In a credit card or debit card account, a dispute is a situation in which a customer questions the validity of a transaction that was registered to the account.
Customers dispute charges for a variety of reasons, including unauthorized charges, excessive charges, failure by the merchant to deliver merchandise, defective merchandise, dissatisfaction with the product(s) or service(s) received, or billing errors.[1] Chargeback fraud, also known as friendly fraud, could occur when the cardholder identifies a purchase on their transaction statement as fraudulent and disputes it. A 2022 study by Ethoca and PYMNTS.com found that 71% of ecommerce transaction disputes were due to service errors.[2]
In the United States, in the event of fraud, the cardholder is liable for a maximum of $50 worth of fraudulent charges.[3] Many card issuers will waive this fee.[4]