ExitTerms

How to dispute an unwanted charge with your card issuer

Call the issuer, and for a credit card follow with a written billing-error notice to the address the statement gives for billing inquiries.

By ExitTerms Editorial. .

This is general information, not legal advice. Your plan, billing provider, location, and contract can change what applies to you. Check the provider’s pages and your own account documents before you act.

Name the company that can reverse the charge

Three different companies are easy to mix up. The merchant sold you the subscription. The issuer is the bank or credit union that gave you the card and sends the statement. The network is the brand on the card, such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover. You dispute a charge with the issuer, using the phone number on the statement or on the back of the card. The network is not the place you file that request. This guide describes public federal rules for common cases. It is a summary for reading, and your agreement, your statement, and the issuer’s instructions control the steps on your account.

Cancel the plan with the merchant as well, and keep proof. A dispute asks the issuer to look at a charge that already happened or that is on a statement. It does not, by itself, stop the merchant from submitting the next cycle. The cancellation steps for a named service, when we have reviewed that provider’s pages, are on the service entry. See Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and Audible as examples of how an entry is organized. How to cancel a subscription and keep proof is the record to gather first.

Credit cards: a billing-error notice

For open-end credit such as a typical credit card, billing errors are covered by the Fair Credit Billing Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1666, which is part of the Truth in Lending Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule is Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.13. The CFPB’s consumer page says to call the card company and also to send a written billing-error notice so that the statutory process is started.

The written notice has to be received at the address the creditor discloses for billing inquiries, no later than 60 days after the creditor transmitted the first periodic statement that reflects the alleged error. That address is often different from the address where you send payments. A notice written on the payment stub does not count if the creditor says so in the billing-rights disclosure. The notice must enable the creditor to identify your name and account number, and, to the extent possible, it must indicate your belief that a billing error exists, the reasons, and the type, date, and amount of the error. See 12 CFR 1026.13(b) and 15 U.S.C. § 1666(a).

Send it to the inquiries address printed on the statement for billing errors. Keep a copy. Certified mail with a receipt is a practical way to show the date the issuer received it. If the issuer’s billing-rights notice says it accepts electronic notices and tells you how to send one, Regulation Z treats a notice sent that way as written. Read that disclosure before you rely on a chat screen alone. Calling is still worth doing the same day, because the CFPB tells cardholders to report the problem right away, and because some issuers open a file on the call. Write down the date of the call and any file number. The call does not replace the written notice when you want the § 1666 timeline.

What the rule calls a billing error

Section 1026.13(a) lists what counts. In plain words, the list includes a charge that was not made to you or to someone allowed to use the account; a charge that is not identified as the rule requires; a charge for property or services you did not accept, or that were not delivered as agreed; a payment or credit that was not posted properly; a math or bookkeeping error; a charge you ask the issuer to document; and a statement the creditor failed to send after you gave a new address in time. The regulation’s own words for the delivery item are: “A reflection on or with a periodic statement of an extension of credit for property or services not accepted by the consumer or the consumer’s designee, or not delivered to the consumer or the consumer’s designee as agreed.”

A subscription charge after you cancelled may fit that delivery item, and it may not. It depends on what you and the merchant agreed, on whether the service was still provided, and on the dates. This guide does not decide that for a particular charge. Describe the facts: the date you cancelled, the confirmation you saved, the date and amount on the statement, and why you believe the charge does not match the agreement. Attach copies. Keep the originals.

What the issuer does next, on a credit card

Unless the creditor has already resolved the matter, it must send a written acknowledgment within 30 days after receiving a proper notice. It must resolve the claim within two complete billing cycles, and in no event later than 90 days after receipt. Within that time it either corrects the account, including finance charges on the amount billed in error, and explains the correction, or it sends a written explanation of why it believes the statement was correct, after an investigation, and provides documentary evidence if you ask. That is the structure of 15 U.S.C. § 1666(a) and 12 CFR 1026.13(c).

While the issuer investigates, you need not pay the disputed amount or related finance and other charges. You do need to pay the rest of the bill, including finance charges on amounts you are not disputing. See 12 CFR 1026.13(d)(1). Paying the undisputed part keeps the rest of the account in line with the agreement. If you already paid the charge, you can still dispute it. The CFPB notes that a credit, if one is due, generally waits until the issuer decides.

If the issuer concludes the bill was correct, it must explain why, tell you how much you owe, and tell you when payment is due. You can read that explanation against your confirmation and the merchant’s terms. You can also send the issuer any document it did not have. A second copy of the same allegation, after the issuer has already complied, does not start the same duty over again. Section 1666(a) says that after the creditor has complied, it has no further responsibility under that section if you continue to make substantially the same allegation about that error.

Debit cards and bank accounts follow a different rule

A debit card or an ACH pull from a bank account is an electronic fund transfer. Error resolution for those transfers is Regulation E, 12 CFR 1005.11, under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. The notice window, the investigation times, and the provisional-credit rules are not the same as the credit-card rules above. Read the error-resolution notice that came with the account.

Under 12 CFR 1005.11(b), the institution must follow the error process for an oral or written notice that it receives no later than 60 days after it sends the statement on which the alleged error first appears, that lets it identify you and the account, and that indicates why you believe an error exists and, to the extent possible, the type, date, and amount. The institution may require written confirmation within 10 business days of an oral notice. If it requires that confirmation, it has to tell you so and give you the address when you give the oral notice.

A charge you first allowed, and now want to stop, is not automatically an “unauthorized” transfer. Unauthorized-transfer liability, including the figures people quote for a lost debit card, is a different section and a different fact pattern. For a preauthorized transfer that is still scheduled, 12 CFR 1005.10(c) gives a stop-payment right: you may stop payment by notifying the institution orally or in writing at least three business days before the scheduled date. The institution may require written confirmation within 14 days of an oral notice. If it told you about that requirement and you do not send the confirmation, the oral order stops being binding after 14 days. Stopping one debit does not cancel the contract with the merchant. The merchant may still claim you owe the fee under that contract. Cancel with the merchant and keep the confirmation.

Regulation E also says a preauthorized electronic fund transfer from a consumer’s account may be authorized only by a writing signed or similarly authenticated by the consumer, and that the person who obtains the authorization must provide a copy to the consumer. See 12 CFR 1005.10(b). If you are looking for what you agreed to, ask the merchant and the bank for that copy. A missing copy is a fact to mention. It is not, by itself, a prediction of how the dispute will end.

Match the line on the statement before you file

Use How to read a recurring charge on your statement so you dispute the right line. A pending authorization may drop off or may post under a slightly different descriptor. Dispute the posted charge you mean, with its date and amount. Include the merchant phone number printed on the statement if it helps identify the biller. If two plans are billing, say which one you cancelled and attach that confirmation. What to check after you cancel helps you separate a charge for time already started from a charge for a later period.

Keep a file with the statement page, the written notice, the mailing receipt, call notes, and the cancellation confirmation. Store it outside the merchant account. If the issuer asks for more detail, answer with dates and copies. If a line on an ExitTerms entry is wrong, that is a content correction, not a card dispute: use the corrections page.

Sources for the citations

The links above are the public texts we relied on for the citations on this page. They are not a complete statement of every rule that could apply to you.

Service entries mentioned here

These entries are the dated records for those providers. Open one for the channels, notice, and fees we recorded from that provider’s pages.

Something on a service entry look wrong? Report a correction. For the full list of entries, see all services.