Chargebacks

A chargeback is the return of funds through the payer’s financial institution for a credit card payment. Chargebacks can be initiated by the payer or their financial institution and serve as a mechanism for card processors to protect their consumers. After a chargeback has been initiated, it can be defended by the merchant (in this case Flywire) by providing evidence to show that the payment is valid.

When can a chargeback happen?

A chargeback can only happen for credit card payments.

Even if a payment is specified as being nonrefundable in your Terms and Conditions, a chargeback dispute can still be initiated by the payer or their financial institution.

There can be various reasons for chargeback disputes, for example:

suspected card fraud

If the dispute is for a fraudulent transaction, it means the payer made the payment using the cardholder’s card without the cardholder’s approval. For these types of chargebacks, even with documentation of evidence, the dispute is often lost due to the nature of the dispute.
accidental duplicate transaction
dissatisfaction with the product or service

The Chargeback Process

The payer's financial institution (or card processor) notifies Flywire that a chargeback claim has been initiated.
Flywire collects evidence for the case with your help, and sends it to the financial institution.

In order to successfully dispute a chargeback claim, you and Flywire are teaming up against the claim from the payer or their financial institution. Flywire will contact your contact person for chargebacks for this.
You need to send any evidence that could help to Flywire.
What counts as evidence?
You should submit any evidence that the payer did receive the service.

These are just a few examples. Flywire will work with you to gather the best evidence for your case.

Examples for evidence that you can give Flywire to help dispute a chargeback:
- Invoices (or anything else that connects the payer to receiving the services for the payment)
- Signed Letters of Acceptance
- Signed Terms and Conditions (for example if a payment was for a non-refundable deposit, you should provide documentation that the payer was notified that the deposit was nonrefundable)
- Proof that a refund has already been given to the payer for this payment
- Any additional acknowledgment of payment by the payer (for example signed receipts)
If the dispute is for a fraudulent transaction, it means the payer made the payment using the cardholder’s card without the cardholder’s approval. For these types of chargebacks, even with documentation of evidence, the dispute is often lost due to the nature of the dispute.
To help Flywire dispute a chargeback for you, you need to send the evidence as soon as possible after Flywire contacted you. Flywire only has a short time span days for gathering evidence. If you do not provide any evidence or provide it too late, Flywire will use any information Flywire has about the payment to defend the dispute, but providing evidence significantly increases the chances of successfully defending the dispute.

Providing evidence does not guarantee a successful outcome.

While providing documentation helps in the defense of chargebacks, it does not guarantee a successful outcome. It will depend on each specific case and the chargeback reason provided by the payer to their financial institution. Card processors often side with their cardholders.
You need to send the funds back to Flywire.

You are contractually responsible for covering chargeback funds for lost disputes. When a chargeback dispute is raised, the funds are automatically taken from Flywire’s account and credited to the originating cardholder.

If the funds were already delivered to you. Flywire will request these funds from you at the point that a dispute has been raised and will release those funds back to you providing the dispute is won.

Viewing Chargeback Dispute Status

Go to Payments > Incoming Payments.
Click on the Chargeback Disputes tab.

Any payments related to chargeback disputes are listed.

You can search by payment ID or filter by chargeback status.

Exporting Chargeback Disputes

You can decide which information is included in the files that are created when you export data.

If you want to change these settings, you have to contact Flywire.

Go to the page you want to export.
Narrow down the list to what you what to include in your report with the search bar and the filters. You can also export the full list, but the maximum is a list of 5000 entries.
When you're happy with the list, click the export icon.

The list will be exported as a CSV.

FAQs for Chargebacks

What can I submit as evidence for the defense of a chargeback dispute?

You should submit any evidence that the payer did receive the service.

These are just a few examples. Flywire will work with you to gather the best evidence for your case

Examples for evidence that you can give Flywire to help dispute a chargeback:

Invoices (or anything else that connects the payer to receiving the services for the payment).

Signed Letters of Acceptance.

Signed Terms and Conditions (for example if a payment was for a non-refundable deposit, you should provide documentation that the payer was notified that the deposit was nonrefundable).

Proof that a refund has already been given to the payer for this payment.

Any additional acknowledgment of payment by the payer (for example signed receipts).

If the dispute is for a fraudulent transaction, it means the payer made the payment using the cardholder’s card without the cardholder’s approval. For these types of chargebacks, even with documentation of evidence, the dispute is often lost due to the nature of the dispute.

	Go to the Client Resource Center to chat with Flywire.
	Send a ticket via My Support Tickets.