Chargeback

A chargeback moves the money back across the card network and puts the burden on the merchant to justify the charge. Nothing else in consumer payments works like this: a bank transfer has no equivalent, and a cryptocurrency payment has nothing at all.

Which is why almost every scheme on this site steers you off cards. Gift cards, payment apps, wire transfers and cryptocurrency are not chosen for convenience — they are chosen because they cannot be pulled back.

The corollary is that where a card was used, the dispute is usually the most effective single action available, and it does not require the merchant’s cooperation. For recurring charges, ask the issuer for two things: a reversal of the charges after your cancellation date, and a block on future charges from that merchant. The second is the one people forget, and it is the one that stops the bleeding — cancelling the card itself often does not, because card networks push updated credentials to merchants when a number is reissued.

Chargeback ratios are also the real constraint on fraudulent merchants. Payment processors terminate accounts that exceed a threshold, which is why operators spread across many small merchant entities, and why disputing a charge does more damage to the scheme than complaining does.