Chargeback

What a chargeback actually moves

A chargeback starts outside your systems: the cardholder contacts the bank that issued the card and contests a payment. The issuer files it, the network pulls the funds, and your provider debits you before you have said anything. Stripe documents that order for its own accounts: notify, debit the disputed amount plus a dispute fee, then leave you to accept or challenge the claim. The Visa Rules require the issuer to review a dispute for validity first, out of your view.

Source: Stripe, “How disputes work” (Stripe’s own dispute lifecycle, fees and timing); Visa, “Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules” (§11.1.2 “Issuer Responsibilities to Cardholders for Dispute Resolution”; edition 18 April 2026), accessed 2026-09-04.

The roles are fixed. The issuing bank decides the outcome; your merchant acquirer and payment processor carry evidence back up the chain, and the debit reaches you through the merchant account or provider balance. Adyen sorts cardholder reasons into fraud, consumer disputes, processing errors and authorization, and notes that disputability depends on the method: card payments can be disputed, bank transfers cannot.

Source: Adyen, “Understanding and defending disputes” (Adyen dispute categories and flow), accessed 2026-09-04.

Read the reason code before you write anything

The Visa Rules organize dispute conditions under those same four categories, and the condition decides which records count: a “not received” claim and a “not authorized” claim are answered with different files. Visa’s dispute tables can also carry a second column naming the country or region a rule applies to, so check a rule’s stated scope before assuming it reaches your market.

Source: Visa, “Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules” (§11.6.1 “Dispute Categories Table Format”, §11.7 “Dispute Category 10: Fraud”, §11.10 “Dispute Category 13: Consumer Disputes”; edition 18 April 2026), accessed 2026-09-04.

Source: Adyen, “Dispute reason codes and defense requirements” (the defense documents Adyen asks for); Visa, “Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules” (§11.7 “Dispute Category 10: Fraud”, §11.8 “Dispute Category 11: Authorization”, §11.9 “Dispute Category 12: Processing Errors”; edition 18 April 2026), accessed 2026-09-04.

Chargeback, refund and inquiry are three different events

A refund is your own reversal of a payment you captured; a chargeback is imposed on you, and Stripe states that once a dispute is open you cannot refund outside it. An inquiry — a retrieval or request for information — sits earlier: Stripe reports that American Express and Discover most often use that stage, Visa and Mastercard no longer do, and an unanswered inquiry can escalate into a chargeback you are unlikely to win.

Source: Stripe, “How disputes work” (Stripe’s own dispute lifecycle, fees and timing), accessed 2026-09-04.

Deadlines belong to the scheme, not to your calendar

Adyen puts the general cardholder window at a maximum of 120 calendar days from the transaction date, and at up to 540 calendar days in some Visa and Mastercard cases where fulfilment comes later — such as pre-orders and travel. Adyen lists separate response and decision windows per scheme. If the member misses the window or accepts responsibility, the Visa Rules close the cycle and leave that member liable for the amount last received.

Source: Adyen, “Dispute timeframes” (Adyen’s scheme-by-scheme timeframe table); Visa, “Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules” (§11.2.1 “Dispute Resolution Process General Requirements”; edition 18 April 2026), accessed 2026-09-04.

Consumer-protection law runs on its own clock. In the United States, Regulation Z requires a cardholder’s billing error notice to reach the creditor no later than 60 days after the creditor transmitted the first periodic statement showing the alleged error — a condition on the cardholder’s notice under a US issuer-side rule, not a network deadline, and not portable to other markets.

Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “§ 1026.13 Billing error resolution” (US Regulation Z open-end credit; not a card-network rule), accessed 2026-09-04.

Decide accept or defend on the evidence you already hold

Some disputes cannot be challenged at all, and Stripe closes those as lost when it notifies you. Where a challenge is possible, the Visa Rules let the acquirer submit specified compelling evidence with a pre-arbitration attempt for certain fraud conditions — for a delivered card-absent order, evidence that the item went to the same physical address for which the merchant received an AVS match of Y or M, with no signature required.

Source: Visa, “Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules” (§11.5.1 “Use of Compelling Evidence”; edition 18 April 2026); Stripe, “How disputes work” (Stripe’s own dispute lifecycle, fees and timing), accessed 2026-09-04.

• The authorization and capture records, with the transaction reference the provider asks for.
• Delivery evidence tied to the AVS-matched address, not one added later.
• Terms and cancellation policy as a checkout screenshot — Adyen asks for screenshots or text, not links.
• Contact history with the cardholder, including an empty support queue if they never wrote.
• Whether 3-D Secure covered the payment: Stripe says it supplies 3DS data itself where liability shift applies.

Source: Adyen, “Dispute reason codes and defense requirements” (the defense documents Adyen asks for); Stripe, “How disputes work” (Stripe’s own dispute lifecycle, fees and timing), accessed 2026-09-04.

Your ratio is monitored even on disputes you win

The Visa Rules cover dispute and fraud monitoring under risk: Visa identifies an acquirer under its Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) when it meets the requirements set out in the VAMP guide. Stripe describes the merchant-facing side: crossing a threshold puts the account into a monitoring program with monthly fines and fees, and failing to comply in time can end with the network refusing further payments. Monitoring programs do not consider dispute outcomes, so a dispute you eventually win still counts; refunds are not counted as disputes.

Source: Visa, “Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules” (§10.4.2 “Dispute Monitoring”, §10.4.3.1 “Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP)”; edition 18 April 2026); Stripe, “Dispute and fraud card monitoring programs” (Stripe’s description of network monitoring programs), accessed 2026-09-04.

Your own count will diverge from the network’s: Stripe attributes the gap to statement-descriptor formatting, multiple MIDs, and disputes it handles for you that never reach your dashboard yet still enter the network’s calculation. Reconcile against the acquiring-side record, and keep settlement and dispute reports separate.

Source: Stripe, “Dispute and fraud card monitoring programs” (Stripe’s description of network monitoring programs), accessed 2026-09-04.