Chargeback Period

A chargeback period can come in very handy if you are dissatisfied with a credit card purchase, or if a mistake has been made and you want to cancel the payment. You generally have about 120 days following the purchase to dispute the charge and request a chargeback from the credit card company. During this time, the charges are usually credited back to the cardholder until everything is resolved.

Perhaps you were double-billed for something, or placed an online order that never arrived, or booked a vacation in a hotel that turned out not to exist. Chargebacks are meant to protect consumers and to encourage them to use credit cards knowing they have this protection. The vendor has to pay a chargeback fee ranging from $20-$50 but is in the clear once the 120 days have passed. Many get annoyed when the customer goes right to the chargeback request before trying to settle the dispute with the vendor first.

Of course, there are those fraudulent purchasers who order something online and then claim they never received it when they really did. There’s always a few who ruin it for everyone.