Disputing a purchase made through Stripe

Disputing a purchase made through Stripe involves contacting the business first to resolve the issue amicably. If the business is unresponsive or unsatisfactory, the customer can contact their bank to file a dispute. The dispute process is handled by the bank, with Stripe only facilitating the communication and fund deductions between the bank and the business.

This page contains information intended for customers of businesses that use Stripe. If your business uses Stripe and you’d like to find out more about disputes, please see our article on the dispute process and submitting evidence.

Disputes, also known as chargebacks, are a feature of the Visa, Mastercard, and American Express card networks intended to protect you, the cardholder, from fraudulent activity (e.g., following a theft or card cloning). The dispute process can also be used to reverse authorized card payments in justified cases of breaches of consumer rights.

Before filing a dispute with your bank, it’s important that you exhaust any and all means of contacting the business you’re dealing with to resolve the issue amicably. If the business is unresponsive, or if you are not satisfied with their handling of your refund request, you can contact your bank to explore further options, including filing a dispute.

Dispute process

When you file a dispute with your bank, the following events occur (in order):

Your bank notifies Stripe of the dispute
Your bank automatically deducts the disputed amount and a dispute processing fee from Stripe.
Stripe removes the funds from the business’s Stripe account balance to cover the dispute deduction
Stripe notifies the business of the dispute, passing along all information received from your bank
The business has the opportunity to submit evidence in order to prove the charge was legitimate and potentially overturn the dispute
Your bank will determine on the validity of the dispute

Note: The outcome of a dispute is decided upon entirely by your bank—Stripe has no involvement in this decision. To inquire about the status or outcome of a dispute, you will need to contact your bank.

If you’re unsure who charged you, you can use our secure charge look-up tool to search for the business.