A dispute reason is the basis on which a card payment, or another payment, is challenged. When an issuer raises a chargeback, it must state why, using a chargeback reason code defined by the card scheme. Visa groups its reasons into four categories: fraud, authorisation, processing errors and consumer disputes. Mastercard uses numbered codes within similar groupings, such as 4837 for transactions the cardholder did not authorise and 4853 for cardholder disputes such as goods not as described.
The reason determines what the merchant must prove, which dispute evidence is relevant and what deadlines apply. Merchants analyse dispute reasons to find root causes: many fraud disputes point to weak authentication, while many non-receipt or cancellation disputes point to delivery or subscription problems. Some reasons, such as friendly fraud claims presented as fraud, may not reflect what actually happened.