Saw a Google Play or App Store charge you didn't authorize? Start with Apple or Google, then your bank if they won't reverse it.

Those two stores run the first refund path for in-app purchases billed through them. Your card or phone bill is a separate path. U.S. billing-error rules can still apply after a platform denial.

Thing is, people treat a chargeback as the only lever. It isn't. File with the store while the item is still in your purchase history.

What actually controls the dispute

Platform policy decides the first refund. Federal notice rules decide the bank path.

Request an Apple refund on the App Store

Apple wants the request tied to your Apple Account. Don't hunt for help on the app listing.

Start from Settings and Purchase History on an iPhone, or follow Apple's refund instructions on the web, where you choose Request a refund, pick the item, and submit. Look at the receipt. It shows what was bought and which Apple Account paid.

Family Sharing can put another person's tap on your bill. Rule that out before you call it fraud. If the charge is truly not yours, change your Apple ID password and contact your card issuer. A stolen account is a bank problem too.

Check status on Apple's page after you submit. Purchases that never went through Apple In-App Purchase sit outside this form.

Report a Google Play charge you don't recognize

Google splits this by age and billing type.

1. Match your Google purchase history to the bank or carrier line. Play often bills under a Google name, not the game's brand.
2. If the transaction is within 120 days, fill in Google Play's unrecognized-charge form. Save the claim ID from the email.
3. Watch for their update. They say it typically arrives within seven working days.
4. If a mobile-operator charge is more than 60 days old, call the carrier's billing fraud department immediately.
5. If you can't sign in to the Google Account, contact the payment method's fraud department instead of waiting on Play.

Google's Payments Center also warns that a pending authorization can look like a second charge and then drop off. A canceled order can linger. Shared phones do this too.

Take it to your U.S. bank or card issuer

Do this if the store won't refund, you have no login, or the statement date is getting close to 60 days.

Call first. Then put it in writing.

Credit cards use a billing-error process. The CFPB explains how to dispute a credit card charge: you must send a written billing error notice within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on your statement. Use the billing inquiries address on that statement. The issuer has 30 days to acknowledge unless it already resolved the issue, and it generally must finish within two billing cycles, or 90 days at most. You can still dispute a charge you already paid.

Debit and other bank-account pulls follow a different script. The CFPB's unauthorized-transfer page says to notify the bank no later than 60 days after it sent the statement that showed the charge. If they ask for written confirmation and you don't send it within ten business days, they don't have to place a temporary credit while they investigate. Miss the 60-day notice and you could have to cover later unauthorized transactions that posted before you called.

Turns out the same Play charge can be a credit-card case or a debit case. The statement type picks the rule.

Clocks you should not mix up

The store refund can succeed after you notice the charge. It does not freeze the bank deadline. If the statement already printed, start the issuer notice even while Apple or Google reviews the refund.

What to have in front of you

You don't need a lawyer's binder. You'll want the identifiers.

• Amount, date, and the name on the statement line
• Apple receipt or Google order ID
• Which Apple or Google Account was used
• Screenshot of purchase history
• Statement date (the bank clock starts here)
• Whether a child, partner, or Family Sharing member could have tapped buy

To be honest, the screenshot next to the statement is the part everyone skips, and then they dispute a charge that was only confusing because it used a parent company name instead of the app name, which wastes a week.

Open the Apple or Google refund page today if you can still sign in. Write down the statement date. If this is a U.S. credit or debit account and that statement is already in hand, send the issuer notice so the 60-day window doesn't close while the store thinks.

This page is not legal advice, and it isn't a developer dispute manual. The store policy is global and account-based. The CFPB clocks are for U.S. cards and bank accounts.