How to Dispute a Transaction You Don't Recognise

Before you dispute anything, work out which of four routes applies, because they have different rules, different deadlines and different odds. If you did not authorise the payment at all, your bank must refund it by the end of the next working day. If you did authorise it but something went wrong, you need chargeback or Section 75 instead.

The part almost nobody explains: "I don't recognise it" and "I didn't authorise it" are different claims, and banks treat them differently. Most unrecognised charges turn out to be a real purchase under a trading name you have never seen. Say "fraud" about a payment you actually made and the claim collapses when the evidence comes back.

So identify the descriptor first. Then pick your route.

---

First: is it actually fraud?

Three explanations account for most unrecognised charges, and none of them are crime.

The trading name differs from the shop name. This is the single most common answer. The company you bought from and the company that processes its card payments are often different, and it is the processor's name that lands on your statement. A card machine provider, a parent company, a franchise operator.

It is a subscription you forgot renews. Annual renewals are the worst offenders, because twelve months is long enough to forget entirely.

It is a pending authorisation. Hotels, car hire and fuel stations hold an amount that is larger than the final bill. It drops off, usually within a week.

Search the exact descriptor before you call anyone. If you can identify it, you have saved yourself a dispute that would have failed.

Route 1 — Unauthorised payments: the strongest position you can be in

This covers payments you genuinely did not make and did not agree to. A cloned card, a stolen card, someone who got your details.

Under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, your bank must refund an unauthorised payment by the end of the next working day after you tell them. Not investigate first, then refund. Refund, then investigate. If they want to claim you were grossly negligent, they have to prove it, and they carry that burden.

Your liability before you report is capped at £35. After you report, it is nil. That cap is the reason speed matters more than tidiness here.

Call the bank first if money is still moving. If you are worried the call you just had was itself the scam, dial 159 — it connects you to your own bank's fraud team, covers more than 99% of UK current accounts, and cannot be spoofed.

Route 2 — Chargeback: the debit card fallback

Chargeback is not a legal right. It is a rule of the card schemes — Visa, Mastercard and Amex each run their own version — and your bank asks the retailer's bank to reverse the payment.

It works on debit cards and credit cards, which is what makes it the route most people actually need. There is no minimum value.

Use it when you authorised the payment but did not get what you paid for: goods never arrived, the service was not as described, a subscription you cancelled kept billing, or the company has gone bust.

The deadline is usually 120 days, counted from the transaction or from when you expected to receive the goods, whichever is later. Some claim types are shorter. Do not sit on it.

Because it is a scheme rule and not law, a bank can decline and the retailer can defend it. It is quick and free, but it is not guaranteed.

Route 3 — Section 75: the one with real legal teeth

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your credit card provider jointly liable with the retailer for breach of contract or misrepresentation. Not a scheme courtesy — a statutory right.

The conditions are specific:

• Credit cards only. Debit cards do not qualify. Neither do most prepaid cards.
• The item must cost between £100 and £30,000. The cash price of the item, not the amount you put on the card. Pay £10 deposit on a £900 sofa by credit card and the whole £900 is covered.
• It must be a breach of contract or a misrepresentation — not simply changing your mind.

You have up to six years to bring a claim (five in Scotland), which is a different order of magnitude from chargeback's 120 days. If both routes are open to you, Section 75 is the stronger one.

Route 4 — You were tricked into paying a scammer

This is an authorised push payment (APP) scam: you made the payment yourself, by bank transfer, because someone deceived you. A fake invoice, a bogus "safe account" call, a purchase from a seller who never existed.

Since 7 October 2024, reimbursement is mandatory. Under the Payment Systems Regulator's rules, banks must reimburse APP scam victims, with the cost split evenly between the sending and receiving firm.

• Reimbursement within five working days of the claim.
• Maximum £85,000 per claim.
• Firms may apply an excess of up to £100 — some waive it.
• Covers Faster Payments and CHAPS between UK accounts.
• Claim within 13 months of the payment.

It does not cover international payments, card payments, or genuine civil disputes with a real trader who simply let you down. Banks can refuse where the customer was grossly negligent — but vulnerable customers are exempt from both the excess and the negligence standard.

Which route, at a glance

Situation	Route	Deadline
I never made this payment	Unauthorised — PSRs 2017	13 months, but report immediately
Paid by debit card, goods never came	Chargeback	Usually 120 days
Paid by credit card, item over £100	Section 75	6 years (5 in Scotland)
I transferred money to a scammer	APP reimbursement	13 months
A direct debit was taken in error	Direct Debit Guarantee	Immediate full refund

The Direct Debit Guarantee is the forgotten one

If the payment was a direct debit taken in error — wrong amount, wrong date, one you cancelled — the Direct Debit Guarantee entitles you to an immediate full refund from your bank. You do not argue with the company. You tell your bank, and they refund it and reclaim it from the originator.

It is the fastest remedy in UK banking and almost nobody uses it, because they ring the company instead.

If the bank says no

Complain in writing to the bank first. They have eight weeks to give you a final response.

After that — or immediately if they issue a final response sooner — take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It is free, you have six months from the final response, and the Ombudsman can order the bank to pay. Around a third of banking complaints it looks at are upheld in the customer's favour.

Say plainly which route you are claiming under. A complaint that says "Section 75, item was £340, misrepresented at the point of sale" gets handled very differently from one that says "I want my money back".

Before you close the file

If a charge you cannot identify turns out to be genuinely unauthorised, the card details are not the only thing at risk. Check whether anything has been opened in your name — a credit report shows accounts and searches you never made, and it is the fastest way to find out whether one fraudulent charge is the whole problem or the first sign of it.