Service
Payment Dispute Guidance
Chargebacks, recall requests, and e-wallet disputes each follow their own rules, deadlines, and evidence requirements. Filing under the wrong reason code, missing a time limit, or submitting a disorganised claim can weaken an otherwise reasonable case.
We help you understand which dispute route applies to your payment, prepare a clear and accurate submission, and keep track of the deadlines involved. We do not decide disputes and cannot influence their outcome — that authority sits entirely with banks, card schemes, and payment providers.
What you receive
- A written explanation of which dispute routes apply to your specific payment method and situation
- A deadline overview covering the time limits that apply to your card scheme, bank, or e-wallet provider
- A structured dispute submission draft with your evidence organised in the order the reviewer expects
- Guidance on the correct reason framing for your case, in plain language you can verify yourself
- A tracking summary you can use to follow up with your bank or provider and respond to their requests
Who it is for
- Cardholders considering a chargeback who are unsure how the process or deadlines work
- People whose bank has asked for more detail on a fraud claim or recall request
- E-wallet and payment-app users who need to raise a dispute through the provider's own channel
- Anyone whose first dispute attempt was declined and who wants help preparing a clearer resubmission where rules allow one
Process
How this service works
Free initial assessment
We review your payment type, timeline, and evidence at no cost and tell you plainly whether a dispute route realistically exists. We never request passwords, one-time codes, or full card numbers.
Route and deadline mapping
We identify the applicable channel — card chargeback, bank recall, or provider dispute — and set out the deadlines and evidence requirements that apply to it.
Submission preparation
If you approve a written quote for paid work, we draft the dispute narrative, organise your supporting documents, and prepare everything for you to submit to your bank or provider in your own name.
Follow-up support
We help you interpret responses, prepare replies to requests for further information, and understand next steps if the dispute is declined, including escalation to an ombudsman or regulator where one exists.
Honest limitations
- All dispute decisions are made by banks, card schemes, and payment providers under their own rules. We prepare submissions; we cannot guarantee or influence the outcome.
- Some payments fall outside dispute frameworks entirely — for example many authorised bank transfers and most cryptocurrency payments — and some cases arrive after the applicable deadlines have passed. Where that is the case, we say so during the free assessment.
- We are not a bank or regulator. Where your situation needs a lawyer, your bank's fraud team, the police, or a financial ombudsman, we direct you there.
In Canada
Where to report and complain in Canada
The official routes for someone who lives in Canada. Report quickly, and keep the file numbers you are given — every one of these bodies works from the evidence you hold.
Your local police
Report the fraud to your local police service — or to the RCMP where it polices your area — and ask for a file or occurrence number. Banks and exchanges often ask for it, and it belongs at the front of your evidence.
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
Report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre as well, online or by telephone on 1-888-495-8501. The CAFC asks for reports even from people who have already gone to the police, and from witnesses as well as victims, because it is how patterns across Canada are found.
Your bank or card issuer — straight away
Use the number on the back of your card or on your bank's own website, never one given to you by the person or site involved. Ask the bank to stop further payments and to try to recall or dispute the money, and make a formal complaint. Note the date you complained: it starts the clock for the next step.
If your bank says no: OBSI
The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments is the free, independent complaints body that every federally regulated bank in Canada must belong to. You can take your complaint to OBSI once 56 days have passed since you first complained to the bank, or sooner if the bank has already given you its final response. Once you have that final response in writing, you have 180 calendar days. Credit unions and caisses populaires are regulated by their province and have their own routes — ask yours which applies.
Card payments
For a credit card, ask the issuer to dispute the charge under the card network's rules, as early as you can — the deadlines run from the date of the transaction. Some provinces' consumer protection laws also let you ask a credit card issuer to reverse the charge for an online purchase that never arrived. For debit card transactions you did not authorise, the Canadian Code of Practice for Consumer Debit Card Services and your bank's own terms limit what you can be held responsible for, provided you did not contribute to the misuse — for example by sharing your PIN.
Interac e-Transfers and wire transfers
A payment you sent yourself is harder to dispute than a card payment, so speed matters most here. Ask your bank at once to contact the receiving bank and try to hold or recall the money. An Interac e-Transfer that has not yet been deposited may still be cancelled — ask your bank immediately.
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
FCAC supervises how federally regulated banks meet their consumer protection obligations, including how they handle complaints. It does not decide individual disputes or order refunds, but you can tell it if you believe your bank has not followed those obligations.
General information from each body's published guidance, not advice on Canadian law. Confirm deadlines with the body concerned.
FAQ
Questions about payment dispute guidance
Related services
Start here
Start with a free, confidential consultation.
Tell us what happened. We will review the information and explain whether our services are relevant — and, if you choose to proceed, exactly what any investigation would involve and cost.