Dispute

The cardholder's claim against a transaction, raised through their issuer. The dispute lifecycle progresses through chargeback, representment, pre-arbitration, and arbitration if not resolved earlier. Disputes are categorised by reason code, fraud, authorization, processing error, or cardholder dispute.

In practice.

Dispute is the umbrella covering everything from a cardholder inquiry to a full chargeback. The practical point for merchants is that the earlier a dispute is intercepted, the cheaper it is: alerts and rapid refunds at the inquiry stage keep cases out of the chargeback count that acquirers monitor.

Related terms: Chargeback · Reason code · Representment