Timelines are crucial when it comes to chargebacks. Firstly, cardholders must submit their chargeback claims within a certain amount of time. Likewise, merchants face numerous deadlines and if they miss them, losing the dispute becomes all but inevitable. Merchants must therefore be diligent and up-to-speed on the latest policies which vary by card brand (to make matters more complicated). Let’s cover some important chargeback time limits in 2025. Keep in mind that policies can change rather quickly and it’s wise to keep an eye out for developments that could impact your business. Also, these timelines are for the United States. Timeframes may be different in other jurisdictions.
Cardholders Typically Have a Long Time to File Chargebacks
Cardholders have a legal right to file chargebacks in the United States and many other jurisdictions. American cardholders have a legal right to file a dispute within 60 days. However, many issuers and card networks provide clients with a longer time limit, with 120 days being common.
Visa allows most chargebacks related to fraud and merchant errors, including duplicate transactions, defective products, and incorrect billing, to be filed within 120 days. The clock starts the day after the transaction processing date. Visa only allows 75 days for card recovery bulletins and authorization issues.
With Mastercard, the timeline starts ticking down on the day of the transaction. Mastercard allows 120 days for most disputes, but for account numbers not on files and warning bulletins, there are just 45 days to file.
American Express is rather generous. In the majority of cases, the timeline is set at 120 days after the transaction occurs. With defective products, it’s 120 days after the product was received. It could take a few weeks or more for the customer to get the product.
The good news for merchants is that they’re unlikely to get hit with a chargeback after 120 days. Still, that’s a generous time frame for cardholders. Further, Discover doesn’t actually set a time limit and responds on a case-by-case basis
Timelines During the Representment Phase
Unfortunately, merchants often face much tighter deadlines. Once you’re informed that a chargeback has been filed, you’ll want to work quickly to respond. As the chargeback advances through stages, once again you’ll need to act quickly.
When a chargeback is filed, the merchant can either accept the chargeback or dispute it through representment. One major reason why merchants lose chargeback disputes is because they fail to hit representment deadlines. Using the right chargeback management platform can go a long way.
During representment, the merchant must “re-present” the transaction to the card issuing bank. The issuer will then consider both sides’ Point-of-View and decide whether to approve the chargeback or return funds to the merchant.
The exact deadlines for all parties vary from card network to card network. It’s easy for chargeback disputes to get lost in the shuffle, so it’s wise to organize disputes and track approaching deadlines. Now let’s take a look at the timelines by card network.
Visa Timelines During Chargeback Representment
With Visa, you’ll typically have twenty days from the start of each step. So, once you receive notice of the chargeback dispute, you have 20 days to decide if you want to go through representment. You’ll have to submit the rebuttal letter within this timeframe, so it’s important to get to work quickly.
The issuing bank will then have 20 days to initiate the pre-arbitration chargeback. After that, if a party wishes to pursue arbitration, they have just 10 days. Also, Visa starts the clock the day after the process moves forward.
Mastercard Timelines During Chargeback Representment
Mastercard is more generous during the representment phase. Once a merchant is notified of the dispute, they have 45 days to decide to fight the chargeback and submit a rebuttal letter. After receiving the representment, the issuer will then have 45 days to decide on the arbitration chargeback. Both parties then have 45 days to pursue arbitration.
In some cases, Mastercard may reach out to ask for more information before filing a chargeback. In these cases, the merchant typically has 18 days to respond. With Mastercard, the clock starts ticking on the day of, not the day after (like Visa).
American Express Timelines During Chargeback Representment
American Express is rather unique in that they typically are both the card network and issuing bank. With Visa or Mastercard, you’ll typically work with a separate issuing bank, say Bank of America, before the card network is pulled in.
A merchant will have just 20 days to respond to an inquiry from American Express. The first inquiry may not be a chargeback and American Express may reach out to ask for information. Sometimes they skip the inquiry process, however, and a chargeback is filed. Once the chargeback is filed, the merchant has just 20 days to respond.
Since American Express is the issuer and card network, there isn’t an arbitration process. With Mastercard and Visa, the arbitration stage is when the card network takes charge. Before that, banks will have handled much of the process.
Discover Timelines During Chargeback Representment
With Discover disputes, the merchant may first receive an inquiry. They will have just 20 days to respond. If a chargeback is filed, the merchant will have 30 days to respond. Then, if a party wishes to pursue arbitration, they have only 10 days to do so.
| Card Network | Cardholder Filing | Merchant Response | Issuer Decision | Arbitration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visa | 120 days (75 days for some issues) |
20 days | 20 days | 10 days |
| Mastercard | 120 days (45 days for some issues) |
45 days | 45 days | 45 days |
| American Express | 120 days (from transaction or delivery) |
20 days | N/A | N/A |
| Discover | Case-by-case | 30 days | 20 days (inquiry) | 10 days |
Make Sure You Hit Deadlines By Using the Right Tools
There are tons of dates to watch for and the differing timelines among banks and card networks means that it’s exceedingly difficult to track everything and all too easy to mix dates up or for stuff to fall between the cracks. Remember, if you miss a deadline you’ll almost certainly lose the dispute.
ChargebackHelp provides tools that merchants can use to track disputes, gather evidence, and submit documentation. Clarifying and streamlining your efforts to combat chargebacks can go a long way toward increasing your dispute win rate and may ward off chargebacks in the future.
Need assistance? Have questions? Want to learn how to use the best chargeback management tools to empower your business? Contact our team today, we’re here to help.