If a merchant doesn’t respond to a dispute, you keep the refund. The provisional credit your bank posted while it investigated becomes permanent once the merchant’s response window closes, and the card network treats the silence as a default. From your side, the temporary label simply drops off the credit and the money is yours.
The Deadline the Merchant Just Missed
A chargeback formally begins when your bank sends the dispute to the merchant’s bank, which then notifies the merchant and gives them a fixed window to submit evidence defending the charge. Visa generally allows 20 days from notification. Mastercard and the other networks set their own timelines, and some acquirers impose shorter windows through their own merchant agreements. Across the major networks, the response window runs roughly 20 to 45 calendar days depending on the network and the reason code attached to the dispute.
These deadlines are rigid. Missing by a single day counts the same as never responding. There is no extension and no appeal at that stage: the merchant’s bank records the non-response, the network closes the merchant’s opportunity to defend the transaction, and the case resolves in your favor.
How Your Provisional Credit Becomes Permanent
When you first filed the dispute, your bank most likely issued a provisional credit, a temporary refund giving you access to the funds while the investigation played out. If the merchant had submitted compelling evidence, that credit could have been reversed. Because they stayed silent, the opposite happens: the credit converts to a permanent one automatically once the response window closes.
Behind the scenes, the merchant’s bank debits the transaction amount from the merchant’s account and sends it back through the card network to your bank. You don’t have to do anything. The credit that was already in your account simply stops being labeled temporary, and your bank sends a notice confirming the investigation is complete and the funds are yours to keep.
Credit Cards vs. Debit Cards
The card-network process looks similar for both, but the federal law sitting behind your dispute is different, and that changes the timeline and your liability if anything goes sideways.
Credit Card Disputes
Credit card billing disputes are governed by the Fair Credit Billing Act and Regulation Z. Your issuer must acknowledge your notice within 30 days and resolve the dispute within two complete billing cycles, and no longer than 90 days.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors While the investigation is open, the issuer cannot try to collect the disputed amount or report it as delinquent. Your maximum liability for an unauthorized credit card transaction is capped at $50 by federal law, and most major issuers waive even that.
Debit Card Disputes
Debit card disputes fall under Regulation E and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. Your bank has 10 business days from your error notice to investigate. It can extend to 45 calendar days, but only if it provisionally credits your account within the original 10 business days, and it must tell you the amount and date of that credit within two business days of posting it.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors Once the investigation is complete, the bank must report its findings within three business days and correct any confirmed error within one.
Debit liability for unauthorized transactions is tiered by how fast you report the card compromised: $50 if you report within two business days, up to $500 between two and 60 days, and no federal cap at all after 60 days. That’s the biggest structural reason credit card disputes are friendlier than debit disputes, even though a merchant’s silence produces the same result in both.
When the Bank Might Still Deny Your Claim
Merchant silence makes your win overwhelmingly likely, not automatic. Your bank still runs a final internal review before closing the case, and there are two scenarios where it can rule against you even without the merchant pushing back.
The first is a dispute that doesn’t fit any recognized chargeback reason code. Chargebacks exist for specific problems: unauthorized transactions, goods not received, services not rendered, duplicate charges, and similar billing errors. Filing because you regret the purchase or didn’t read a return policy isn’t a billing error under Regulation Z and isn’t an “error” under Regulation E, so the bank may deny it on that ground alone.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.13 – Billing Error Resolution
The second is a claim the bank suspects is fraudulent on your side. If its investigation turns up evidence that you did receive the goods, that you authorized the transaction, or that you’ve filed a pattern of doubtful claims, it can reverse the provisional credit. Under Regulation E, when a bank reverses a provisional credit, it must notify you of the reversal date and amount and continue honoring checks and preauthorized payments without overdraft fees for five business days after sending that notice.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors You also have the right to request the documents the bank relied on to reach its decision.
Denials like these are uncommon in non-response cases. When the merchant offers no contrary evidence, banks generally confirm what you told them.
Can the Merchant Come After You Later?
Winning a chargeback doesn’t erase the underlying commercial dispute. The chargeback process is a card-network mechanism, not a court proceeding, so a merchant who lost through non-response still has other channels open.
The most direct one is small claims court. A merchant can sue you for the original transaction amount and argue the goods or services were delivered and payment is owed regardless of the chargeback outcome. Filing fees generally run from about $30 to several hundred dollars depending on the court and the claim size. For low-value transactions, the economics rarely justify the effort. For higher-value orders where the merchant has clear delivery records, they sometimes do pursue it.
A merchant could also assign the balance to a collection agency. If that happens, the agency must comply with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which covers obligations arising from a consumer transaction for personal, family, or household purposes.4Federal Trade Commission. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act You keep all your FDCPA protections, including the right to dispute the debt in writing within 30 days and the right to be free from deceptive or harassing collection tactics.
In practice, a merchant who couldn’t upload a few documents during the response window rarely turns around and files a lawsuit later. The possibility exists, though, especially on larger purchases.
Second Chargebacks and Arbitration
The card networks give merchants one narrow way to reopen a resolved dispute. It’s called pre-arbitration, and it lets the merchant argue that a procedural error occurred during the initial handling. Pre-arbitration does not relitigate the merits of the original claim; it challenges the process.
If that fails, the merchant can escalate to formal network arbitration. Visa’s arbitration case filing fee was raised to $600 as of April 2025, and the losing party bears the full cost. Mastercard’s fees are comparable. Those numbers keep arbitration reserved for large-dollar disputes or cases where the merchant has strong evidence of consumer fraud. Nobody arbitrates a $50 charge. A merchant whose original non-response was plain negligence will also struggle to convince an arbitrator that the process was flawed, so consumers who received a permanent credit through merchant silence almost never see this happen.
If Your Bank Rules Against You Anyway
If your bank denies the claim despite the merchant’s non-response, or mishandles the investigation timeline, you can escalate to a regulator. The primary avenue is a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which accepts complaints about billing disputes, error resolution, and investigation practices. Once a complaint is filed, the financial institution generally responds within 15 days, with a final response due within 60 days on more complex matters.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint
A CFPB complaint doesn’t guarantee a different outcome, but it forces the bank to document and justify its decision to a federal regulator. Banks that missed Regulation E’s 10-business-day investigation window or Regulation Z’s two-billing-cycle resolution deadline are especially exposed, because the violation is procedural and easy to verify from the record.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1005.11 – Procedures for Resolving Errors You can also file with your state banking or financial services regulator, which may have additional enforcement authority over state-chartered institutions.