Chargeback

A bank-initiated payment reversal that is the result of credit card fraud or a consumer successfully disputing a transaction on their credit card statement.

Chargebacks are automatically filed by banks when your credit card is stolen to reverse unauthorized charges, and can be filed by consumers under certain conditions, mainly when an item received is defective or never arrives; and that multiple attempts to settle the issue with the merchant have failed.

A merchant that receives too many chargebacks will have their merchant account closed by the bank, and will be banned from accepting credit cards for 5 years.

Henry was scammed by an online vendor, having placed an order that never arrived. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to receive a refund for the merchandise; he called his credit card company and filed a chargeback.