Thread: How long to file a chargeback?

I was just wondering how much time a customer has to file a chargeback? Could you suddenly get a chargeback for a transaction that happened a long time ago?

I'm pretty sure that most cards or other financial services have a limit, usually anywhere between three and six months. That makes sense as it would be crazy to claim something wasn't as ordered or never got delivered a year later!

I don't think a scammer would wait very long, that's for sure. And why would the average consumer wait so long to complain about something that they bought that was no good?

I agree that thieves and cheats would be right on the chargeback. Still, there are probably a few people around who run a bit short of cash and look for a way to get some easy money.

Well - these longer term chargebacks most frequently happen with travel-related merchants, as one example.

One of the most notorious examples that comes to mind is a chain of fraudsters that used to be based in Florida, that sold cruise packages... booking them 6 months to a year in advance.

And guess what happened... they took millions of dollars worth of bookings and then when the year came up... there was no cruise to be found and so there were naturally a vast # of chargebacks. But they had all skipped town by then and already been funded and the cardholders who had already surpassed their allowed chargeback time were left in the cold, as were the banks who took losses on the chargebacks that did come through.