What is a chargeback?

A chargeback is like a refund – it reverses a transaction made on a debit or credit card.
‘Chargeback’ is a term used by credit and debit card providers.

A chargeback happens when a cardholder disputes a charge with their financial institution (usually a bank or credit card company) (bank), who will usually investigate if the cardholder should be charged or if they deserve a refund. When a cardholder asks for a chargeback, the bank usually asks for information from the supplier (and often the cardholder).

The bank then considers the information and decides whether or not to refund the charge. This process can take some time, but banks usually process chargebacks for fraudulent transactions quickly.

When can a cardholder ask for a chargeback?

A cardholder may request a chargeback for many reasons. Some of the common reasons for requesting a chargeback are when the cardholder:

• does not recognise a charge on their card;
• notices duplicate, fraudulent or incorrect transactions on their card (including charges without their permission or the wrong amount being charged);
• has paid for goods or services with a card but did not receive the goods or services that were advertised (or any goods or services at all);
• was told that they would get a refund, but did not receive the refund; or
• has cancelled a debit authority that authorises charges to a card, but the supplier continues to debit the card.

When can a cardholder generally not ask for a chargeback?

There are circumstances when a chargeback may not be available. Some of the common reasons for a chargeback request not being available (or being rejected) are if the cardholder:
has paid other than by a credit card;

• received the goods or services ordered as they were advertised;
• has already been compensated (such as by a refund of the amount incorrectly charged).

Also, there may be time limits on making a chargeback request. Those time limits will depend on the bank who issued the card. You should check whether your bank has any time limits on requesting a chargeback, and submit any requests as soon as possible.

How do we handle chargebacks at SmartFee?

While we would prefer that you contact us directly in relation to any chargeback requests, we appreciate that you may have rights to initiate a chargeback without contacting us first.
If you believe that SmartFee has charged your card without authority, then please contact SmartFee as soon as possible at:

Phone: 1300 723 243
Email: complaints@smartfee.com.au

Please provide as much information as you can when contacting SmartFee, as that will assist us in considering your request. We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible in relation to the chargeback request (generally within 14 days).

Where we believe that we were entitled to charge the relevant card, then we will provide an explanation to you. If you successfully obtain a chargeback on a card but the payment was due to SmartFee,then SmartFee may be entitled to recover a chargeback fee from you where that is
permitted under our agreement with you and any applicable laws (including the Australian Consumer Law).

Details of the chargeback fees that we may be entitled to charge for unauthorised chargebacks are contained in the Fee Schedule referred to in your agreement with SmartFee.

Rejected chargeback requests or disputes

If you believe that SmartFee Personal has incorrectly rejected a chargeback request, you may be entitled to dispute that decision in accordance with SmartFee Personal’s internal dispute resolution policy (available here) and if the dispute is not resolved then you may be able to request that the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) help resolve their dispute.

For more information,visit Australian Financial Complaints Authority. SmartFee Business is not a member of AFCA, so AFCA may not be able to help with any disputes in relation to chargebacks relating to a client of SmartFee Business.

For disputes over any chargeback with SmartFee Business, please contact us via the above details and we will get in touch to try and resolve the dispute.