How to Win a Chargeback: Building the Response

How the response process works

A dispute starts with the cardholder's bank (the issuer) and reaches you through your acquirer or payment provider. Visa's dispute management guide says the main exchange in a dispute is between the issuer and the acquirer, and that your merchant agreement usually sets out how much of the liability is yours. Visa's Core Rules split the process by dispute category. For processing errors (category 12) and consumer disputes (category 13), the acquirer may send a dispute response within 30 calendar days of the dispute processing date; the issuer may then make a pre-arbitration attempt within 30 days, the acquirer may accept or decline it within 30 days, and arbitration must be filed within 10 calendar days of the pre-arbitration response. For fraud (category 10) and authorization (category 11), there is no separate dispute response step: the acquirer may make a pre-arbitration attempt within 30 calendar days of the dispute processing date. The rules also say that if a member does not respond in Visa Resolve Online within the time allowed, the dispute cycle is closed. American Express works differently: its current US disputes reference guide (version 2024PROP) says a card member has up to 120 days from the transaction date to dispute a charge in most categories, that American Express may either send an inquiry or debit your account as an upfront chargeback, and that you have 20 days to respond with supporting documents.

First decide: fight, refund or accept

Not every dispute is worth answering. Visa's guide says some disputes cannot be remedied and that accepting them may save the time and cost of contesting. If you already refunded the customer, send proof of the credit: the guide gives the example of a cardholder claiming a return was not credited, where evidence of the credit amount and date can resolve the dispute. Visa's rules require the issuer to apply a credit processed before the dispute, or explain why it does not resolve it. If the claim is genuine fraud on a stolen card and you have no authentication or delivery evidence, accepting is usually the realistic choice. Our reason code guide explains what each Visa, Mastercard and American Express code means and which evidence answers it, so start there to decide whether you have a case.

Structure the package so it is read

Because Visa's rules let the acquirer respond only once to the original dispute, send everything the first time. A clear package has three parts. First, a one-page summary: the transaction date, amount, the last four digits of the card, the transaction or acquirer reference number, the reason code, and two or three sentences that answer the code directly. Second, an index listing each exhibit. Third, the exhibits, each labelled and in the order the summary mentions them. Visa's guide says evidence must be legible and in English or accompanied by an English translation, and that you should supply all available details promptly when you are first notified. Keep screenshots cropped to the relevant lines and highlight the matching fields.

Evidence that carries weight

Visa's guide lists specific protections for card-absent sales. An address verification (AVS) "Y" match, where billing and shipping addresses are the same, can support a response if you also provide proof of the shipping address and signed proof of delivery. Certain card verification value (CVV2) results also give response rights. A transaction successfully authenticated with Visa Secure, sent with electronic commerce indicator 5, is protected from fraud-related disputes, provided it was processed correctly. For fraud disputes, Visa's Compelling Evidence rules require the issuer, when it declines a pre-arbitration attempt that includes Compelling Evidence, to certify that the cardholder's contact details do not match or that it has reviewed the evidence with the cardholder.

What does not help

Long narratives, statements about how hard disputes are on a small business, general policy pages that the customer never accepted, and documents unrelated to the reason code make the reviewer's job harder without answering the claim. If your terms matter, show the customer accepting them: for example, a checkout step with a timestamp and the policy text they agreed to. Keep your tone factual.

Track what you win and why

Visa's guide recommends tracking disputes and responses by dispute condition, tracking disputes as a share of sales, recording both the initial dispute amount and the net amount after responses, and tracking card-present and card-absent disputes separately. Illustrative example only, with made-up round numbers: a shop that receives 20 disputes in a quarter might find that 12 are non-receipt claims, 5 are card-absent fraud and 3 are duplicate charges. The fix for each is different: delivery confirmation, authentication and checkout changes, and a billing process check. Results from your own log tell you which disputes are worth fighting next time.