How to File a Chargeback: Steps, Deadlines, and Denials

To file a chargeback, contact your card issuer or bank to dispute a specific transaction, and do it within 60 days of the statement date that shows the charge. That 60-day window is set by federal law and applies to both credit and debit cards. What differs is how you notify, how fast the bank must investigate, and how much you can lose if you wait.¹²

What to Gather Before You File

A well-documented dispute moves faster and is more likely to succeed. Pull the following together before you open the case:

Transaction details from your statement: date, merchant name, dollar amount, and any transaction ID or reference number.
Evidence that shows why the charge is wrong. Screenshots of a defective product, a cancellation confirmation, tracking information showing non-delivery, or the receipt for the correct amount.
Records of contact with the merchant. Emails, chat transcripts, or notes from phone calls. For quality-of-goods disputes on a credit card, showing a good-faith attempt to resolve it with the merchant is a legal requirement.³
A short explanation of the category: unauthorized charge, item not received, wrong amount billed, defective product, or a payment the creditor failed to apply.

Incomplete submissions often lead to delays or denials, so treat the first filing as your best filing.

How to Submit the Dispute

Most banks let you start a chargeback through an online portal or mobile app. Select the transaction, follow the prompts, upload your evidence, and save the confirmation number. This is the fastest route and produces an immediate record that you filed.

For credit card disputes, federal law requires written notice sent to the issuer’s billing inquiry address, which is different from the payment address and is usually printed on the back of your statement or on the issuer’s website. The notice must include your name, account number, the amount you believe is wrong, and why you think it’s an error.¹ Even if you start online, sending a written letter to the billing inquiry address gives you the strongest legal footing. Certified mail leaves you a delivery record.

For debit card disputes, you can notify your bank orally or in writing. If you call, ask whether the bank requires a written follow-up within 10 business days. If it does and you don’t send one, the bank isn’t required to provisionally credit your account during the investigation.²

However you submit, save every confirmation number, email receipt, and tracking number.

The Deadlines That Actually Matter

The federal 60-day clock starts on the date your bank or issuer sent or transmitted the statement containing the disputed charge, not the date you noticed the problem. Miss it and the federal protections largely disappear.¹²

For debit cards, speed matters even inside the 60 days, because your liability for unauthorized transactions climbs the longer you wait:⁴

Report within 2 business days of learning about the loss or theft: liability capped at $50.
Report after 2 business days but within 60 days of your statement: liability can reach $500.
Report after 60 days: you can be responsible for the full amount of unauthorized transfers that occur after the 60-day window closes, with no cap.

Card networks often allow longer windows than federal law requires. Visa generally accepts disputes up to 120 days after the purchase date.⁵ Mastercard offers similar 120-day windows for many categories, and some, such as interrupted ongoing services, extend to 540 days from the transaction.⁶ Treat these as a backstop, not a plan. File as soon as you spot the problem.

When Your Complaint Is About Quality

Chargebacks based on the quality of goods or services, rather than an unauthorized charge or billing error, come with two extra conditions on credit cards. The transaction must exceed $50, and the purchase must have taken place either in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address.³

Those geographic and dollar limits don’t apply if the merchant is the same company as the card issuer, is controlled by it, or obtained the sale through a mail or online solicitation the issuer participated in. You also have to show a good-faith attempt to resolve the problem with the merchant first.³

The 100-mile rule only applies to quality claims. It does not limit unauthorized charges, billing errors, or charges for goods you never received.

What Happens After You File

The process splits by card type.

Credit Card Investigation

Your issuer must acknowledge the dispute in writing within 30 days and complete the investigation within two billing cycles, and in no event more than 90 days. During the investigation the issuer cannot try to collect the disputed amount or charge interest on it. Many issuers voluntarily remove the charge from your statement while they look into it, though the law doesn’t explicitly require a provisional credit the way debit rules do.¹

Debit Card Investigation

Your bank must reach a decision within 10 business days. If it needs more time, it can take up to 45 days, but only if it provisionally credits your account within those first 10 business days and gives you full use of the funds during the investigation. If the bank concludes no error occurred, it must notify you within three business days of finishing, and it can reverse the provisional credit after giving you notice.⁷

Your Rights While the Dispute Is Open

On a credit card, the issuer cannot report the disputed amount as delinquent to the credit bureaus while the investigation is pending, and it cannot threaten your credit rating for not paying the disputed charge.⁸

If the issuer decides the charge was correct and you still disagree, you have 10 days (or the payment period the issuer gives you, whichever is later) to write back stating that you continue to dispute the amount. After that the issuer can begin collection and report the amount as unpaid, but any report has to note that you dispute the charge, and the issuer must tell you who received the delinquency report.⁹

If Your Chargeback Is Denied

A denial isn’t the end. You have three main options.

Appeal to your issuer. For a credit card dispute, write within 10 days of receiving the issuer’s explanation (or within the payment period it gives you) stating that you still dispute the billing error. The issuer can begin collection procedures, but you preserve your right to keep contesting the charge.⁹
File a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Companies generally respond within 15 days, and the CFPB publishes complaint data in a public database. Put every relevant fact and document in the initial submission, because you typically can’t file a second complaint about the same problem.¹⁰
Sue in small claims court. If the amount is within your local court’s limit, you can file directly against the merchant. Filing fees vary by jurisdiction and are generally modest at smaller dollar amounts.

Don’t File a Chargeback for a Charge You Actually Owe

Disputing a purchase you received and were satisfied with, sometimes called friendly fraud, carries real consequences. If the transaction involved any electronic communication, the dispute can qualify as wire fraud, which carries a maximum federal sentence of 20 years.¹¹ State-level theft or credit card fraud charges may also apply. Merchants who detect a pattern may blacklist you, and your bank can close your account.

If you’re unhappy with a purchase, ask the merchant for a refund first. A documented refund attempt also strengthens a legitimate chargeback if one becomes necessary later.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 Correction of Billing Errors
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1693f – Error Resolution
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1666i – Assertion by Cardholder Against Card Issuer of Claims and Defenses
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693g – Consumer Liability
5
Visa. Chargeback: Debit and Credit Card Purchase Disputes
6
Mastercard. Chargeback Guide Merchant Edition
7
eCFR. 12 CFR 205.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666a Regulation of Credit Reports
9
Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
10
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 1343 – Fraud by Wire, Radio, or Television