Chargeback Response Deadlines by Network and Reason Code
Shawn Kelley · Last updated August 2026
You've got a chargeback. Can you get back to it next month? Can you respond to it at all? The answer is "it depends," like most things. Here's what it depends on.
If someone files a fraud chargeback against you on Visa (specifically code 10.4, the most common one for online transactions), Visa doesn't give you a normal chance to respond. There's no "upload your evidence" step.
According to Visa, there are only two things you can do when you get a 10.4: accept it, or file a pre-arbitration attempt within 30 calendar days, backed by Compelling Evidence.1 If you spend that time putting together the wrong kind of evidence because you assumed it worked like a normal dispute, the case closes against you automatically with no warning and no extension.
The deadlines are a small set of clocks that start on different triggers, run for different lengths depending on the network and the dispute type, and punish silence the same way every time: automatically, with no grace period.2
How long does Visa give you to respond to a dispute?
Visa gives merchants 30 calendar days to respond to a consumer dispute, and gives them nothing to respond to at all for a fraud-coded one.
For dispute categories 12 (processing errors) and 13 (consumer disputes), which is where codes 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, and 13.7 all live, the acquirer has 30 calendar days from the Dispute Processing Date to submit a Dispute Response.3 For categories 10 (fraud) and 11 (authorization), where 10.4 lives, that stage doesn't apply.1
The distinction matters because the two tracks look identical from a distance (both say "30 days") and behave nothing alike up close. A Dispute Response can be evidence that partially addresses the claim. A pre-arbitration attempt on a fraud case has to meet a defined evidentiary bar: Visa's Compelling Evidence table lists 17 specific items, most of which require matching device or account data across transactions, not a shipping confirmation.4
How long does Mastercard give you to respond to a chargeback?
Mastercard gives merchants 45 calendar days to file a second presentment, fifteen days longer than Visa's response window, measured from the settlement date of the chargeback rather than the date it was filed.5
That extra fifteen days is real breathing room, and it's the same window whether the chargeback was coded as fraud (4837, No Cardholder Authorization) or a consumer complaint (the 4853/4850/4854 family). Mastercard doesn't split fraud and non-fraud into separate response mechanics the way Visa does.6
The 45-day window has country exceptions that matter if any share of a merchant's volume is domestic in these markets:5
| Country | Second-presentment window |
|---|---|
| Nigeria | 2 business days |
| Costa Rica | 10 business days |
| Tanzania | 20 calendar days |
| Kazakhstan, Mainland China | 30 calendar days |
| All other transactions | 45 calendar days |
A team running a global playbook off the 45-day default will blow the Nigeria deadline before the ticket is even triaged.
How long does a cardholder have to open a dispute in the first place?
Most teams assume the clock starts at the transaction date. It starts wherever the issuer's filing window lands, and that window runs up to 120 calendar days on both networks. The table below is the filing side: how long the cardholder's bank has to raise the dispute at all, before a merchant's response clock even begins.
| Code | What it covers | Cardholder/issuer filing window |
|---|---|---|
| 10.4 | Visa — other fraud, card-absent | 120 calendar days from the Transaction Processing Date.1 |
| 13.1 | Visa — merchandise/services not received | 15-day mandatory wait after the expected delivery date, then file within 120 days of the transaction date or 120 days of the last date delivery was expected.7 |
| 13.2 | Visa — cancelled recurring transaction | 120 calendar days from the Transaction Processing Date, flat: no wait period, no alternate trigger date.8 |
| 13.3 | Visa — not as described / defective | 15-day mandatory wait after return or cancellation, then 120 days from the transaction or receipt date, or 60 days from the issuer's first notification if there's evidence of prior merchant negotiation, capped at 540 days total.9 |
| 13.7 | Visa — cancelled merchandise/services | 15-day mandatory wait after cancellation, then 120 days from the transaction date or the expected/received date, capped at 540 days total.10 |
| 4837 | Mastercard — no cardholder authorization | Within 120 calendar days of the transaction's settlement date, for the large majority of transactions.6 |
| 4853 | Mastercard — cardholder dispute (goods, services, digital, refunds) | Within 120 days of when service stopped (up to a 540-day cap for interrupted ongoing service), or 15–120 days from the settlement or delivery/cancellation date for goods.11 |
Visa splits merchandise disputes into four distinct conditions with four distinct filing triggers; Mastercard folds nearly the same ground into one reason-code family with one shared clock. A merchant used to Visa's granularity will misread a Mastercard case as needing the same forensic reason-code diagnosis Visa demands, when Mastercard mostly doesn't ask for it at this stage.
The 120-day filing clock and the 120-day fulfillment clock aren't the same clock, and reading them as one is where a lot of "that's out of time limit" objections turn out to be wrong.
Every 15-day wait period exists to stop an issuer from filing before the merchandise could plausibly have arrived. That's what separates the two clocks.
