How to dispute a card or debit charge in the US

What to gather before you call

Write the date the line posted, the date you bought anything you do remember, the exact description, and the amount. Save the statement page, the receipt, the order email, and a note of who else can use the card. If you already talked to the store, write the date, the name of the person, and what they said. The CFPB says to keep copies and to write down follow-up calls.

Sort the problem in one sentence. You did not make the charge and nobody you allowed made it. You were charged twice for one purchase. The amount does not match the receipt. You paid a company that did not deliver, which the CFPB says can be a different process from a billing error. A fuzzy complaint is harder to investigate than a sentence with a date and an amount.

A pending hold is not yet the dispute. Pending and posted charges explains why a hotel or gas approval can be larger than the final bill. Wait until you know the line posted. Two posted lines are the case on charged twice.

Credit card: the billing-error letter

The CFPB says to call the card company right away. To protect your rights you must also send a written billing-error notice so that it reaches the company within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on your statement. After the company receives the notice, it has 30 days to send a letter confirming it got the dispute, unless it has already finished the required billing-error steps in that time. If the company finds you are correct, the charge must be removed. If it says you are incorrect, it must tell you why in writing, how much you owe, and when payment is due.

You can dispute a charge you already paid. The CFPB says you probably will not get the money back until the company decides you were right. Check the card agreement for what it says about unauthorized charges. The CFPB also notes that goods or services that turn out to be defective may go through a different dispute process. Do not skip the written notice because you called. The call is the fast step. The letter is the one the CFPB ties to the 60 day clock.

People call the reversal a chargeback. That word is the everyday name for the issuer taking the charge off after a dispute. It is not a separate right with its own day count on the CFPB page opened for this guide. The right that page describes is the billing-error notice. Winning is a decision, not an automatic refund. This page does not quote a resolution deadline the CFPB page did not print in the text opened on 17 October 2026. Follow the letter the issuer sends you.

Debit card and ACH: a different clock

A debit card purchase, an ATM withdrawal, and an automatic pull from a bank account are electronic transfers. The CFPB's bank-account page is the one to use, not the credit card letter by itself. Tell the bank within 60 days after it sends the statement that shows the unauthorized withdrawal. If you wait longer, you could be held for transfers that happened after that 60 day period and before you notified the bank, when the bank can show those later transfers would not have happened if you had notified them in time.

If your debit card or PIN was lost or stolen, the same page says notice within two business days of discovering the loss limits what you owe to the lesser of the unauthorized transactions or $50. Notice after two business days can mean responsibility for up to $500 in unauthorized transactions. If you still have the card and did not lose the PIN, the page tells you to notify the bank anyway, and no later than 60 days after the statement.

Once you notify the bank, it generally has 10 business days to investigate, or 20 business days if the account has been open less than 30 days. It must correct an error within one business day after it decides an error occurred, then it has three business days to report the result. You can ask for the information it used. If it cannot finish in those 10 or 20 business days, it generally must give a temporary credit for the disputed amount, minus a maximum of $50. It can skip that temporary credit if it asked you to confirm a phone notice in writing and you did not do so within 10 business days. It must resolve the issue in 45 days, unless the transfer was in a foreign country, was within 30 days of account opening, or was a debit card point-of-sale purchase. Those cases can take as long as 90 days. If the bank later decides the transfer was authorized, it must give written notice before it takes the temporary credit back.

After the bank says no

Read the written reason. If you still disagree, ask the issuer for its complaint steps. You can also send a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A complaint is not the same thing as the billing-error letter, and it does not restart a clock the CFPB already described. Keep the statement and the letters together.

An ACH pull you want to stop before the next date is on ACH debit and pre-authorized debit. A fee the bank itself charged is on how to ask for a fee refund, which is a request, not this dispute process. Upload the statement on Expenvo. The PDF stays on your device. Expenvo lists the lines so you can match a short name to a date and an amount. It does not call the bank, and it does not dispute a charge.

Questions

How long do I have for a credit card charge?

The CFPB says the written billing-error notice must arrive within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on your statement. The company then has 30 days to confirm it received the dispute, unless it has already finished the required steps.

Is a debit dispute the same letter?

No. The CFPB's bank-account page uses 60 days from when the statement was sent, a 10 or 20 business day investigation, and a 45 or 90 day resolution depending on the type of transfer.

What is a chargeback?

It is the everyday name for the issuer reversing a card charge after a dispute. The step the CFPB tells you to send for a credit card is the written billing-error notice. It is not a promise the decision will go your way.

Does Expenvo file the dispute?

No. Expenvo can show the line on the statement. You send the notice to the issuer or the bank.

Sources

• CFPB: how to dispute a credit card charge
• CFPB: unauthorized transaction on a bank account

Related guides

• Charged twice for the same thing
• ACH debit and pre-authorized debit
• Ask a bank to refund a fee