During the dispute

Whether it’s because of an inquiry that escalated, or for some other reason, when an account owner files a formal dispute against a payment, the action initiates a chargeback where the card network pulls the funds for the dispute from your Uqpay balance and holds it for the entire duration of the dispute. This might be for the full amount of the charge or a different amount.  

The initiation of a dispute triggers several processes:

●The card network debits Uqpay for your disputed payment and related dispute fees

●Uqpay in turn debits your Uqpay balance for the disputed amount plus a dispute fee

●You can’t issue a refund outside the dispute process while the dispute is open

●Your dispute rate with that card network increases

Timing

Card networks typically allow cardholders to initiate disputes within 120 days of the original payment, but their rules allow more time in some situations. Certain industries, such as travel or event ticketing—where the payment might be made long before the event occurs—are prone to longer time intervals between the original purchase and a dispute. Generally speaking, when a customer makes a payment for something that will happen in the future (like a vacation reservation, a professional services appointment, or an event ticket), the clock starts on the date of the event, not the date of the payment.

Following the creation of the chargeback, you have a limited amount of time (usually 7-21 days, depending on the card network) to respond to the card issuer.

If you submit evidence, the issuer also has a limited amount of time (usually 60–75 days, depending on the card network) to evaluate the evidence and decide the outcome.

The full lifecycle of a dispute, from initiation to the final decision from the issuer, can take as long as 2-3 months to complete. There are no actions a business can take to reliably accelerate this timeline, other than to decline to contest the dispute by accepting it in the Dashboard.

At the completion of the dispute process, the issuer either overturns the dispute in your favor or upholds the dispute in their cardholder’s favor.

If the issuer overturns the dispute, they return the debited chargeback amount (but not dispute fees) to Uqpay, and Uqpay passes this amount back to you. The initial dispute fee is not returned.

If the issuer upholds the dispute, nothing changes from your perspective and no money moves—Uqpay credited the issuer when they initiated the chargeback. The issuer will return the funds to the cardholder at some point during—or even after—this process. The timing of the cardholder’s credit is entirely at the issuer’s discretion.

Dispute fees

This fee is deducted from your account balance when a cardholder initiates a dispute. Dispute handling fee is 7.50 USD PPT.

Responding to a dispute

In most cases, you have the ability to challenge a disputed payment, as long as you submit strong evidence to the card issuer that invalidates the dispute claim before the deadline.

As soon as a dispute is active, the only way to overturn it is by submitting evidence in a response. Even in cases where your customer claims to have withdrawn the dispute, you must respond with evidence for the dispute to be closed in your favor. Submitting evidence is what signals to the issuer that you don’t accept the dispute and want to have the funds returned to you.

See Responding to disputes for information on how to:

●Review the cardholder’s claim

●Evaluate whether to accept or challenge the dispute

●Gather appropriate evidence to respond to the dispute

●Use the Dashboard to submit your response

After the decision

After you submit your evidence, the next notification from the card issuer to both Uqpay and you is the final decision. Uqpay updates the status of the dispute to won or lost and notifies you through the Uqpay Dashboard, email, and any other configured communication channels as soon as the issuer makes its decision clear.

This outcome is final for all parties. You can’t overturn a lost dispute, but your customer also can’t overturn a dispute decided in your favor.

Arbitration

Some card networks support an arbitration phase for lost disputes that carries a substantial fee of around 500 USD, but Uqpay doesn’t support this dispute phase.