What happens after you respond: pre-arbitration and arbitration deadlines
Missing a response deadline moves the case forward with the merchant on the losing side, and the clocks after that move faster. Once an acquirer files a Dispute Response (Visa category 12/13) or a second presentment (Mastercard), the issuer gets another shot: a pre-arbitration attempt.3
Pre-arbitration attempt — 30 days. From the Dispute Response Processing Date, on Visa.
Pre-arbitration response — 30 days. From the pre-arbitration attempt's processing date.
Arbitration filing — 10 days. From the pre-arbitration response's processing date. The shortest clock in the whole cycle.
On Mastercard, the same 45-day rhythm that governs the second presentment carries into the next stage. Where Mastercard states an explicit outer bound for arbitration case filing, it's 45 calendar days from the second presentment, not a fresh clock.12
None of these later stages are forgiving of a missed earlier one. Visa's rule is explicit: silence past any deadline closes the dispute in favor of whoever did respond.2 There's no appeal built into a missed clock, only the pre-arbitration and arbitration stages that follow, and those exist to relitigate the substance of the case.
Do these deadlines change by region?
Yes, and treating the 30-day and 45-day windows as universal is the single most common way this gets misquoted. Visa's own dispute-condition tables carry a Country/Region column on every single one; dispute rights, time limits, and invalid-dispute grounds all vary by region under the same condition number.13
Most Visa conditions carry "All" in the Country/Region column for the five conditions this page covers, but 13.1 picks up an extended bonding-authority wait period specific to Europe, and several category 12/13 conditions (12.6, 13.9) carry country-specific response windows as short as six calendar days in India or two business days in Nigeria.3
A merchant operating in a single region can generally trust the flat numbers here. A merchant operating across regions needs the region-specific table for their own condition before setting an internal SLA, not this summary.
What should a dispute team actually do with these numbers?
Build the calendar around the shorter clock, not the average one. Thirty days sounds like a lot until a fraud-coded dispute needs Compelling Evidence assembled from a data warehouse that takes a week to query, or until a second presentment sits in a queue over a weekend and loses two of its 45 days to nobody looking at it.
Flag every 10.x dispute on arrival, because the evidence standard is different even though the clock is the same.
Build the region check into the intake step, not the response step. By the time someone notices a Nigeria domestic transaction only had two business days, it's usually day three.
Estimate how these deadlines interact with your VAMP exposure using the VAMP Compliance Calculator — enter monthly transaction and dispute volume for your ratio, compliance tier, and fee exposure.
Related
Sources
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition, §11.7.5.4, Table 11-29 "Dispute Condition 10.4: Other Fraud – Card-Absent Environment – Dispute Time Limit," Rule ID 0030255, p.705 (120-calendar-day filing window). Response mechanics from Table 11-1, "Dispute Resolution Process Steps – Category 10 (Fraud) and Category 11 (Authorization)," Rule ID 0030212, p.669: pre-Arbitration Attempt time limit is 30 calendar days from the Dispute Processing Date, with no preceding Dispute Response stage listed for this category. visa-rules-public.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition, §11.2.1 "Dispute Resolution Process General Requirements," Rule ID 0030211, p.668: "If a Member does not respond through Visa Resolve Online (VROL) within the specified timeframe for an action, or accepts responsibility for the Dispute, the Dispute cycle will be considered closed and that Member will be responsible for last amount received by the opposing Member." ↩ ↩2
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition, Table 11-2 "Dispute Resolution Process Steps – Category 12 (Processing Errors) and Category 13 (Consumer Disputes)," Rule ID 0030213, pp.671–672. Dispute Response: 30 calendar days from the Dispute Processing Date. Pre-Arbitration Attempt: 30 calendar days from the Dispute Response Processing Date. Pre-Arbitration Response: 30 calendar days from the pre-Arbitration Attempt Processing Date. Arbitration: 10 calendar days from the pre-Arbitration Response Processing Date. Footnoted regional exceptions apply specifically to conditions 12.6 and 13.9 (e.g., 6 calendar days in the AP Region for India domestic ATM transactions; 2 business days in the CEMEA Region for Nigeria domestic transactions generally). ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition, §11.5.1 "Use of Compelling Evidence," Rule ID 0030221, p.677, and Table 11-6 "Allowable Compelling Evidence," pp.677–683 (17 numbered items, mapped by condition to 10.1, 10.3, and 10.4). ↩
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Mastercard Chargeback Guide, Merchant Edition, 19 May 2026, Chapter 2 (Dual Message System Chargebacks — applies to chargebacks processed on or before 20 April 2028), "Cardholder Dispute Chargeback (Message Reason Codes 4853/53/4850/4854)," Acquirer Second Presentment, p.160, and "No Cardholder Authorization (Message Reason Codes 4837/37)," Acquirer Second Presentment, p.501. Time frame for "all other transactions": within 45 calendar days of the Settlement Date or Central Site Business Date of the chargeback. Country exceptions in the same section: Costa Rica, 10 business days; Kazakhstan and Mainland China, 30 calendar days; Tanzania, 20 calendar days; Nigeria, 2 business days. ↩ ↩2
