When you dispute a card payment, your bank files it under a category defined by the card scheme. That category determines what evidence is required, what the merchant must produce to defend it, and how long you have. Customers rarely get to choose it directly, but you can influence it by describing the facts accurately.

The distinction that matters most

If you never authorised the transaction — your card details were stolen and used — that is unauthorised transaction fraud. If you did authorise it but the merchant failed to deliver what was promised, that is a service or goods dispute. They are not interchangeable.

Describing an authorised payment as fraud is the most frequent cause of a failed dispute. The merchant produces evidence that you initiated it — your device, your session, your verification — and the claim collapses. The same facts filed as "services not provided" might well have succeeded.

The categories in plain terms

  • Unauthorised transaction — you did not make or permit it.
  • Goods or services not received — you paid, nothing arrived.
  • Not as described — what arrived was materially different from what was sold.
  • Cancelled recurring transaction — you cancelled and were charged anyway.
  • Credit not processed — a refund was agreed and never appeared.
  • Duplicate processing — charged twice for one purchase.

Deadlines

Time limits are commonly around 120 days, but the clock does not always start at the transaction. For undelivered services, it often runs from the date delivery was expected — which helps when you were told to wait. If a merchant strung you along past a delivery date, say so explicitly, with dates.

Practical steps

  • Write a short factual timeline: what was promised, what was paid, what was delivered, what was said afterwards.
  • Attach the merchant's own terms and any message where they acknowledged the problem.
  • Ask your bank which reason code they filed, and ask for it in writing.
  • If it is rejected, ask on what basis and what the merchant supplied — a poorly coded claim can often be refiled.