Quick answer: If it’s a simple dispute you can manage the credit card dispute process on your own. And get a credit card chargeback on your own. But the more complex the dispute the more difficult it is.
Some disputes become more complex because there is a credit card chargeback time limit. But most complex disputes involve an authorized transaction for a service. If you paid with a credit card or debit card but have never navigated a chargeback before involving an authorized transaction for a service, the odds are that you will fail without the advice of a chargeback professional. If you paid using some other payment method besides a credit card or debit card, like a bank wire or cryptocurrency, you stand virtually no chance of winning without professional intervention.
What Is a Simple Dispute?
Let’s start by explaining why a simple dispute is, well, simple. Take credit card fraud (or debit card fraud). Fraud is a simple dispute because it’s an open and shut case. What is credit card fraud? In the lexicon used by banks, the definition of credit card fraud is an unauthorized transaction. How does credit card fraud occur? When your credit card (or debit card) was used without your express permission. Maybe you lost it, maybe it was stolen, maybe some clerk copied your card details. By definition, that’s fraud.
How to report credit card fraud? Simple. Inform your bank. Who investigates credit card fraud? The issuing bank. And generally it automatically accepts the cardholder’s declaration that the transaction was unauthorized and immediately issues a chargeback. A chargeback, therefore, is your credit card fraud protection. Do debit cards have fraud protection? Yes. There is no difference between credit card fraud protection and debit card fraud protection. Some jurisdictions (including the United States), however, have credit card fraud laws that require the cardholder to assume responsibility for a symbolic amount of the fraudulent charges, but it ends there.
Many if not most transactions involving goods can be simple as well. If you ordered a refrigerator from an online vendor but received a table fan instead, that’s easy to prove, assuming you have proof of purchase, the invoice for what was ordered and the receipt for what was delivered. If so, your bank has no alternative other than to raise a dispute. There is paperwork to submit and a bureaucratic process to contend with, but if you do your research in advance you should be able to contend with it on your own.
What Is a Complex Dispute?
On the other end of the spectrum are complex disputes, especially those involving the purchase of services. They are complex because the process for successfully recovering funds is complex. It’s one thing to prove you ordered a refrigerator but received a fan, since you have the fan. It’s a physical object that cannot be confused with a refrigerator. But a service is not a physical object. Go and prove that you didn’t receive it. If you want a chargeback, that’s what you will be expected to do. So where do you start?
Another complicating factor is that cardholders aren’t the only ones with chargeback rights. There are credit card merchant chargeback rights too. Your merchant may decide to exercise his. Merchants know how to avoid chargebacks. They know how to fight a credit card chargeback. How familiar are you with credit card chargeback rules?
If you paid with a wire transfer or cryptocurrency, however, the transaction is especially complex. Chargebacks are a service authorized by credit card networks. They apply only to credit cards and debit cards. There are no chargebacks for bank wires or cryptocurrencies. Period.
With a wire transfer, your money’s gone the moment the bank clerk clicks on a computer screen. Crypto is also gone in a split second. But it’s more complex than that, since it is held anonymously. And it can be intentionally moved across the blockchain from one e-wallet to the next to make it even more difficult to find. The bottom line is that you have no way of knowing the real identity of the person who receives it or the person who cashes it out when it arrives at its final e-wallet. So where do you start?
And what about PayPal? Can you dispute a PayPal transaction? What about a PayPal unauthorized transaction dispute?
Start with MyChargeBack
MyChargeBack will provide you with a free review of your case without any obligation. If we feel that you can get your money back on your own, we’ll tell you. If you need any advice on how to proceed, we’ll provide that as well. And if we think there are no options, we’ll level with you.
If however, you have a truly complex dispute, we’ll explain why it is and what type of strategy we can provide that will best meet your needs. If you can’t recover your funds on your own, it doesn’t mean that you have to be on your own.