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Mastercard Chargeback Guide, Merchant Edition, 19 May 2026, Chapter 2, "No Cardholder Authorization (Message Reason Codes 4837/37)," p.498 (chargeback filing time frame) and p.501 (second presentment time frame, same 45-day structure as the Cardholder Dispute family). ↩ ↩2
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition, §11.10.2.4, Table 11-92 "Dispute Condition 13.1: Merchandise/Services Not Received – Dispute Time Limit," Rule ID 0030316, p.746. ↩
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition, §11.10.3.4, Table 11-99 "Dispute Condition 13.2: Cancelled Recurring Transaction – Dispute Time Limit," Rule ID 0030322, p.755. ↩
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition, §11.10.4.4, Table 11-106 "Dispute Condition 13.3: Not as Described or Defective Merchandise/Services – Dispute Time Limit," Rule ID 0030328, p.762. ↩
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition, §11.10.8.4, Table 11-131 "Dispute Condition 13.7: Cancelled Merchandise/Services – Dispute Time Limit," Rule ID 0030352, p.781. ↩
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Mastercard Chargeback Guide, Merchant Edition, 19 May 2026, Chapter 2, "Cardholder Dispute Chargeback (Message Reason Codes 4853/53/4850/4854)," Dispute Time Limit, p.158. ↩
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Mastercard Chargeback Guide, Merchant Edition, 19 May 2026, Chapter 2, "No Cardholder Authorization (Message Reason Codes 4837/37)," Issuer Submission of a Pre-arbitration Case, p.522: for ATM and Maestro transactions where pre-arbitration is optional, "the issuer must ensure the arbitration (not pre-arbitration) case filing occurs within 45-calendar days of the second presentment." Identical wording appears in the equivalent section of "Cardholder Dispute Chargeback," p.169. This 45-day outer bound is directly confirmed for the optional-pre-arbitration (ATM/Maestro) path on both reason codes checked; the standard required-pre-arbitration path states an 8-to-10-calendar-day minimum wait before filing but the section reviewed did not spell out a matching maximum in the same place. Chapter 4 of the same guide restates near-identical rules effective 21 April 2028, when it replaces Chapter 2 — not yet in force. This page cites Chapter 2 only. ↩
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Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026 edition. Every Visa dispute-condition table carries a Country/Region column, so a deadline that reads as universal may not be: see Table 11-2, Rule ID 0030213, pp.671–672, whose footnoted exceptions run to 6 calendar days for India domestic ATM transactions in the AP Region and 2 business days for Nigeria domestic transactions in CEMEA. Of the five conditions checked on this page, only Dispute Condition 13.1 carries a non-"All" regional row — §11.10.2.4, Table 11-92, Rule ID 0030316, p.746, an extended Europe bonding-authority wait period. ↩
07Frequently asked questions
How long does Visa give a merchant to respond to a chargeback?
Thirty calendar days from the Dispute Processing Date for consumer disputes under categories 12 and 13, including reason codes 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, and 13.7. Fraud-coded disputes under categories 10 and 11, including 10.4, skip the response stage entirely. The merchant's only option is a pre-arbitration attempt within the same 30 days, backed by Compelling Evidence.
How long does Mastercard give a merchant to respond to a chargeback?
Forty-five calendar days from the settlement date of the chargeback, to file a second presentment. That window applies whether the chargeback is coded as fraud (4837) or a consumer complaint (4853/4850/4854). Several countries carry shorter domestic exceptions, down to two business days in Nigeria.
What happens if a merchant misses the response deadline?
The dispute cycle closes automatically, and the merchant is held responsible for the last amount received by the issuer. There is no grace period and no separate warning. Missing the deadline is the same as accepting the dispute.
Does a fraud-coded Visa dispute give the merchant a chance to respond?
Not in the way a consumer dispute does. Visa's dispute-cycle rules provide no Dispute Response stage for categories 10 and 11, which cover fraud and authorization conditions like 10.4. The acquirer's only move is a pre-arbitration attempt within 30 calendar days, which requires Compelling Evidence rather than a standard rebuttal.
How long does a cardholder have to file a dispute in the first place?
Generally up to 120 calendar days from the transaction, on both networks, though the exact trigger date varies by reason code. Some Visa conditions add a mandatory 15-day wait period before the issuer can even file, and several conditions extend the outer limit to 540 days for cases involving cancelled or interrupted ongoing services.
Do chargeback deadlines vary by region?
Yes. Visa's dispute-condition tables carry a country/region column on every condition, and several category 12/13 disputes carry shorter response windows in specific countries, as short as six calendar days in India for certain ATM disputes and two business days in Nigeria. Mastercard's second-presentment window has similar domestic exceptions in Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Mainland China, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
Shawn Kelley is the co-founder of Disputed. He ran dispute operations at SeatGeek before starting the company.