How long does a cardholder have to initiate a Chargeback after their purchase?
In most cases, a cardholder is given up to 120 days from the original sales transaction to file a Chargeback. However, there are reason codes whereby the cardholder is able to initiate a chargeback up to 540 days from the date of the transaction.
Am I required to pay a Chargeback fee if the Transaction was valid?
Yes, if you are required to pay a Chargeback fee as part of your contract with TMT, then a Chargeback fee will be applied in all Chargeback cases. The Chargeback fee is non reversible.
What if a Chargeback is initiated but I have already issued a Refund?
If a Chargeback has been applied to a payment which was previously refunded, please contact us at supportteam@trustmytravel.com.
Once we have been alerted, we will use evidence of the refund to represent this case on your behalf.
As soon as the bank reviews our defence and identifies the refund, they will proceed to withdraw the dispute. At the end of the 55 days chargeback cycle, Trust My Travel will reverse the chargeback on your account and credit your corresponding Statement. Please be advised that the chargeback fee is non-refundable.
Is there a timeframe the merchant has to respond to a Chargeback?
To find out how long you have to challenge a Chargeback, look for the ‘Challenge by’ date which will appear in the chargeback transaction under the ‘Response’ field.
The timeframe you are given to respond to a Chargeback varies per card issuer. However, more often than not you will have approximately 10 days. If we receive a Chargeback with a small timeframe, we will be in contact with you straight away to notify you of this.
How can I protect myself from fraudulent Chargebacks?
There are a few things you can do to protect yourself against fraud:
1.Use your Trust My Travel dashboard to monitor your bookings regularly and raise any suspicious bookings with us. I.E. If a cardholder has attempted to process multiple payments with you using different cards, emails and names then please let us know and we can review this more closely.
2.Ensure that you verify the traveller’s identity before travel takes place. Do they have a copy of their ID which you can verify against their booking?
3.Ask your traveller to sign some documentation before travel commences. This can often be used to strengthen your case.
4.Closely monitor your emails for ‘bounce backs’ from your customers. This would indicate that the email address provided is invalid. This may be a sign of fraudulent activity.
5.Please be wary if a cardholder contacts you to cancel and request a refund via an alternative payment method to the original payment. Refunding to an alternative method is not complaint with Trust My Travel.
Does my Chargeback Ratio % affect my Trust My Travel account?
Yes, your Chargeback ratio will affect how you can use Trust My Travel and every endeavour should be made to keep your Chargeback ratio down as much as possible.
A rising Chargeback ratio may affect your ability to use our solution or future merchant accounts. Chargebacks, whilst inevitable, are normally a sign something has gone wrong between you and customer and must be actively prevented where possible through effective fraud measures, understanding of causes and communication with customers.
Friendly fraud is invariably common in the travel industry and our team and tools are on hand to assist with these cases. Chargeback ratios above 1% of processing are rare but if you do reach this level and above, we will try to work with you to bring this back down again and satisfy any concerns raised by the card schemes.
How long does it take for a decision to be made on the Chargeback after evidence has been submitted?
Once Trust My Travel have submitted evidence to the bank to represent a Chargeback, the decision can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to be resolved. Each individual case is different, and some cases can be resolved quicker than others, however, on average we receive a response between 55-60 days from the date that we submitted supporting evidence to the bank.
What is a Retrieval Request?
A Retrieval Request is a method of obtaining a copy of the paperwork to validate a transaction.
The request comes from the credit card issuer or cardholder and goes to the acquirer or merchant. We do not debit your account at this point, as its merely a case of providing the bank with more information about the booking before they consider applying a Chargeback.
If a retrieval request is not responded to within the timeframe that we have provided you with, then its highly likely that this retrieval request will escalate into a Chargeback, at which point your account will be debited and Chargeback fees will apply.
If you respond to a retrieval request within the timeframe, this documentation will be sent to the bank to review.
The card issuer or cardholder may decide that a Chargeback still applies, in which case this will escalate into a chargeback and be reflected on your dashboard.
If the card issuer and cardholder are happy with the document provided, they may decide to close the retrieval request in which case no further action is taken.
Which email address does the chargeback notification get sent to?
Chargeback notifications are automatically sent to the primary contact (BCC email) found in each Channel. If there is also a Chargeback email address defined (using the ‘Chargeback email’ field) then this email address will also receive a copy of the same receipt as well as the primary contact. Please note that the defined ‘Chargeback email’ contact will not receive any email notifications other than Chargeback notifications.