Found a charge you don't recognize, or a package that never showed up? Ask the seller for a refund first.
If they stall, your credit card issuer is next. Federal billing-error rules in the United States let you challenge unauthorized charges, missing goods, and statement mistakes without paying that amount while the issuer investigates. People still call that a chargeback. The store's return desk is a different track.
Call the number on the back of your card the same day. Send written notice after the call so the federal 60-day clock actually protects you.
Refund vs. dispute vs. chargeback
Your leverage with the bank is the billing-error dispute, and the chargeback is how the issuer often collects from the seller if it agrees with you. Store refunds stay with the merchant.
| Path | You contact | Clock that matters | If it fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant refund | Seller or marketplace | The store's own policy | Open a card dispute |
| Billing-error dispute | Card issuer | 60 days after the statement is sent | Send more documents or escalate |
| Network chargeback | Issuer, through the card network | Bank and network procedures after you file | The merchant can represent the charge |
Save the emails either way, because a seller refusal is useful evidence.
What counts as a billing error
Regulation Z section 1026.13 treats unauthorized use as a billing error. It also covers charges that were not identified correctly, payments the issuer failed to credit, computation mistakes, and charges for goods or services you did not accept or that were not delivered as agreed.
Buyer's remorse is not a billing error.
For missing goods and unordered products, start with the FTC page on unordered products and missing goods. Some issuer explainers also describe a narrower withholding right for certain purchases over $50 made in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address. Fraud and undelivered goods still qualify.
The 60-day written-notice deadline
You must dispute a credit card billing error in writing within 60 days of the date the first statement showing that error was sent to you. The FTC states that 60-day writing rule. It's the statement sent date, not the swipe.
If the statement already went out, noticing the charge later does not restart those 60 days.
Thing is, that written 60-day notice is what obligates the issuer to investigate on the federal timetable. You can still ask after that. You can ask, but you may not get the same protections.
You don't have to pay the disputed amount or related finance charges on that slice during the investigation.
Investigations generally must finish within two billing cycles after the issuer gets your letter, and not more than 90 days. Pay everything else on time.
The issuer generally must acknowledge a qualifying written dispute within 30 days unless it already resolved the error.
How to dispute a credit card charge
Chase publishes merchant-first steps on its credit card education pages. Bank of America and Wells Fargo, among other big issuers, generally offer a dispute flow in online banking or the app. Large issuers typically let you start in the app. Use the number on the card.
- Pull the statement and write down the merchant, date, and amount. Rule out a family member or a subscription billed under a trade name.
- Email the merchant for a refund and save the reply.
- Call the issuer and ask for a reference number.
- Send written notice within the 60-day window to the billing-error address on the statement, or through the issuer's published dispute channel. An in-app dispute helps the file. The writing protects the federal process.
- Attach copies of receipts, tracking, photos, and the merchant's refusal. Keep the originals.
- Pay the undisputed balance by the due date.
- Reply before the issuer's deadline.
Evidence that actually helps
Turns out investigators sit longer on a vague "unauthorized" note with no dates than on a photo of an empty porch next to a "delivered" scan. Dates matter. If it's fraud, say you did not make or authorize the charge, and when you first saw it.
Damaged-goods claims work better when the listing, a photo, and the seller's reply sit together.
After you file
Many issuers post a provisional credit while they look, and that credit can be reversed if the merchant later prevails. The 30-day acknowledgment and the 90-day outer limit are the federal time limits.
You'll get a case number first, then a stretch of quiet that feels longer than the calendar, and then a packet lands with a delivery signature you don't remember or a note that the merchant never answered, which is the moment you have to read the file, because if you let it close on the bank's last snapshot the facts in that snapshot are the ones that stick. Send a dated response. Merchants can represent a chargeback with tracking scans, checkout terms, or device data.
Answer with something equally concrete.
If the issuer denies the dispute
To be honest, the same screenshot rarely reopens a closed case. Read the denial, add new proof if you have it, ask the issuer how to appeal, and consider a CFPB complaint if the bank skipped the written-investigation steps.
A letter that satisfies the written-notice rule
Your letter needs your name, account number, charge date, amount, merchant, the billing error in one sentence, and a request to investigate and correct it. Keep the tone flat. Send it to the billing-error address on the statement, not the payment PO box.
Keep a copy.
[Your name] [Your address] [Date]
[Issuer billing-error address]
Re: Billing error on account ending [last four]
I dispute the $[amount] charge by [merchant] on [date]. [Reason in one sentence.] Copies of supporting documents are enclosed. Please investigate this billing error, correct my account, and send written confirmation.
[Signature] [Printed name]
Pull the statement that first showed the charge and check when it was sent. If you're inside 60 days, call today. Mail or submit the written dispute the same week.