You spot a $347 charge on your credit card statement that you never authorized. You open your banking app, tap “Dispute,” and assume the problem is solved. Weeks later, the issuer denies your claim. The reason? Federal law required you to mail a physical letter to a specific address within 60 days of the statement date, and tapping a button in an app does not satisfy that requirement.
That disconnect sits at the center of two federal statutes most cardholders have never read but depend on every time something goes wrong with a charge. One law covers credit cards. A different law covers debit cards. The deadlines, procedures, and refund timelines are not the same, and confusing the two can cost you real money.
The 10-business-day refund rule applies to debit cards, not credit cards
The headline promise that your card issuer must refund disputed charges within 10 business days comes from the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, implemented through Regulation E. When you report an unauthorized transaction on a debit card or through another electronic fund transfer, your bank generally must provisionally credit the disputed amount to your account within 10 business days while it investigates. For new accounts, that window extends to 20 business days.
This provisional credit is a meaningful protection: you get your money back quickly while the bank sorts out what happened. But it applies only to debit cards and electronic transfers. Credit cards operate under an entirely separate framework with different timelines and a procedural requirement that catches most people off guard.
Credit card disputes require a mailed letter within 60 days
Credit card billing disputes are governed by the Fair Credit Billing Act, a 1974 federal statute codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1666. To trigger its full protections, a cardholder must send a written billing-error notice to the issuer’s designated billing-inquiries address within 60 calendar days of the date the issuer sent the first statement showing the disputed charge. The clock starts when the statement is mailed or transmitted electronically, not when you open it or notice the problem.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau specifies that this written notice should include your name and account number, a description of the billing error, the date and dollar amount of the charge, and any supporting documentation. The Federal Trade Commission echoes the same guidance: the letter must reach the issuer within that 60-day window.
One detail trips up cardholders routinely: the letter must go to the billing-inquiries address, which is often different from the payment address printed on the same statement. Consumer advocates recommend sending the letter by certified mail with a return receipt so you have proof it arrived on time. That costs a few dollars at the post office. Losing the legal right to dispute a fraudulent charge can cost hundreds or thousands.
What the issuer must do once it receives your letter
Once a properly addressed written notice arrives within the 60-day window, Regulation Z (12 CFR § 1026.13) imposes a specific sequence of obligations on the issuer:
- Acknowledge within 30 days. The issuer must send written acknowledgment that it received your dispute within 30 days of receipt (unless it resolves the matter within that period).
- Investigate and resolve within two billing cycles. The issuer must either correct the error or send a written explanation of why it believes the charge is accurate. This must happen within two complete billing cycles and no more than 90 days after receiving your notice.
- Freeze collection and credit reporting. During the investigation, the issuer cannot try to collect the disputed amount or report it as delinquent to credit bureaus.
The official commentary in Supplement I to Regulation Z details how business-day counting, mailing timelines, and acknowledgment obligations work, including when an issuer can treat a notice as incomplete and request more information.
Notice the difference from debit cards: there is no requirement for a provisional credit within 10 business days. Your credit card issuer can take up to 90 days to resolve the dispute, and during that time you are not entitled to a temporary refund under federal law.
Why app and phone disputes may not protect you
Most large issuers now accept disputes through apps, websites, and phone calls as a matter of their own internal policy. Many consumers report successful reversals through those channels. But the legal protections of the Fair Credit Billing Act attach only to written notices sent to the correct address within the statutory window.
That distinction matters most when things go sideways. If an issuer voluntarily reverses a charge you disputed by phone, you are relying on the company’s goodwill and its cardholder agreement, not on a federal mandate. If the issuer later changes its mind, or if you need to escalate to a regulator or a court, the question becomes whether you followed the statute’s formal steps. Courts evaluating FCBA claims look at whether the consumer sent written notice to the correct address within 60 days, not whether the issuer offered an informal alternative.
A related question is whether a message sent through an issuer’s secure online portal qualifies as “written” notice. The federal E-SIGN Act (15 U.S.C. § 7001) generally validates electronic records and signatures in commerce, but whether a particular issuer’s portal submission satisfies the FCBA’s written-notice requirement depends on the issuer’s own agreements and disclosures. No regulation currently provides a blanket rule that an electronic submission automatically equals a mailed letter for FCBA purposes. Until that changes, a physical letter sent by certified mail remains the safest option.
What happens if you miss the 60-day deadline
Missing the 60-day window does not necessarily mean you have zero recourse, but it does mean you lose the FCBA’s specific protections, including the issuer’s obligation to investigate, the freeze on collection, and the prohibition on negative credit reporting during the dispute period.
Two fallback options may still be available. First, card networks like Visa and Mastercard operate their own chargeback processes with their own deadlines and procedures. A consumer who loses FCBA protection might still succeed through a network chargeback, but those rights come from the network’s rules and the issuer’s participation agreement, not from federal statute. Networks can change those rules without an act of Congress. Second, some state consumer-protection laws provide additional rights that may extend beyond the FCBA’s 60-day window, though coverage varies significantly by state.
Neither fallback is as strong as the federal statute’s protections when properly invoked. The FCBA gives you a legally enforceable right; network chargebacks and state laws give you options that depend on more variable factors.
A 1974 law in a mobile banking world
The Fair Credit Billing Act was written when credit card statements arrived by mail and disputes were handled by mail. Congress has not amended the statute’s written-notice requirement to reflect how people actually manage their finances in June 2026. Statements must still disclose the billing-inquiries address, but those disclosures often appear in fine print, on a separate page from the payment coupon, or buried in a PDF that a cardholder scrolling through mobile alerts may never open.
No publicly available data from the CFPB or OCC complaint databases breaks out how many disputes are rejected specifically because the consumer missed the 60-day written-notice deadline or sent the letter to the wrong address. That data gap makes it difficult to measure how often the mailing requirement actually costs cardholders their rights. What is clear is that the gap between the law’s requirements and everyday consumer behavior keeps widening.
Until regulators or lawmakers update the framework, the safest move for any cardholder who spots a charge worth fighting is straightforward but old-fashioned: write a letter that identifies the charge and explains why it is wrong, address it to the billing-inquiries address on your statement (not the payment address), send it by certified mail with a return receipt, and do all of this before the 60-day clock runs out. Then, by all means, also call the issuer and tap every button in the app. Just do not assume those steps alone give you the legal protection you may eventually need.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
