A charge you never made is sitting on your credit card statement. The first move when you dispute unauthorized charges is a phone call to your card issuer, today, using the number on the back of your card. Canadian law caps what you can owe for someone else’s use of your card, but how quickly you report it can decide whether you get every dollar back.
Will you get your money back?
In most cases, yes. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) says you will usually not be held responsible for transactions you didn’t make or approve, as long as you took the necessary precautions to safeguard your account information. Two layers of protection sit behind that.
The first is the law. If a bank issued your card, the most you can be held responsible for when someone uses it without your permission is $50. That cap does not apply if you showed gross negligence (in Quebec, gross fault) in protecting your card, its account information, or your PIN and passwords.
If another federally regulated financial institution issued the card, your maximum is $50 or the limit set in your card agreement, whichever is lower. Your card agreement has to explain your maximum liability. FCAC notes that these rights apply when you deal with a federally regulated institution, such as a bank or a federal credit union.
The second is the card networks. Visa and Mastercard both publish zero liability policies for Canada, and each comes with conditions:
- Visa’s Zero Liability Policy covers Canada-issued cards, and you must notify your financial institution immediately of any unauthorized use. It excludes anonymous prepaid cards, purchasing, corporate and commercial cards, and transactions Visa did not process.
- Mastercard’s zero liability applies if you used reasonable care to safeguard your card, PIN and password, and you reported a lost or stolen card immediately after becoming aware of it. It does not apply to commercial cards, unregistered prepaid cards or gift cards.
Both policies ask you to report fast, and Mastercard’s also depends on how well you protected your PIN. FCAC warns that if you share your PIN with someone, you may be responsible for transactions you didn’t make or approve.
How to dispute unauthorized charges in Canada, step by step
FCAC’s guidance on unauthorized transactions and credit card fraud comes down to six steps.
- Call your card issuer immediately. Report every transaction you didn’t make or approve, not just the largest one. Note the name of the person you spoke to and the date and time of the call.
- Change your passwords and PINs. Do it for the card and for your online banking, especially if you lost a phone you use for banking.
- Write down what happened. Include when and how you first noticed the charge, and keep every statement, receipt, email and text that relates to it.
- Report the fraud. FCAC suggests contacting your local police and reporting the incident to the National Fraud Reporting System, run by the RCMP and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
- Check your credit reports. Look for accounts or credit applications you don’t recognize, and ask Equifax and TransUnion to place a fraud alert on your file.
- Keep watching your statements. Fraudsters often keep charging for as long as they can, sometimes in small amounts or under merchant names that look familiar.
If the fraud has already shown up on your credit report as an account you never opened, that correction runs through the credit bureaus. Our guide on how to dispute a credit report error walks through it. Recovering from identity theft beyond the card itself is a longer process with its own steps.
How long do you have to report it?
Check your card agreement. FCAC notes that some agreements set a specific time to report an unauthorized transaction, and if you miss it, you may be held responsible and may not get the money back. The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) says consumers generally must dispute a charge within 30 to 45 days from the date of their statement. Your own agreement’s limit is the one that applies to you, and both network policies ask you to report immediately.
What your card issuer has to do
Your report starts an investigation. A federally regulated financial institution must always fully investigate a transaction you dispute, no matter how it was processed: with your PIN, by magnetic swipe or through other technology.
The institution also can’t hold you responsible just because someone used your PIN, password or other authentication information to make the charge. It should consider every circumstance that contributed, including ones outside your control: someone forced you, someone stole your card, a system malfunctioned, or someone watched you enter your PIN.
Expect to be asked questions. OBSI notes that most credit card agreements require you to cooperate with the bank’s investigation, which means providing relevant information within reasonable timelines and answering truthfully.
What happens to the charge while it’s investigated
According to OBSI, the bank will usually refund the charge on your card while it investigates. If it later decides you were not entitled to the refund, it will reverse that credit. Fraud and stolen-card cases are usually resolved by refunds through the networks’ zero liability policies.
