A chargeback, also referred to as a dispute, occurs when a customer questions a payment made with their credit or debit card. When this happens, the card issuer initiates a formal dispute process, resulting in an immediate reversal of the payment. The disputed amount, accompanied by an additional fee imposed by the card network, is deducted from your account balance.

Fortunately, there is a mechanism in place to address such disputes, allowing you to present your side of the story and provide evidence to support the validity of the payment. If the dispute is resolved in your favor, the disputed amount is returned to you. However, if the card issuer upholds the dispute, their decision is final, and the customer's payment remains refunded.

It's important to be aware that the entire process of resolving a dispute, from its initiation to the final decision by the bank, can be a lengthy one, often taking around 2-3 months to reach completion.

The fee for disputes varies by region. It's usually $15 for the United States, £20 for the United Kingdom, €20 for Europe, etc.

If you issue a full refund on a charge before a dispute happens, it is no longer possible for the cardholder to dispute it. So you are protected from any future dispute or dispute fee.

Once a cardholder initiates a dispute, avoiding the fee is no longer possible.

If you believe that the dispute reason is incorrect and you want to counter it, you can upload evidence by clicking on the Submit button near your dispute from your payouts page.

Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for the status to change from "Submit" to "Submitted" once you have uploaded the evidence, as we require manual processing for the upload.

Disputes are decided entirely by the entity who issued the cardholder's card. In some cases that's the card network itself (as with American Express) and in some cases that's an issuing bank (as with Mastercard or Visa). The issuer's decision is final and cannot be appealed or challenged.