Retrieval Request vs Chargeback: What's the Difference?
The difference between a retrieval request vs chargeback is what happens to the money. A retrieval request is an issuer asking for transaction details before any money moves, while a chargeback reverses the charge outright. A chargeback alert arrives before either one and gives you a window to refund voluntarily.
I've had my own customers dispute orders I know they received, so I've seen all three of these notices land in my own inbox. Read yours correctly and you'll know in a minute whether you still have a choice.
Key takeaways
- When an alert fires, it arrives before a retrieval request or a chargeback.
- Retrieval request fees run from a few dollars to $20 or more.
- Visa retired its retrieval request process in October 2020.
- RDR and CDRN together carry 57.9% of the alerts on our platform.
- Only a chargeback pulls money out of your account.
Retrieval request vs chargeback: what's the difference?
A retrieval request asks you for documents, a chargeback takes the money back, and an alert warns you before either one so you can refund first. The three arrive in that order. So the notice tells you how much time is left, and who still gets to decide.
Both big networks have mostly stopped using retrieval requests. Visa "officially sunset its traditional retrieval request process back in October 2020," according to Merchant Cost Consulting. Mastercard keeps them for Maestro debit, "but not for standard credit card transactions".
Sell on Visa or Mastercard credit, and you'll see alerts and chargebacks instead.
Here is how the three compare:
How do the three compare side by side?
An alert gives you a refund window, a retrieval request gives you a document deadline, and a chargeback gives you a dispute to fight.
Each notice calls for a different response:
- Retrieval request: send documents to your acquirer.
- Chargeback: decide whether to fight or write it off.
- Chargeback alert: make a refund call inside a few hours.
What you do next depends on which notice you got.
1. What to do if you get a retrieval request
Pull the transaction record and send it to your acquirer inside the window. A missing response is what pushes a retrieval request into a chargeback. The request usually arrives in your processor's dispute inbox, and your acquirer forwards your documents to the issuer.
Send four things every time:
- The itemized receipt or invoice
- The order confirmation with its shipping or delivery record
- The AVS and CVV match results from the authorization
- The exact billing descriptor the customer saw on their statement
That last one settles most requests on its own. The cardholder's usual complaint is that the name on their statement means nothing to them.
Around 20 days is the working window, and it runs on the issuer's timetable. Answer inside a week if you can.
A late response counts as no response.
2. What to do if you get a chargeback
Decide whether to fight or write it off, and let the reason code make that call. A reason code is the issuer's classification of why the cardholder disputed the charge. The money is already gone, so the only thing you control now is the evidence you send against that code.
The reason code tells you what proof the issuer accepts, and our reason code lookup tool shows what each one means. The deadline tells you how long you have to gather it. A fraud code wants authorization and device data. A "services not received" code wants delivery confirmation.
Send the wrong documents and you lose a winnable case.
Whether it's worth fighting at all depends on the odds, and our data on how often merchants win breaks them down by country and company size.
Our breakdown of the full chargeback process has what happens after you submit.
3. What to do if you get a chargeback alert
Refund the customer inside the alert window when the transaction looks disputable. The refund closes the case before anyone can file a chargeback against you. Alert windows run in hours, so automate the decision.
Set a dollar threshold and let it decide. Refund automatically below it. Under that line, the alert fee plus the hit to your chargeback ratio costs more than the sale.
Review the rest yourself. In support, the merchants who set that threshold once got the most out of alerts.
What is a retrieval request?
A retrieval request is a formal ask from your customer's issuing bank for documents about one specific transaction. It arrives before any dispute is filed. Treat it as a question.
The issuer sends it for the cardholder, almost always because they can't place a charge on their statement.
What you send back decides what happens next. A clear receipt and a recognizable descriptor usually end it.
You'll also see the same mechanism called an inquiry. Discover and Amex use different names for the same process.
How much does a retrieval request cost?
A retrieval request carries a small per-record fee of its own. Pay.com's breakdown puts retrieval fees at "a few dollars to $20 or more, depending on your merchant account contract".
The fee covers pulling and sending one transaction record, so it stays small. If the case escalates to a chargeback, you pay a separate chargeback fee on top.
Your processor contract sets the exact number, so treat that range as typical.
What is a chargeback?
A chargeback is a forced refund your customer's issuing bank pushes back to you, reversing the charge and opening a formal dispute. The debit hits your account before anyone asks for your side.
Several stages run between that first debit and the final ruling.
Our guide to what a chargeback is has the full definition.
What is a chargeback alert?
A chargeback alert warns you before a dispute becomes a retrieval request or a chargeback, so you can refund voluntarily and stop it early. Of the three, it's the one that still leaves you the call.
Alert networks get the dispute signal from the bank and pass it to you within hours of the cardholder complaining. Two companies send these alerts, Ethoca (Mastercard) and Verifi (Visa, which operates RDR and CDRN).
Each one mainly covers its own card network. So the alerts you get depend on the brand of the disputed card. In our dataset, Ethoca alerts account for 42.1% of alerts received, with RDR at 30.6% and CDRN at 27.3%. Visa's two products together carry 57.9%.
The mechanics differ between them, and our comparison of RDR, CDRN, and Ethoca has the enrollment details.
Enrollment decides whether you ever see the alert.
You'll get an alert for some disputes and not others. It depends on the card network, the issuing bank, and whether you signed up. Some products add geographic limits too, like CDRN's US-only coverage.
Connect your Visa and Mastercard accounts to all three alert networks, so every covered dispute reaches you before it files. Start with preventing chargebacks.
What are the three types of chargebacks?
Chargebacks fall into three categories, friendly fraud, true fraud, and merchant error. The one you're facing sets the fix. That's shipping confirmation on every order, AVS and CVV checks at authorization, or a clearer billing descriptor.
Each category behaves differently in a dispute.
The causes and the prevention steps differ by category, and our guide to the three types of chargebacks covers each one.
FAQ
Can someone take back a chargeback?
A cardholder can withdraw a dispute by telling their bank they no longer contest the charge, and the issuer reverses it. A merchant's only route is to contest it through the card network.
Are chargebacks usually successful for merchants?
Merchants win some of the disputes they contest. The rate shifts with country, company size, and the reason code behind the dispute.
Retrieval request vs inquiry: what's the difference?
The two are one mechanism under two names, so the only thing that changes is which network you're on. Discover "almost exclusively calls them 'inquiries' instead of retrieval requests," while Amex and most of the industry say retrieval request.
Can a chargeback skip the earlier stages?
Yes, a chargeback can be filed directly with no warning stage in front of it. Alerts only fire where you're enrolled and covered, and retrieval requests barely exist on Visa and standard Mastercard now.
How we sourced our data
The alert-network figures in this article come from Chargeback.io's own platform data. The numbers are anonymized and pooled across alerts we received for merchants on our platform. We report each network's share of the total.
They cover the alerts our platform handled, so read them as our population rather than the payments industry.
