Dispute filing timeframes

You can file a dispute for any of the following reasons:

  • Unauthorized activity in your PayPal account (a payment you don't recognize or are confident you didn't authorize).
  • Issues with your purchase (a purchase doesn’t arrive or match the seller’s description).
  • Issues with the seller (a seller is not cooperating and doesn’t respond to your messages, or you're simply unable to reach an agreement).
  • Billing errors or issues with automatic payments (you've been charged more than once).

Timeframes for filing a dispute:

  • Item Not Received: Dispute must be opened within 180 days of the date you sent the payment to the seller.
  • Significantly Not as Described: Dispute must be opened within 30 days of the date of delivery or fulfillment (as applicable) of an order or within 180 days of the date you sent the payment to the seller, whichever is sooner.
  • Unauthorized transactions: If your PayPal account statement shows transfers that you did not make, you should tell us at once. If you do not tell us within 60 days after we provided the statement to you, you may not get back any money you lost after the 60 days if we can prove that we could have stopped someone from taking the money if you had told us in time. If a good reason (such as a long trip or a hospital stay) kept you from telling us, we may extend the time periods.
  • Other Errors (not including Unauthorized transactions): Notify us as soon as you can if you think your statement or receipt is wrong or if you need more information about a transfer listed on the statement or receipt. We must hear from you no later than 60 days after we sent the FIRST statement on which the problem or error appeared.

You can read more about our various policies in the PayPal User Agreement.

More ways we can help

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