How to get your money back when paying by card – chargeback

By Albert Czajkowski, Editor and founder of ForexRev · Published Oct 16, 2019, 15:15 CEST · Updated Oct 1, 2025, 22:46 CEST

If your funds were transferred to fraudsters via credit card, there’s a chance you can recover them. This is called a chargeback. Here’s what you need to do to get your money back within a few days.

When are we entitled to a chargeback?

In many cases, but for understandable reasons, banks don’t boast about providing this service. You can apply for a chargeback almost any time you’ve been (or feel) cheated by a service provider you paid for with your card . The following banks admit to offering this service on their websites. Links lead to descriptions of these procedures at individual banks:

• Citibank (form)
• Santander
• mBank
• Inteligo
• ING
• PKO BP
• Getin Bank
• Millennium

In practice, however, it is available to all Visa and MasterCard holders. It’s easier to obtain a chargeback with the latter.

Chargeback step by step

1. We submit a complaint to the issuer of our card – most often it is the bank from which we received it. We call and explain the problem. Bank employees will typically ask us to provide additional materials, such as statements or proof that other complaint methods have been unsuccessful. It’s worth having documentation ready.
2. The bank initiates the chargeback procedure. If the complaint is unsuccessful, repeat step 1 until successful, either by phone or by letter. The bank assigns a chargeback code indicating the reason for the complaint and contacts the payment processor.
3. The operator contacts the entity from which we wish to receive a refund. Our seller has 4 options:
   1. Don’t respond – we get a chargeback.
   2. Accept the complaint – we receive a chargeback.
   3. If we do not accept the complaint but do not provide evidence that we are wrong, we receive a chargeback.
   4. If you do not accept the complaint and provide evidence that the claim is unjustified, we will not receive a refund.
4. The operator informs the bank about contact with the seller, and the bank informs us about the decision in the matter. If the other party has not provided evidence that we are wrong, we will receive a refund within several dozen days.

Our role in the entire process is simply to prove that we’ve already tried to recover the money through other means and are justified in demanding a refund. This clearly demonstrates how effective a chargeback can be in combating scams. Of course, if the transaction originated with our card, of course.

A complaint should be filed as soon as possible, but you can try up to a year and a half after the transaction you wish to reverse. The deadlines depend on the reason for your claim. For most, the limit is 120 days, but in some cases, you have as much as 540 days.

Banks don’t like chargebacks

It’s worth remembering that banks can complicate the entire process, so don’t be discouraged after the first refusal to initiate the procedure. The bank is obligated to initiate the procedure. You should keep trying until it’s successful, describing the situation thoroughly and sending documents confirming, for example, the attempted withdrawal of funds from the broker.