Time limit to dispute a card payment

The deadline that counts is almost always your issuer's, not the law's. The card's rules usually leave thirteen months to report a transaction you did not authorise. A dispute with a merchant, by contrast, plays out in weeks. Act as soon as the line appears.

How long do you have to dispute a card payment in Belgium?

It depends on what you are disputing, not on the amount. Three situations give three deadlines, and the shortest is the one your issuer relies on.

In the files I handled in Liège, the confusion always came from the first row. A cardholder read "thirteen months" on a website, waited eleven weeks for a parcel that never came, and found that the file did not fit that box.

What is the difference between the issuer's deadline and the legal thirteen months?

The first frames a dispute, the second an absence of consent. The law does not say that a failing merchant makes the transaction unauthorised: you did pay, you simply did not receive.

The thirteen-month deadline comes from Directive (EU) 2015/2366, known as PSD2, transposed into Book VII of the Code of Economic Law, Belgium's consumer and business code. It assumes you report "without undue delay": thirteen months is a ceiling, not a right to wait. The European text can be read on EUR-Lex.

Chargeback is not in the law. It is a procedure between banks, set by Visa and Mastercard, that the issuer triggers on your behalf. It triggers it within its own deadlines, and it needs documents.

The issuer looks first at the debit date, before the reason. A file that arrives too late for its category is not examined on the substance.

What do the Beobank, ING and Belfius rules say?

They repeat the law on fraud and differ on the rest. Here are the clauses I read, with the version when it is given.

I am quoting the rules here, not the cards. The annual fees and APR of those cards do not appear in the documents I read, and a card without those three figures does not enter my cost tables.

The Belfius row deserves a slow read. Article 4 provides that some transactions made without physical presentation of the card or electronic identification are deemed accepted six days after the statement is received. I read this clause as a contractual presumption that does not erase Article 5 on the thirteen months. I cannot tell you how a court or Ombudsfin would treat it: ask your issuer how it applies it.

At Beobank, Article 11 adds a useful sentence: in a disagreement with the merchant, you must settle the dispute directly with it. In other words, the issuer does not guarantee the merchant by contract.

In the files I handled, that referral to the merchant was never the last word. It meant the issuer wanted to see your written attempt before opening a chargeback.

When do Visa and Mastercard open their own deadline?

The networks set a window of about 120 days for most reasons, but it is never held against you directly. It bounds what your issuer can ask of the merchant's bank.

According to a summary published by the payment processor Chargeflow, the 120-day window applies to fraud and consumer-dispute reasons at Visa as at Mastercard, with shorter periods for some processing reasons. It runs from the transaction or the expected delivery date. A ceiling of 540 days would exist for some delayed-delivery cases at Visa. This is a secondary source: the networks' official guides are not fully public, and I have not read them.

The figure to remember here is therefore the gap. Even if the network grants 120 days, your issuer often asks for less to return the form. The two deadlines do not add up: the shortest decides.

What happens if the issuer's deadline has passed?

The issuer can refuse, but it must give reasons. A missed deadline in principle closes the chargeback, not all your recourse.

Write to the complaints department, not the branch. Ask for the exact clause invoked, its version and the date taken as the starting point. At Beobank, acknowledgement of a complaint is announced within five working days and an answer, when the file is complete, aims at fifteen calendar days (Article 23 of the terms).

Here is the order I gave on the phone, with no guarantee of result:

1. Dispute right away, even with an incomplete file. The rest can be added later.
2. Write to the merchant the same day and keep proof of sending.
3. If the issuer refuses for lateness, ask in writing for the starting date it used.
4. Go to the complaints department, then to Ombudsfin, the Belgian financial disputes mediator.

According to Test-Achats (16 February 2026), Ombudsfin is free, the problem must be less than a year old, no court proceedings may be under way, and the answer comes in principle within 90 days. Its opinion does not bind the bank.

How much does a delay cost on a disputed line?

Less than the dispute, but not nothing. As long as the line stays in the outstanding balance, it earns interest at the card's rate.

Two Belgian cards, with their three base figures:

Take a disputed line of EUR 250 that stays on a card at 14.49%. The equivalent monthly rate is about 1.13%. For a file that drags on three months, that is about EUR 8.60 of interest. Over six months, about EUR 17.50. These amounts are my calculations, with no new purchase or refund in between.

The sum is not the point. The point is that a disputed amount does not release you from paying the statement on its date, until the issuer has confirmed in writing that it puts the line on hold. If the amount strains your budget, talk early to an approved debt mediation service or to your local CPAS (the public social welfare centre). This article does not replace advice suited to your situation. The carried-balance mechanism is detailed in the article on the minimum payment.

Which dates and documents should you note for the file to hold?

Four dated markers, nothing more. This is the list I asked for before opening a file:

• the purchase date, the debit date on the statement, and the promised delivery date;
• the date of your first message to the merchant, with its reply or its silence;
• the date you received the statement on which you saw the line;
• the annotated statement, the order confirmation, and the written trace of your approach to the merchant.

Statements are monthly: a line dated the 2nd of the month is only visible on the next statement. Beobank specifies that the payment due date on the statement falls at least 15 days after it is generated.

For a parcel that never arrived or a merchant that closed, see the article on the bankrupt or non-delivering merchant. For a subscription billed after cancelling, the one on the double charge and cancelled subscription. For a line you do not recognise, the hacked card and the refusal for gross negligence have their own rules, and the general mechanism of chargeback in Belgium completes this one.

Three points I could not verify

Beobank's form dates from 2021 and its current page publishes no return deadline: ask for the version in force. The Belfius rules carry no readable version date, and I do not quote the fee or APR of its cards, absent from the documents read. Finally, Visa's and Mastercard's official deadlines are not fully public: the 120-day figure comes from a secondary summary, to be confirmed with your issuer.

To compare cards on what they cost rather than on their promises, the ranking of Belgian credit cards, the comparison tool and the choice guide start from the same checked rates.

Sources, accessed on 23 October 2026. Directive (EU) 2015/2366, Art. 71 (13 months), 76 and 77 (8 weeks): EUR-Lex, transposed into Book VII of the Code of Economic Law. ING Visa Classic card rules, version of 1 January 2025, Arts. 9 and 10: ING. Belfius card rules, Arts. 4 to 6, 24 and 25: Belfius. Beobank credit card terms, Arts. 5, 11, 12, 14 and 23: Beobank. Beobank dispute form, revision 09/21, return within 14 days: Beobank. 120-day and 540-day windows, secondary summary: Chargeflow, Visa and Chargeflow, Mastercard. Beobank Visa Classic: card page (fee, APR), EUR 100 withdrawal from the fees page. Mastercard One: Buy Way user guide, September 2025. Recourse: Ombudsfin and Test-Achats, 16 February 2026. Interest on EUR 250: author's calculation, 23 October 2026. No link in this article is paid for.