A chargeback is a customer asking their bank to reverse a card payment. The bank decides it — not you and not us — which is why what you recorded at the time of the order is what settles it.
How one runs
- The customer complains to their bank instead of to you.
- The bank raises a dispute with a reason: the payment is not recognised, the goods never arrived, they were not as described, or a subscription was supposed to be cancelled.
- The amount is pulled back while the claim is examined.
- The bank decides on the evidence in front of it. A dispute answered with dates, records and delivery proof is a different case from one answered with an opinion.
What keeps the number down
3-D Secure. A card payment can be sent to the customer's bank for approval before it is taken, and a payment the cardholder authenticated is much harder to dispute as one they never made.
Reachable customers. Checkout asks for a name, an email address and a mobile number, so you can answer a confused customer before they call their bank. Most "I don't recognise this" disputes are not fraud, they are a customer who could not place the charge.
Renewals nobody is surprised by. The checkout page shows the renewal terms before the first payment of a subscription, and a renewal notice goes out before the card is charged again.
Refunding early. A refund you agree to costs you the payment. A dispute you lose costs the payment and your standing with the card networks.
What you have to answer one with
- Every payment carries an id, amount, currency, status, the time it was taken, and the name, email address and mobile number entered at checkout.
- Your transactions list is searchable by phone number and exports to CSV, with the fee and the net for each payment.
- A subscription keeps its own payment history — when it started, every renewal, and when and how it ended.
- Webhook events give your own system a timestamped copy of all of it, with an event id per delivery.
What to keep on your side
- Your terms and refund policy as the customer saw them on the day, not as they read now.
- Proof the customer got what they paid for: a tracking number, a download or access log, a delivered ticket.
- The messages you exchanged, including anything you offered before the dispute.
- For subscriptions: when they signed up, what the checkout page showed them, and when they asked to cancel.
- The payment id. It is the fastest way for us to find the order.
When one arrives
Send it to us with the payment id. Disputes and refunds are handled by our team today — there is no dispute button in the dashboard and no refunds API — and we will tell you what the card network needs and by when.
If a refund is the right answer, the payment's status and refunded amount change and your server receives a refund.succeeded event, so your own records follow without a manual fix.
Nobody can promise a bank's decision, and any processor that does is selling you something. What we can do is make sure the record of the order is complete and in your hands quickly.
Got a dispute open now? Send the payment id to sales@utopia-payments.com.