What is a Dispute?

A Dispute refers to an available action a cardholder can take to argue against fraudulent charges, billing errors, or issues with the product or service provided not meeting expectations, for example.

A dispute is first initiated by the cardholder (customer of the product or service provided) through their Issuer (the card brand, such as Visa or MasterCard), and goes through a series of reviews, actions, and decisions to eventually rule in favor of the Merchant or Cardholder respectively.

...

Expand
title Click here to see Dispute Supporting Documentation recommendations.
Card brand Suggested Receipt and/or Invoice Requirements: Card Present: The following are the Visa requirements for all transaction receipts generated from electronic point-of-sale terminals (including cardholder-activated terminals). It is recommended that merchants provide itemized receipts when possible. Card-not-Present Transaction Receipt Requirements: The following are the Visa requirements for all manually printed transaction receipts in the card-absent environment. Type of Evidence Description Credit Card Authorization Documentation Card brands also consider the following acceptable ways of documenting a cardholder's approval for a transaction: For a Mail/Phone Order Transaction a signed order/authorization form. Details and a copy of the ID presented by the Cardholder Evidence of Transaction completion by a member of the Cardholder's household or family (if not by the cardholder). Proof of Delivery or Satisfactory Services Cardholder goods receipt or satisfactory service rendering confirmation is one of the best protections a merchant can have. Some of the best details are indicated below: Photos, Screenshots, Emails, or Recorded Phone Calls proving that the Cardholder disputing the Transaction has, or is currently using the products or services. Product or service pick-up form with the Cardholder’s signature. Evidence of procut delivery date and time with the same physical address that returned an AVS match of Y or M. (Signature not required.) A neutral third-party opinion to help corroborate your claim against the cardholder.

What is a Chargeback?

A Chargeback refers to the actual process of the cardholder actually attempting to retrieve their funds from the disputed transaction.

...

...

...

Chargeback Time Limitations

Both chargebacks that have been manually requested by cardholders to their issuers and chargebacks automatically issued when preset risk, fraud, or other security parameters, configured by banks or issuers, have been met:

...

Chargeback Type

...

Time Limitations

...

Manual Cardholder-Initated

...

Open for up to 270 days from the original date of the transaction.

• This can extend to up to 540 days for payment of future delivery of goods or services.

...

Automated Issuer-Initiated

...

Open with an unlimited timetable.

Chargeback Cycles

From the merchant's perspective there are just three stages:

...

Chargeback Cycle

...

Description

...

Retrieval

...

The initial request from the Issuer to the Merchant for transaction information.

...

Chargeback

...

The process of each individual Dispute action from First Chargeback to Arbitration.

...

Resolution

...

...

Chargeback vs Dispute

A Chargeback and a Dispute are two distinct processes related to payment disputes.

...