Can You Dispute a Pending Charge? [Answered]
Paying with a credit or debit card is often more convenient than cash, but it’s also prone to errors. You might be charged the wrong amount, billed for something you didn’t purchase, or have the same transaction appear twice on your account.
When you encounter an issue, your first instinct might be to dispute the charge immediately. But if the transaction is still in progress, can you dispute a pending charge?
In this article, we’ll answer this question and explain what to do if you notice a pending charge you want to dispute. You'll also learn about the payment dispute process, as well as a practical solution that could help you avoid some of the reasons for filing a dispute.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is valid as of February 2025. For up-to-date information, please visit the respective banks’ or card issuers’ websites.
What Is a Pending Charge?
A pending charge is a transaction that’s been authorized by your bank or credit card issuer but hasn’t yet been processed by the merchant. It appears as a hold on your bank account or credit card and affects your available balance.
While pending transactions are normal when using payment methods other than cash, they’re more common in some industries than others. For example:
- Gas stations might place a pending hold to ensure you have enough funds to cover the cost of gas.
- Hotels usually place a pending hold to account for incidental charges, such as room service or minibar purchases.
- Restaurants may place a pending charge to account for tips.
- Online stores may delay processing an authorized charge until they ship the order.
Pending charges can take two to three days and up to 30 days to clear, depending on the type of transaction, the merchant, and your bank's policies. In the table below, you can learn the time different transactions take to post[1]:
Can You Dispute a Charge While It's Pending?
Whether you can dispute a pending charge depends on your bank or card issuer, as the policies differ among financial institutions. Here are some examples:
- PNC Bank typically recommends waiting until the transaction posts[2].
- Bank of America doesn’t allow disputing pending transactions[3].
- Chase allows its users to dispute pending charges on a debit card[4].
- US Bank allows the dispute of unfamiliar pending transactions on credit and debit cards[5].
To determine if your bank or card issuer allows pending transaction disputes, check your account or credit agreement or contact customer support directly.
There’s a reason why waiting for the payment to post might be a good idea. Pending charges are often larger than actual charges, which might make it seem like you’re being charged incorrectly. Unless you’re dealing with a completely unfamiliar charge—which calls for a quick reaction—waiting for a transaction to post might save you from filing a needless dispute.
What Charges Can You Dispute?
Charges eligible for a dispute typically fall under one of the following categories:
- Fraudulent or unauthorized transactions—Charges you suspect are a result of card theft, account takeover, or identity theft
- Billing errors—Transactions for incorrect amounts or double charges
- Damaged or defective goods—Purchases you made that were damaged, defective, or not as advertised
- Undelivered goods—Transactions for goods or services you never received
- Canceled subscriptions or memberships—Charges that continue to post even after canceling a subscription
- Credit not processed—Item returns or refunds that weren’t credited back to your account
Note that credit and debit cards have different types of legal protections. Banks have their own policies that might offer you additional protections. To ensure you have a valid reason for the dispute, check with your card issuer before filing one.
How Does the Dispute Process Work?
Before disputing a charge, consider contacting the merchant directly to resolve the issue. This is often the quickest and easiest way to get your money back. The merchant may offer to refund the disputed amount, replace defective goods, or cancel the transaction.
If this attempt fails, you can contact your bank or credit card issuer to start the official dispute process. You must provide supporting documentation and evidence for the disputed transaction, such as receipts, bank statements, or communication with the merchant.
Here's what typically happens during a dispute process:
- Your bank or credit card issuer investigates the charge in question by reviewing the provided evidence to decide whether there are grounds for a chargeback.
- If the issuer determines the dispute is valid, you may be awarded provisional credit while you wait for resolution.
- Your card issuer notifies the merchant's acquiring bank of the dispute.
- The merchant's bank contacts the merchant, who can accept the chargeback or dispute it. If they dispute it, your bank will review the counter-evidence they provide.
