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Chargebacks Explained.

A chargeback can be considered a refund since it returns specified funds taken from an account through a prior purchase. In this sense, it differs from a voided charge, which is never fully authorized for settlement. Focused on charges that have been fully processed and settled, chargebacks can often take several days for full settlement as they must be reversed through an electronic process involving multiple entities.

Charges can be disputed for many reasons. A cardholder may have been charged by a merchant for items they never received, a merchant could have duplicated a charge by mistake, a technical issue may have caused a mistaken charge, or a cardholder’s card information may have been compromised.

Typically, credit cardholders have a timeframe in which they can dispute a charge, known as the chargeback period.

Disputing a potential chargeback can be challenging for a cardholder as it requires time to dispute the charge with a customer service representative and may also require a receipt or proof of transaction. Still, in the case of a fraudulent charge, banks are usually highly supportive in researching and issuing chargebacks in a situation where a card number has been compromised.

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