That temporary credit is not guaranteed. Visa states that an issuer may withhold, delay, limit or rescind provisional credit based on factors that include a delay in reporting, the investigation itself, and your account standing and history.
Two practical points follow from that:
- Ask your issuer directly how it is handling the disputed amount and any interest charged on it, and write down the answer.
- Keep making at least the minimum credit card payment on the rest of your balance, so your account stays in good standing while the dispute runs.
If the dispute ends up at OBSI and it recommends compensation, OBSI says the recommendation is usually the disputed charge plus interest, and it may also recommend refunding other fees caused by the disputed charge.
Can you dispute a charge you authorized?
Sometimes, yes, but it is a different process: a chargeback rather than a fraud claim. OBSI says people who dispute a charge they did authorize often give one of these reasons:
- the merchant charged more than you agreed to
- there was a billing error
- the product or service never arrived
- what arrived was not as described
OBSI says most cardholder agreements and legal rules require you to go to the merchant first. Explain the problem and say how you want it fixed. If the merchant won’t help, ask your card issuer for a refund or chargeback.
The issuer submits the chargeback through the card network. The merchant’s bank is brought in, and the merchant is usually asked for information.
Conditions and evidence for a chargeback
Visa’s E-Promise program is one example of the conditions involved. It covers online, phone and mail-order purchases the merchant has not refunded. You must have lawfully cancelled under the merchant’s cancellation policy, or the item never arrived, or it was different from what you ordered and you returned it. Provincial consumer protection laws can also give you refund rights against a merchant in certain circumstances.
For a chargeback, gather the statement showing the charge, the receipt or contract, and the emails that show you tried to fix it with the merchant. Strict time limits apply, so don’t wait to see if the merchant comes around.
If your card issuer says no
A refusal is not the last word. If your card came from a bank, the escalation path is set out in federal rules.
Use the issuer’s complaint process first
Every bank has its own complaint-handling process, and you can usually expect two internal steps. FCAC advises writing down the key facts, dates, the names of employees you spoke with, and the outcome you want, such as a refund. The bank must give you a detailed written response within 56 calendar days of when you first complained.
Take it to OBSI
Since November 1, 2024, OBSI has been the external complaints body for customers of all Canadian banks. Its review is free and impartial. You can go to OBSI once 56 calendar days have passed since you first complained to your bank, or once the bank has given you its final written response, whichever comes first. OBSI gives you 180 days after the bank’s final response to bring the complaint.
If your complaint falls outside OBSI’s terms of reference, OBSI must tell you in writing within 30 calendar days. Otherwise, it must make a final written recommendation within 120 calendar days of receiving the information it needs. OBSI looks at what the bank did and what you did, not the merchant, and its approach to disputed credit card charges explains what it weighs. Disputes about credit card charges are among the most common banking complaints it handles.
If your card came from a provincially regulated credit union, the process may differ, and your provincial or territorial regulator is the place to ask.
Where FCAC fits
FCAC does not resolve individual complaints and does not provide compensation. What it does is supervise banks’ compliance with federal consumer protection laws, including their complaint-handling obligations. Its Consumer Information Centre can explain your rights and walk you through a bank’s complaint process.
What decides the outcome
OBSI says the outcome of these cases depends largely on the evidence each side can use to show what happened. Cases where it normally does not recommend compensation include charges not challenged within a reasonable time, a PIN that wasn’t protected, and a cardholder who didn’t cooperate with the bank’s investigation.
So the record you build in the first hour is the case you will have months later. That means the call log, the timeline you wrote down, and the date you reported each charge.
FCAC’s own prevention tips include the basics this kind of case turns on: keep your PIN private and review your statement every month. Once the dispute is settled, it is also a fair moment to check whether your card still suits how you spend. Our credit card guide covers the main types, fees and features.
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