The Goal: Find every credit card dispute filed against your organization’s payments, see exactly how long you have to respond, and understand what happens next.
Before You Begin:
- You need the admin/finance staff role — the same access that lets you open Payments Hub today. There is no separate permission for Disputes.
- Your organization must be subscribed to Payments Hub. Disputes are included at no additional charge and need no activation.
- Make sure someone is set to receive dispute emails. See Configure Gateway Notifications for Disputes/Charge Failures and Subscribe to Automated Staff Notifications.
- Understand the stakes: a dispute with no evidence filed by its deadline is decided against you automatically. There is no grace period and no appeal.
What a dispute is
When a cardholder contests a charge with their bank, the card network opens a dispute (also called a chargeback). The disputed amount is held from your balance while the dispute is open. You have a fixed window to submit evidence that the charge was legitimate — such as a registration record, a membership confirmation, or an email thread. If you respond in time and win, the funds are returned to you. If you lose, or if the deadline passes with no response, the disputed amount and a dispute fee are debited from your account.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Go to Finance > Payments Hub section, then click Disputes.
- Check the banner at the top of the page. It shows how many disputes are still open and the soonest response deadline across all of them — not just the ones on the page you are viewing.
- Review the list. Each row shows the disputed amount, the status, the reason given by the cardholder, the payment being disputed, the gateway it came through, and the evidence due-by date. Disputes are listed newest first.
- Use the numbered page controls at the bottom to move through your disputes. The list shows 20 per page and covers every gateway on your account, so you do not need to switch gateways to find them all.
- Click any dispute to open it. What you see depends on its status — a dispute that still needs a response opens an action view where you can counter or accept; a dispute already decided opens a read-only summary.
- To fight a dispute, follow Respond to a Dispute in Payments Hub. Gather your evidence before you start — you get one submission.
- If a dispute is lost, the detail view shows the amount debited. Record it in your books using the Refund Already Issued by Processor option so the withdrawal reconciles and any affected invoices are addressed. See Understanding the Refund Process.
What the statuses mean
| Status | What it means — and what to do |
|---|---|
| Needs response | The clock is running. Submit evidence or accept the dispute before the due-by date. |
| Inquiry | The cardholder’s bank is asking questions before formally disputing. Evidence is required — there is no option to accept an inquiry. |
| Under review | Your evidence has been submitted, and the card network is deciding. Nothing more to do; the status updates on its own. |
| Won | Decided in your favor. The held funds are returned. |
| Lost | Decided against you, either on the evidence or because the deadline passed. The detail view shows the amount debited. Record the withdrawal as described in step 7. |
How you are alerted
You do not have to remember to check the Disputes page. Three things happen automatically:
- A dispute-created email goes out as soon as a dispute is opened.
- A deadline-approaching email goes out when a dispute is roughly 48 hours from its deadline and has not been responded to. The due date and time in this email are shown in UTC.
- An in-app banner appears when your organization has a dispute nearing its deadline and disappears once none are at risk.
Both emails go to the address set in Credit Card Account/Dispute Notifications Email and to every staff member subscribed to the GZ Pay Dispute notification type. Subscribing more than one person is the single best protection against a missed deadline — if the one configured recipient is on vacation, nobody sees the clock.
Common Pitfalls
- Starting the response before you have the evidence: you get one submission per dispute, and there is no way to save a draft. First, collect your registration records, receipts, and correspondence, then open the counter-dispute wizard.
- Relying on a single notification recipient: if no one is configured and no one is subscribed, no dispute email is sent at all. Subscribe at least one person to the GZ Pay Dispute notification type in addition to the gateway address.
- Assuming an empty list means there have been no disputes ever, the Disputes page shows 12 months of history. Anything older lives outside this window.
- Not recognizing your own charge: many disputes start because the cardholder did not recognize the name on their statement. You can change how your organization appears there on the Payment Gateways page — go to Settings, Finance, Billing section, click Settings, and select Payment Gateways.