Table of contents
Highnote provides dispute monitoring and management for all card products. This guide covers disputes, chargebacks, and how to submit and resolve them.
Overview
Account holders can submit disputes when they believe they didn't receive what they paid for or there was unauthorized activity on their account. A chargeback is issued if a dispute case is won and the disputed transaction is reversed. Card networks have strict rules and timelines for responding to and investigating disputes.
Highnote has an in-house Disputes Intake Team. They can assist with:
- Handling dispute intakes from account holders
- Managing dispute-related documentation requests and receivables for account holders
- Investigating dispute claims
- Filing chargebacks for disputed transactions
- Providing direct support to account holders on the status of disputes and chargebacks
- Issuing and settling provisional credits
- Monitoring and maintaining regulatory requirements and timelines
Provisional credits
Provisional credits are issued to an account holder during a dispute case investigation. Depending on your card product type, provisional credits may or may not be required:
- Consumer card products: Required by Regulation E
- Commercial card products: Optional
Provisional credits are issued from your product funding account. They go to an account holder's financial account using an internal Highnote transfer. Internal transfers must be done using the Highnote API. For more information on using the API for internal transfers, see Transfer between Financial Accounts.
Dispute categories
When an account holder submits a dispute case, they must note what category their dispute case falls under. The following table provides an overview of dispute categories and examples for each:
| Dispute category | Description | Example |
| Authorization | The card program attempted to collect funds the account holder had spent | A clearing transaction without an authorization |
| Fraud | Account holder claims a transaction is fraudulent | An account holder’s payment card is compromised and used for fraudulent purchases |
| Merchant dispute | Account holder claims they did not receive the goods and services they paid for from a merchant | An account holder purchased a product from an online merchant and never received it |
| Processing error | Transaction data is incorrect | A duplicate charge on an account holder’s financial account |
Submit a dispute case
The account holder initiates dispute cases. You can provide the following options for an account holder:
- Have your account holder call Highnote directly using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.
- Set up email forwarding to Highnote's Disputes Intake Team.
When a dispute is submitted by an account holder, you must collect the following information:
- Dispute category
- Account holder's full name (must match the full name on their payment card)
- The last four digits of the payment card used
- Transaction ID
- Transaction posted date
- Posted transaction amount
- Disputed amount
- Merchant ID
- Summary of the dispute reason and any supporting documents
When handling submitted dispute cases, ensure you follow dispute guidelines and timeframes.
Dispute guidelines
Note the following guidelines for submitting dispute cases:
- Dispute eligibility: The disputed transaction must be cleared and disputed within 180 days of the clearing event.
- If multiple transactions are disputed: A separate dispute case must be submitted for each transaction.
- If a dispute is unrelated to fraud: Your customer support team or account holder should contact the merchant to investigate whether the dispute can be resolved before contacting Highnote.
- If a dispute is related to fraud: You must close any compromised payment cards associated with the account holder's financial account.
Dispute timeframes
To comply with Regulation E for Consumer Programs, follow the dispute resolution timeframes in the following table:
| Dispute process step | Timeframe |
| Lost or stolen payment card notification | The account holder is responsible for letting your organization know within two business days after discovering a lost or stolen payment card or unauthorized access to a device. |
| Unauthorized charge notification (excluding lost or stolen payment cards) |
The account holder should report the incident within 120 days of the transaction and 60 days of receiving the billing statement reflecting the disputed charge. |
| Initial response to the account holder | After an account holder submits a dispute, you will need to contact the account holder within 10 business days to confirm whether an error occurred or the dispute is valid. |
| Investigation period |
Provide up to 45 days to investigate dispute inquiries, complaints, or questions. |
| Issuing provisional credits during the investigation |
If an investigation exceeds 10 business days, you must credit the disputed amount to the account holder's financial account. Provisional credits issued for investigations that last longer than 10 days allow for investigation without undue economic impact on the account holder. |
| Special cases with new payment cards, POS transactions, or foreign-initiated transactions |
Investigations for special cases may extend up to 90 days. |
| Post-investigation communications |
You must inform the account holder of the investigation results within three days of completion. |
| No-error decisions |
If an investigation concludes that no error or fraud occurred, you must provide a written explanation to the account holder and keep records of the decision in case of future account holder dispute requests. |
Track dispute case status
You can track the status of a dispute case using the dashboard. Refer to the following table for an overview of dispute case statuses:
| Status | Description |
| Cancelled | The dispute case has been cancelled |
| Initiated | The account holder has contacted your organization to initiate a dispute case |
| In progress | The dispute case is being investigated |
| Lost | The dispute case has been lost, and no dispute credits are issued to the account holder |
| Pending resolution | The dispute is awaiting resolution. In a pending resolution case, the resolution involves issuing credit to the account holder rather than reversing the transaction |
| Rejected | The dispute case is rejected because it fails to meet guidelines or timeframes |
| Resolved | The dispute is resolved, and a credit is issued to the account holder rather than reversing the transaction through a chargeback |
| Won | The dispute is won, and the transaction is reversed, resulting in a chargeback |
Simulate disputes and chargebacks
Highnote offers a dispute and chargebacks simulator that allows you to test the process end-to-end. For more information on using the simulator, see Simulate disputes and chargebacks.