Summary: When something goes wrong with a card transaction, dispute and chargeback management is the process that makes it right. It is typically handled by a card program manager or issuer processor, like Marqeta, which offers end-to-end management as an option: taking in the case, choosing the right reason code, communicating with the cardholder, and helping recover funds where possible. Customers can choose how much of this process to take on. Other providers offer similar services, including other issuer processors, BIN sponsors with managed services, and specialized platforms that handle the dispute lifecycle on a card program's behalf.
If you've ever looked at a card statement and thought, "I don't recognize that transaction," you have already encountered the problem disputes are designed to solve.
Disputes and chargebacks are often talked about as back-office processes, but they sit at the center of cardholder experience and trust. When something goes wrong, whether it is fraud, a merchant issue, or a simple mistake, the dispute process is the mechanism that helps make things right.
Understanding how that mechanism works, and what it actually takes to run it well, starts with the basics.
What is a dispute?
Definition: A dispute is a formal process where a cardholder challenges a specific transaction on their account through their card program manager. It is a mechanism designed to resolve issues related to unauthorized charges or merchant errors.
A cardholder can initiate a dispute if they:
● Were the victim of fraud, card theft, or identity theft
● Did not receive a product or service
● Did not recognize the charge or the business name on their statement
● Believe the product was damaged, defective, or not as described
In practice, a dispute starts with a cardholder raising a concern, whether through a quick click in an app or a lengthy paper form sent in the mail. From there, it becomes a structured process with defined timelines, rules, and evidence requirements set by the card networks (Visa, Mastercard) and consumer protection regulations.
What is a chargeback?
"Dispute" and "chargeback" are often used interchangeably, but they are not exactly the same thing.
Key distinction:
● Dispute: The broader umbrella term for the full process of questioning a transaction.
● Chargeback: The specific financial action within that process, where funds are pulled back from the merchant and credited back to the cardholder's account.
Not every dispute becomes a chargeback, and not every scenario creates chargeback rights. That distinction matters, especially when setting expectations with cardholders and programs. A dispute resolved early on in the process (a refund, or a clarified charge for example) is both a time saver and a cost saver for a card program manager. Once it becomes a chargeback, network fees and potential chargeback ratio penalties add to the cost, and for the regulated issuer, there is also actual funds movement and reconciliation to manage.
Why disputes can be a defining moment for customer trust
The original transaction is often invisible when everything works. The moment it fails is when the relationship is tested.
When a cardholder experiences fraud or feels a merchant did not deliver what they paid for, the dispute process becomes the point where trust is either reinforced or lost. Cardholders need to feel protected when something goes wrong. If they do not, it can quickly become a reason to stop using a product or switch providers. These are human interactions during stressful moments, often involving fear of fraud, confusion about an unfamiliar merchant name, or frustration about a product or service, and the tone, speed, and clarity of the response can be the difference between a cardholder feeling supported and a cardholder feeling dismissed. The numbers back this up: according to research from Quavo Fraud & Disputes, 73% of consumers say fraud resolution directly influences their loyalty, which makes it a genuine competitive differentiator rather than just a support function.
Dispute resolution is part of the product experience, whether the product team thinks of it that way or not.
What it looks like to manage disputes at scale
Disputes are complex. They involve multiple stages and many reason codes, each with its own rules and documentation requirements, and that documentation is often the deciding factor: some reason codes require highly specific evidence, and without it, a chargeback can be invalid.
This work is also not optional. For consumer accounts, issuing banks are legally required to give cardholders the right to dispute certain transactions, under consumer protection regulations (e.g., Regulation E for debit and prepaid accounts and Regulation Z for credit cards in the U.S. and PSD2 in Europe), and card programs support that process on the issuer’s behalf. Some dispute rights, including for goods that never arrive or don’t match their description, come from card network rules rather than a federal regulatory requirement, and business-purpose card programs may not carry the same regulatory dispute rights. That leaves two real paths: build and manage disputes in-house, or partner with a card program manager that already has the infrastructure running. Building in-house means:
● Recruiting and training qualified analysts
● Standing up operating procedures and technology
● Monitoring quality on an ongoing basis
● Staying current as network rules and regulations change, for as long as the program runs, not just once at launch
That is a substantial, permanent commitment, and it is a large part of why many card programs choose to partner with a program manager instead.
