Discover Dispute Guide

Your comprehensive guide to reason codes, modifiers, time limits, and compelling evidence for Discover Card transactions.

Discover uses the four main categories to organize its reason codes: Authorization, Service (Discover’s name for Card Member Disputes), Fraud, and Processing Errors. Discover has just one additional category to classify one reason code: Dispute Compliance.

Time limits are for the acquiring bank. Merchants will typically be given half the amount of time the acquiring bank is given to accomodate for the time they need to process internally.

A transaction modifier (or modifier) represents specific circumstances associated with a card sale that change what compelling evidence is required to overturn the chargeback.

• RG – Non-Receipt of Goods, Services, or Cash

• Respond by providing the following evidence that either shows:
  • The cardholder used the disputed airline ticket
  • The lost ticket application submitted by the cardholder is not valid

• RG – Non-Receipt of Goods, Services, or Cash
• RM – Cardholder Disputes Quality of Goods or Services
• UA02 – Fraud – Card Not Present Transaction

• For Discover reason codes RG and RM, provide any of the following:
  • Cardholder confirmation of registration to receive electronic delivery of goods or services
  • Cardholder’s e-mail or IP address, date and time of download, description of goods downloaded or log documenting the receipt of downloaded material on or after the transaction date
• For Discover reason code UA02, prove that the items were delivered and that you used the Address Verification Service (AVS) to validate the numeric portion of the cardholder’s billing address, including street address and ZIP code, or that the response to an AVS request indicated that the cardholder’s address is not verified because the card is issued outside of the United States. Or provide any of the following:
  • Cardholder confirmation of registration to receive electronic delivery of goods or services
  • Cardholder’s e-mail or IP address, date and time of download, description of goods downloaded or log documenting the receipt of downloaded material on or after the transaction date

• RG – Non-Receipt of Goods, Services, or Cash
• RM – Cardholder Disputes Quality of Goods or Services
• UA02 – Fraud – Card Not Present Transaction

• For all reason codes, provide either:
  • The cardholder’s signature on the pick-up form
  • A copy of the cardholder’s identification presented at the time of pick-up

Download our 100+ page comprehensive guide to reason codes, modifiers, time limits, and compelling evidence.