Filing is the part you control; this is the part they owe you
Most dispute advice stops at "call your bank." What happens next is governed by specific, written obligations with dates attached. Knowing them changes the conversation from asking a favour to asking for compliance.
Debit and other electronic transfers — Regulation E
The investigation window
Once you notify the bank of an error, it must promptly investigate and generally determine within 10 business days whether an error occurred.
If it cannot finish in that time, it may take longer — but taking longer is what triggers the provisional-credit obligation.
- 20 business days instead of 10 where the notice concerns a transfer on an account open less than 30 days.
- 45 days total for a standard investigation once extended.
- 90 days total where the transfer was point-of-sale, foreign-initiated, or on an account open less than 30 days.
Provisional credit
Where the bank takes the extended time, it must generally credit the disputed amount — including any lost interest — within 10 business days of receiving your notice, so that you have use of the money while the investigation runs.
Two conditions to know. The bank may require you to give written confirmation of an oral notice within 10 business days, and if it asked and you do not, the provisional-credit obligation may not apply. And the credit is provisional in the literal sense: it can be reversed.
When the investigation ends
- Error found: correct it within 1 business day of the determination.
- Report: the bank must tell you the result within 3 business days of finishing.
- No error found: it must send a written explanation and tell you that you may request the documents it relied on. Ask for them. Always.
- Reversing provisional credit: it must notify you of the date and amount, and for a short window afterwards honour items that would not have bounced had the funds remained.
Credit cards — Fair Credit Billing Act
Acknowledgement and resolution
- 30 days to acknowledge your written billing-error notice.
- Two complete billing cycles, and never more than 90 days, to resolve it.
While it is pending
The creditor may not require you to pay the disputed amount, may not treat it as delinquent, and may not report it as such to credit bureaus on the basis of the dispute. You do still have to pay the undisputed rest of the balance — a point worth reading twice, because paying nothing is a common and costly mistake.
When it concludes
If a billing error occurred, the creditor corrects it and credits any related finance charges. If it concludes there was no error, it must explain in writing, and you may request the supporting documentation.
The three things that most often go wrong
"We already closed it." A closure without a written explanation, on a Regulation E error, is not a completed process. Ask for the written determination and the documents relied on, in writing, and reference the section.
The merchant's rebuttal you never saw. Most denials rest on evidence the merchant supplied — a signed receipt, an IP log, a delivery confirmation, a cancellation policy. It is frequently answerable, and sometimes plainly about a different transaction. You cannot rebut what you have not read, which is why requesting the documents matters more than restating your case.
Filing under the wrong theory. "I did not authorize this" and "I authorized it but never received the goods" travel down different tracks with different evidence. Claiming fraud on a charge you did make, because it feels faster, tends to end in a denial that is harder to reopen than the accurate claim would have been.
Practical record-keeping
Keep, in one place: the date the statement was sent, the descriptor exactly as printed, the amount and date, the date and channel of every contact, the name of whoever you spoke to, the case or claim reference, and copies of everything you sent. If the dispute goes to a regulator, this file *is* the case.
If it stalls
Escalate in writing to the bank's complaints function first, citing the specific obligation and date missed. If that does not resolve it, complain to the CFPB, and to your state banking regulator or attorney general. Complaints citing a specific missed obligation — "provisional credit was not issued within 10 business days and no written determination was provided" — get further than complaints describing frustration.