At Marqeta, dedicated disputes teams handle this work: one team in Warsaw, Poland covering European programs, and one team in the US. The Poland-based team has grown to five analysts plus a manager, as Europe's dispute volume doubled over the last 12 months alongside rapid processing growth in the region. (All stats that follow relate to the Poland team specifically.)
Day to day, that work spans five stages:
● Creation
● Submission
● Monitoring
● Management
● Reporting
This covers everything from the first chargeback stage through arbitration, depending on the case. Exactly how that work is split depends on the dispute model a program chooses:
● Marqeta owns the process end to end, including cardholder communication
● The program creates and submits its own cases, and Marqeta handles monitoring and management
● The program runs the process itself using Marqeta's dispute management tooling, with Marqeta providing oversight
The right fit depends on how much of the cardholder relationship a program wants to own directly. Beyond case processing, the team also supports onboarding, training, and reason-code guidance for new customers, and a business process outsourcing (BPO) partner handles about 20% of Europe's dispute volume under Marqeta's quality oversight.
What good dispute management looks like beyond win rates
Win rates matter, but they’re not the whole story.
Effective dispute management includes:
● Correct reason code selection and strong case construction
● Helping programs identify when chargeback rights do or do not exist
● Handling cases efficiently so cardholders get resolution without unnecessary delays
In addition to standard dispute processing, the disputes team also supports recovery in scenarios where chargeback rights are not available, helping programs reduce potential loss. In 2025, the Poland team recovered more than €350,000 for two Marqeta customers through this kind of support.
Marqeta disputes performance in Europe in 2025
In 2025, Marqeta's dispute win rates ranged between 97% and 99%, meaning that only 1% to 3% of disputes submitted to the network were lost. The team processed more than 17,000 disputes that year.
From an outcomes perspective, that means that in the vast majority of cases taken to the network, cardholders received their money back, and confidence in the customer's experience was reinforced.
Quality standards also play a key role. Marqeta's Poland-based dispute agents consistently maintained QA scores above 98% for quality excellence and decision accuracy.
How technology and automation help, and where human judgment still matters
Automation can make disputes operations faster and more consistent, particularly for simple or repetitive tasks or for scenarios where likely outcomes are predictable.
At the same time, human expertise remains essential in more complex cases, especially consumer disputes tied to quality of service. These cases often require judgment, careful review of documentation, and a clear understanding of scenario rules to achieve the best outcome possible.
Marqeta's disputes team also works closely with our product organization, providing feedback to improve systems, testing tools such as Disputes360, and contributing input on automation and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled approaches. The team reports technical issues, suggests functionality improvements, and helps ensure that tools support effective and efficient dispute resolution for both Marqeta and its customers. Marqeta also offers a pre-built disputes component within its UX Toolkit (SDK), giving card programs a ready-made, cardholder-facing dispute flow instead of building one from scratch.
Which providers offer dispute and chargeback management as a service?
Several types of providers offer dispute and chargeback management as a service for card programs:
● Issuer processors with program management – Marqeta offers end-to-end dispute management as part of its card program management services, handling case intake, reason code selection, network submission, and cardholder communication.
● BIN sponsors with managed services – Some BIN sponsors include dispute handling within their sponsorship packages.
● Specialized dispute management platforms – Third-party providers focus exclusively on chargeback and dispute lifecycle management.
● Full-service program managers – Companies offering turnkey card program management typically bundle dispute services.
When evaluating providers, card programs should assess win rates, processing capacity, quality standards, and whether the provider offers direct cardholder communication or works through the program manager.
Why this matters for card programs
Disputes and chargebacks are often viewed as exceptions. In reality, they are a predictable part of operating any card program at scale, and they sit at an unusual intersection: one of the clearest moments where a cardholder decides whether to trust a product again, and a required, resource-intensive part of running a program that does not shrink as volume grows. Treating disputes as only a cost center, or only a customer-experience moment, misses half of what makes them worth doing well.
When resolution is fast, fair, and well-communicated, it strengthens loyalty. When it is slow, unclear, manual, paper-based, or inconsistent, it can undo trust quickly.
Cards are built on acceptance and confidence, but disputes are one of the mechanisms that help protect both.
For more information about how Marqeta handles disputes, read more here.
Or get in touch to discuss how we can help you efficiently manage disputes as part of our card program management services.
