Credit Card Chargebacks in Canada: Deadlines and Your Rights

You ordered a sofa online in June for delivery on July 15. It never came, the store stopped answering, and when you called your bank in November, you were told it was too late to dispute the charge. In eight provinces, that isn’t the end of it. A credit card chargeback is your card issuer reversing a charge because the merchant didn’t hold up its end of the deal, and Canada has two sets of rules for it. Most card agreements give you 30 days from your statement date to report a problem, and Visa and Mastercard give your bank 120 days to file it. Provincial consumer protection law adds a second right on online orders, and its clock starts when the merchant fails to refund you, not when you paid.

What is a chargeback, and when can you ask for one?

A chargeback is when your credit card issuer takes a payment back from a merchant and credits your account. You ask the bank or company that issued your card, and it deals with the merchant. It’s meant for a merchant that didn’t do what it promised, and the card networks recognize a handful of situations:

• The order never arrived, or the service never happened.
• What arrived was damaged, or not what the listing described.
• You cancelled a subscription or membership and were billed anyway.
• You were charged twice, or charged the wrong amount.
• The merchant agreed to refund you and the refund never came.
• The business shut down before it delivered.

It isn’t for changing your mind about something that arrived as described. That’s the store’s return policy. And a charge you don’t recognize at all is fraud, which goes through a different process with stronger protection. Our guide to getting your money back after a scam covers that side.

How long do you have to dispute a credit card charge?

Usually 30 days from your statement date. That’s the reporting window in most big banks’ card agreements, though Scotiabank asks for 15 days, American Express 21 and National Bank 60. The card networks give the bank itself longer. Visa and Mastercard allow 120 days to file the chargeback, counted from the purchase or from the date an order was due.

Your bank’s deadline

These are the windows in each issuer’s own terms, as of September 2026:

Miss that window and several of these agreements say your statement is treated as correct, which gives the bank grounds to refuse. Scotiabank’s, for one, says that after its 15 days “the statement will be considered to be correct unless you can provide us with written proof that it is not.”

Visa and Mastercard give your bank 120 days

The 120 days is your bank’s deadline for filing with the network. Visa’s rules (opens in a new tab) let a bank dispute an order that never arrived up to 120 days after the purchase, or 120 days after the last date you expected it, as long as that’s within 540 days of the purchase. Mastercard’s rules (opens in a new tab) also allow 120 days from the promised delivery date. Both generally require you to have tried the merchant first.

Your bank’s shorter window leaves it time to collect your evidence and file before the network’s deadline. BMO gives that as the reason for its 30 days, saying “we are limited by the amount of time we have to dispute a charge.”

Which provinces give you a legal right to a chargeback?

Eight provinces do: Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. If an order you placed online doesn’t arrive within 30 days of the promised date, you can cancel it. If the merchant then doesn’t refund you, your credit card issuer has to reverse the charge.

Where the table says 90 days or two billing cycles, the issuer has to meet whichever comes first. Four provinces skip small orders. Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan cover only orders over $50, and Nova Scotia covers orders of $50 or more. The right covers credit cards only, in every province. New Brunswick passed a law with the same right in 2024, but it isn’t in force yet, and Prince Edward Island and the three territories have no equivalent.

How the legal route works

The steps are the same in each of the eight provinces, with small differences in timing:

1. Cancel the order in writing once it’s more than 30 days past the delivery date, or more than 30 days after you ordered if no date was given. You can do this any time before it’s delivered.
2. Give the merchant its refund window, 15 days after your cancellation (30 in Manitoba).
3. Send your card issuer a written chargeback request if no refund arrives. Sign it, and include your name, card number and expiry date, the merchant’s name, the date you ordered, the amount charged and the date it posted, what you bought, why you cancelled, and when and how you sent the cancellation.
4. Watch your next two statements. In most of these provinces, the issuer has 30 days to acknowledge your request and two billing cycles or 90 days to reverse the charge.

Quebec’s consumer protection office publishes a step-by-step guide with sample letters (opens in a new tab) for both the cancellation and the request to your card issuer. Outside Quebec, the letters are still a good model if you name your own province’s law instead.

Ontario and Quebec give you 60 days to ask

In Ontario (opens in a new tab) and Quebec, the request to your card issuer has to go in within 60 days after the merchant’s refund deadline passes. That clock starts at the missed refund, so a late order can still qualify months after you paid. The other six provinces set no deadline for the request at all, and all eight provinces’ laws say a contract can’t take these rights away.

