Disputes

Learn how to dispute transactions.

The purpose of a dispute is to recover funds for transactions that have already been captured. Disputes are often used to redress fraudulent transactions or problems with the quality or delivery of the product.

Stripe offers a guided Dashboard process and an API to submit disputes and monitor them through to resolution. This process typically takes between 30 and 90 days. For users managing occasional disputes, we recommend using the Dashboard. Users that handle a high volume of disputes may find it easier to programmatically manage disputes using the API.

Considerations before initiating a dispute

Check that the transaction is eligible to be disputed.

The transaction must be a capture and not a refund.
No part of the transaction has been refunded.
Fewer than 110 days have passed since the transaction was captured.
The transaction is not an ATM transaction or mobile push payment transaction.

In the Dashboard, the Dispute transaction button will only be enabled for eligible transactions. Similarly, in the API, attempts to dispute ineligible transactions will result in an error.

Next, ensure that the cardholder has exhausted other means of resolving the issue. They must attempt to return any products they received, cancel any ongoing services, and seek a refund directly from the merchant. Collect documentation of these attempts to use as evidence when filing the dispute.

Lifecycle

Lifecycle of an Issuing dispute

Newly-created disputes begin in an unsubmitted status. At this point, their evidence and metadata can be updated. Once all the required evidence has been added, you can then submit the dispute. If a dispute isn’t submitted within 110 days of the transaction clearing, it will be expired.

Disputes in the submitted status are being processed by Stripe and the card networks. As such, their evidence can no longer be updated — only their metadata can be altered. When the dispute is resolved (often weeks later), Stripe transitions it into either the terminal won or lost status.

Creation

Click on Dispute transaction when viewing an eligible transaction. You will be redirected to a form which requests different information based on the dispute reason and product type (merchandise, services or digital goods). A dispute is created the first time you click Save. If you click Submit without saving, we create a dispute before submitting it.

Update

Use the Unsubmitted tab to access disputes that are in progress. The Submit before date indicates when the dispute expires.

From the individual dispute page, click on Edit submission to access the form where you can update the evidence.

Submission

The Submit button on the evidence form is enabled when all required evidence is present.

Review the evidence thoroughly before you submit as evidence cannot be modified once the dispute has been submitted.

Resolution

Dispute statuses are updated once we hear back from the card network. If the acquiring merchant wins the dispute, the dispute’s status changes to lost and no funds are transferred.

If you win the dispute, the status changes to won and funds are transferred back to your Issuing balance. The credit to your account takes the form of a balance transaction of type “Issuing dispute” accessible in the Dashboard under All transactions and on the bottom of the dispute detail page.

Viewing a dispute’s balance transactions in the Dashboard.

If a transaction is made in a currency that is different from your account’s default currency (e.g., a GBP transaction paid for by your USD card), Stripe refunds the won dispute in the transaction’s original currency.

Testing

Stripe processes test mode disputes as if they are live to demonstrate the expected behavior. For example, we fire off webhook events, create balance transactions, and update your Issuing balance. All this happens in the seconds after you submit the dispute.

Select the desired test mode outcome on the top panel of the submission form. Selecting Won or Lost causes the explanation field to be auto-filled with “winning_evidence” or “losing_evidence” respectively to record the selected outcome.

Similar to live mode, a test mode dispute transitions to expired 110 days after the transaction is captured.

Webhooks

You can register a webhook endpoint to be informed of changes to your disputes. All Issuing dispute webhooks contain the latest Dispute object.

Webhook events	Trigger
`issuing_dispute.created`	Dispute created.
`issuing_dispute.updated`	Dispute updated.
`issuing_dispute.submitted`	Dispute submitted.
`issuing_dispute.funds_reinstated`	Funds transferred to your Issuing balance (usually associated with `won` dispute status).
`issuing_dispute.closed`	Dispute transitioned into a `won`, `lost`, or `expired` status.

Dispute reasons and evidence

Disputes can be submitted with one of the following reasons:

Fraudulent
Not received
Duplicate
Merchandise not as described
Service not as described
Canceled
Other

In the Dashboard, “Merchandise not as described” and “Service not as described” are consolidated under “Not as described”.

Each reason requires a different set of evidence:

Evidence	Description
Explanation	A description of the transaction and why the cardholder is disputing the purchase. This field can also be used to provide additional explanation not captured anywhere else.
Additional documentation	Relevant documents such as card statements or return shipping tracking. Dispute evidence must be in the format of PDF or JPEG. Before submitting, ensure that any text or images are clear and large enough to show up clearly in a black and white fax transmission.