, emails or letters with the merchant, photos of a defective item. If you already tried to resolve it with the merchant, include that correspondence; for a defective-goods claim, that prior effort is required.² Keep a complete copy of everything you send.

What Your Card Issuer Has to Do

Once the issuer receives your written dispute, federal law gives them two deadlines. Within 30 days they must send you written acknowledgment that they received it, unless they’ve already resolved the issue in that time. Within two billing cycles, and no more than 90 days, they must finish the investigation and either correct the error or send you a written explanation of why they believe the charge was correct.¹

These deadlines are statutory. An issuer that doesn’t follow the required procedures forfeits up to $50 of the disputed amount, even if the charge itself turns out to be valid.

What You Don’t Have to Pay in the Meantime

While the investigation is open, you can withhold payment on the disputed amount without penalty. The issuer can’t take collection action on that portion, and finance charges on the disputed amount are suspended until the investigation ends.¹ You still owe the rest of your balance, so keep paying the undisputed portion to avoid late fees.

Your issuer also can’t report the disputed amount as delinquent to credit bureaus during the investigation. If they report it at all, they must note that it’s in dispute, and when the investigation ends they must report the outcome to any bureau they previously told.⁵

How the Investigation Ends

If the issuer agrees an error occurred, they have to correct your account, remove the charge along with any related finance charges or fees, and send you written notice of the correction.¹

If they conclude the charge was correct, they must send you a written explanation, and you can ask for copies of the documents they relied on. The disputed amount then becomes payable again and can start accruing interest. Before reporting it as delinquent, the issuer must give you at least 10 days to pay.⁵

If Your Dispute Is Denied

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

If the issuer missed a statutory deadline or otherwise failed to follow the required procedures, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau online 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.

Debit Card Charges Work Differently

The process above is built around credit cards. Debit cards are covered by the Electronic Fund Transfer Act instead, with a different liability structure that makes fast reporting critical: your maximum liability is $50 if you report within two business days of learning of the loss or theft, up to $500 if you report later but within 60 days of the statement, and potentially unlimited for unauthorized transfers occurring after that 60-day window.⁷ The credit card right to raise merchant claims and defenses — for a defective product, say — does not apply to debit card transactions.⁸ With a debit card the money has already left your account, so even a successful dispute can leave you without those funds until the investigation is done.

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