Bank agents don’t always get this right. In 2023, Radio-Canada’s La facture (in French) (opens in a new tab) followed four people who had prepaid for events that still hadn’t taken place: laps in an exotic car, and three running races. They called four different card issuers, and two were given the wrong deadline. One caller said a Desjardins agent told her it was far too late because the limit was 90 days, and a TD agent told another that a claim had to be made within 90 days of the purchase. Those limits come from card network and bank rules rather than from Quebec’s law, and TD later apologized for the wrong information. If you’re told something similar, put your request in writing and name your province’s law.

Can you get a chargeback on a debit card or an e-Transfer?

Not on Interac. Interac Debit has no chargeback for a problem with a merchant, and an e-Transfer can’t be reversed once it’s been deposited. A Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard purchase made online goes through the card network instead, so you can dispute it much like a credit card purchase. The provincial rights above cover credit cards only.

The debit card code of practice (opens in a new tab) says a problem with something you paid for by debit should be resolved with the retailer, and Interac’s FAQ (opens in a new tab) says a deposited e-Transfer can’t be reversed. A pre-authorized debit, like a gym membership or a subscription billed to your chequing account, is the exception on the bank side. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada says you usually have 90 days to report one (opens in a new tab) that was for the wrong amount, came on the wrong date or came after you cancelled.

Many Canadian debit cards carry two logos. In a Canadian store, a card like that usually runs on Interac, and online or abroad it runs as Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard. Only the second kind can be disputed like a credit card. Visa’s rules for Canada also require the bank to put a provisional credit back in your account within two business days of a Visa Debit dispute, in most cases.

How do you file a chargeback?

Try the merchant first and keep a copy of what you sent. If that fails, contact your card issuer through its app, online banking or phone within its reporting window, say what went wrong, and send your proof. Ask for a reference number, and write down the date and who you spoke to.

1. Write to the merchant. Visa requires you to have tried to sort it out with the merchant before your bank files, and most banks want you to give it some time. RBC says 15 to 20 business days (opens in a new tab), and CIBC lets you file if the merchant hasn’t answered after 2 business days.
2. Gather your proof. The order confirmation with the promised date, receipts, tracking, emails, photos of what arrived, and proof that you cancelled or sent it back.
3. Open the dispute with your card issuer. In RBC’s app it’s “I disagree with this charge” on the transaction, and National Bank (opens in a new tab) takes disputes by phone only. Say which problem it is, since each one is handled under its own rules.
4. Add the written request if provincial law applies. It’s a separate legal request, so send it even if you’ve already opened a dispute by phone.
5. Keep paying your card. Pay at least the minimum while the dispute runs, so a missed payment doesn’t add a second problem.

What happens after you file

Most issuers put a temporary credit on your card while they investigate. RBC says that usually takes about two business days. The merchant then gets a chance to respond, and if the bank decides you weren’t entitled to the money, it reverses the credit. At TD, that can happen up to 60 days after you file, and Scotiabank (opens in a new tab) says a dispute can take up to 60 days to resolve.

What can you do if your card issuer says no?

Ask for the refusal and the reason in writing, then make a formal complaint to the bank. A bank has 56 days to deal with it (opens in a new tab). If it hasn’t by then, or you don’t accept its final answer, you can take the dispute to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, which is free. If your claim rests on provincial law, you have more options.

OBSI looks at whether the bank followed the applicable rules and its own procedures. Its approach to disputed credit card charges (opens in a new tab) says it usually recommends compensation when the bank didn’t follow its own policies or made an error. It usually doesn’t when the consumer waited too long to challenge the charge or never tried the merchant first.

On a claim under provincial law, the issuer’s duty comes from the statute rather than from its own policy. In Ontario, an issuer that refuses has to investigate and send you written reasons, and the law lets you sue the issuer to recover the payment. In Quebec, the consumer protection office’s guide says to send the issuer a formal notice if your account isn’t credited on time.

The protection is free if you clear the balance

Everything above is a reason to pay for online orders with a credit card rather than debit or an e-Transfer. That protection costs nothing as long as you pay the full balance by the due date. Carry a balance and you pay interest instead, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s example (opens in a new tab) uses 19% on purchases.

Having the money set aside before the statement arrives makes paying in full a lot easier. Lodavo is a free Canadian app built for that kind of saving. Connect the savings or chequing account you already use, and your balance earns free tickets in a weekly cash draw, one for every $25. At least $100 goes to a user every week, and the top prize is $10,000.

Keep the order confirmation

Almost every step here depends on a date: when you ordered, when delivery was promised, when you cancelled and when the refund was due. The order confirmation and a copy of your cancellation are what prove them, so keep both until the charge is off your statement.

Download Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab) and start earning tickets for the weekly draw.

This article is general information, not legal advice. What applies to your purchase depends on your province, your card agreement and the merchant’s terms.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.