- Your bank makes the final decision. If the dispute is resolved in your favor, you’ll receive permanent credit for the disputed amount. If the decision favors the merchant, any provisional credit awarded to you will be reversed.
The dispute process can take up to 90 days[6]. If you’re not satisfied with the outcome, you might be able to appeal the decision.
What Are the Challenges of Disputing a Transaction?
While consumer protection laws exist to safeguard you from fraudulent charges and deceptive merchants, the dispute process can be demanding and time-consuming. Some common challenges include:
- Strict timelines for disputing a charge—The law typically requires you to dispute a charge within 60 days from the statement's date[6], or even less under certain conditions. If you miss this window, your dispute may be rejected.
- Evidence collection—To successfully dispute a charge, you must provide evidence to support your claim. Gathering all this information can be a tedious task.
- Lengthy investigation process—The dispute process involves the merchant, your credit card issuer or bank, the payment network, and the merchant’s bank. This can result in a lengthy process that may take weeks or even months to resolve.
- An uncertain outcome—Even with all the evidence presented, there's no guarantee that a dispute will be resolved in your favor. If you’d been awarded a temporary credit during the investigation and the merchant provided a valid defense, you must repay the credit.
To avoid the challenges that come with disputing a charge, one effective solution is to use virtual cards. These cards allow you to make secure online purchases without exposing your actual payment card number, reducing the risk of unauthorized charges. If you choose an independent virtual card provider like Privacy, you’ll have access to robust card controls that can help further protect you from charges that might require a dispute.
Privacy Virtual Cards—A Safer Way To Shop
After you link your debit card or bank account to Privacy, you can request and generate virtual cards for single or multiple purchases. Privacy Cards work like regular cards but add an extra layer of security by acting as a stand-in for your real bank information when shopping online.
You can generate three types of cards with Privacy:
- Single-Use Cards—You can use these cards for one-time purchases. Since they close shortly after completing the first transaction, potential hackers won't be able to use them for fraudulent transactions if they manage to steal them.
- Merchant-Locked Cards—You can use these cards multiple times but only with a specific merchant, making them the perfect choice for subscriptions and recurring charges. If a cybercriminal obtains the card number, they won’t be able to make purchases elsewhere.
- Category-Locked Cards—You can also use these cards repeatedly but only for purchases within one merchant category, such as groceries or entertainment. They can help you with budgeting and spending control.
Privacy lets you set spending limits and pause or close your virtual cards at any time without affecting your linked funding source. After setting a spending limit, Privacy will decline charges that exceed the limit, helping protect you against unannounced price hikes and hidden fees. Privacy will also block all future transaction attempts on a paused or closed card, helping reduce the risk of unwanted charges.
In addition to the card controls, you can also dispute charges made on your Privacy Card. Privacy's fraud protection team will investigate your claim and file a chargeback if there are grounds for it.
Choose Privacy for a Seamless Payment Experience
By signing up for Privacy, you’ll get access to its browser extension, which makes online shopping fast and secure by autofilling your virtual card details at checkout. You can get the extension for all major browsers, including:
The Privacy App, available for iOS or Android, allows you to create virtual cards on the go and stay on top of all card activity with instant notifications. Additionally, Privacy integrates with 1Password, enabling you to manage your financial information and passwords from a single dashboard.
How To Join Privacy
Privacy is a BBB-accredited, PCI-DSS-compliant provider that helps over 250,000 Americans make secure transactions online. If you wish to join Privacy, you can do so in only four steps:
- Create an account
- Fill out the information needed to verify your identity
- Add a funding source (debit card or bank account)
- Request a Privacy Virtual Card
Privacy offers four plans to suit different users’ needs. The Personal plan (free for domestic transactions) lets you create up to 12 Merchant-Locked and Single-Use Cards. You can set spending limits, pause or close your cards, and get access to the browser extension and mobile app.
You can find information about Privacy’s other plans in the following table:
