ABOUT “DISPUTE” AND “CHARGEBACK” HANDLING

Cardholder is entitled the right to raise dispute on a transaction within 60 days from the statement date by filling the Cardholder Dispute and Resolution Request form.Please note that any transaction dispute raised by Cardholder beyond 60 days from the statement date will not be handled.
Chargeback is debiting a merchant’s bank the sum previously paid for the transaction with credit card and pays back to cardholder(s) after the cardholder(s) successfully disputes a credit card transaction on his or her credit card statement. Card Associations includes Visa International, MasterCard International and China Unionpay. Card Associations acts as network of issuing banks and acquiring banks that processes payment cards of a specific brand. When a dispute/chargeback is raised by Cardholder, issuing banks will report the case to Card Associations for further handling.

How to initiate your chargeback requests

1.To complete the “Cardholder Dispute and Resolution Request form” (the “Request Form”).

2. To attach the supporting documents (e.g. sales slip, invoice, cancellation confirmation, credit sales slip, payment evidence and etc.), where appropriate, to the completed Request Form. The relevant supporting documents are valid evidence and proof for the transaction sum and the reason that cardholder(s) intends to claim. Sufficient supporting documents may avoid unnecessary delay for submission to card associations for further handling.

3. Please note that each questionable transaction can only be raised with one reason only. If the questionable transaction is rejected by card association(s), such questionable transaction is not acceptable for raising chargeback request again with another reason.

4. To send the completed Request Form together with all supporting documents to our Bank via either one of the following channels.
By mail – ICBC (Asia) Credit Card Centre, P.O. Box 27, General Post Office, Hong Kong
By email – service@icbcasia.com
By fax – (852) 2233 9988

What the Bank does

1. Upon receiving the completed Request Form, the Bank will review the completed Request Form together with all relevant supporting documents. Cardholder shall receive the acknowledgement from our Bank within 10 business days. If any discrepancy found, the Bank will contact the Cardholder(s) for further supplement.

2. Following the initial checking, the Bank will review the case against the right of dispute or chargeback requirements (e.g. checking the questionable transaction from the Bank’s record). If it is fulfilled the relevant requirements, the Bank will submit such request to relevant card associations for entering into the investigation process.

3. The Bank shall send the notification letter to the Cardholder within 30 days for advising the case valid for proceeding chargeback request or not.

4. Afterwards, the Bank takes following actions during the investigation process.
The Bank will suspend the dispute transaction amount with temporary credit the transaction amount to the cardholder account if investigation is confirmed to take place.
No interest and late charge will be incurred for the questionable transaction after the date of notification letter.

5. Once the Bank being informed the result, the Bank will notify the cardholders the same with a confirmation letter as soon as practicable.

Responsibility of the Bank

Please note that the Bank is not the responsible party of relevant disputes investigation and has no influence on the claims decision. Once the dispute has been reported to relevant card associations, the Bank takes no other action unless further information is requested by card associations.

Other important information

In general, the investigation should be completed within 90 days upon receiving notice from Cardholder. Cardholder shall receive the claims result within the said period.

The following is an example to illustrate the general chargeback process.

A cardholder raised a dispute with “service not provided”, the process of the chargeback will be as follows:

Day	Descriptions
1	Cardholder submitted the Request Form via one of our branches
3	Received the Request Form by Credit Card Centre
10	The Bank will issue the acknowledgment to cardholder
11-29	Review the supporting documents against the right of dispute or chargeback requirements and determine whether the case is valid for investigation or not
30	Issue the notification letter to cardholder for notifying the cardholder about the result for further proceeding Report the case to relevant card association via system platform
31-74	Investigation period and pending the result from card association
75-89	Obtain result from card association via system platform, Based on the result, the Bank will follow up further if: (1) Merchant agreed to refund, inform cardholder and case closed (2) Merchant provided representment and rejected to refund
90	Issuing with confirmation letter with the final result
104	If the Cardholder does not agree to the final result, Cardholder can appeal and raise 2nd chargeback with additional supporting documents before this date Remarks: another 45 days will be granted for 2nd chargeback (from 90th Day)
135	Obtain conclusive result from card association via system platform and inform the same to cardholder by issuing confirmation letter

Please note that a “Dispute Handling Charge” per unfounded dispute transaction will be imposed (Please also refer Fee Schedule of ICBC Credit Card if the questionable transaction would be suspended during the investigation period. If it is proved that the transaction should be borne by the cardholder, a dispute handling charge of HK$150 including transactions in Hong Kong Dollar and Renminbi, the relevant transaction amount together with the finance charge and other related charges, if any, will be debited into the cardholder’s card account. After relevant charges debited to the cardholder(s) account, the Bank shall inform the cardholder(s) of the nature and amount of charges debited to their accounts promptly.

Enquiry

If cardholder(s) come across any problem or would like to check the status with the questionable transaction, please feel free to call our 24-hour customer service hotline at (852) 218 95588.