If a traveler's payment on your account is disputed, you can track its status and respond directly from your WeTravel dashboard. This article walks through where to find a dispute, what each stage means, and how to respond. For a full explanation of what disputes are and why they happen, see How does WeTravel handle disputes?.
Where to find your dispute
As soon as a payment is disputed, you'll receive an email from us, and a dispute card appears automatically on that payment's details page. You can also find any disputed payment by filtering for "Dispute" under Reports > Payment Reports > Transactions.
Understanding the stages
Disputes move through a series of checkpoints, shown as a simple progress bar at the top of the dispute card - including the current status, expected timelines, any deadlines, and the actions available to you at each stage:
👉🏽 Your action - there's something for you to do: respond with evidence, or accept the dispute.
👉🏽 Bank review - your response has been submitted, and the case is now with the bank.
👉🏽 Bank decision - the bank has made its final decision.
At the end of these stages, you'll see one of the following final statuses:
Dispute Won — the bank ruled in your favor, and the disputed amount has been returned to your balance.
Dispute Lost — the bank ruled in the traveler's favor, and the disputed amount is permanently deducted from your balance. This can also happen automatically for disputes made via direct debit methods (such as ACH, SEPA, BACS, or BECS), since these can't be contested and are decided directly by the participant's bank rather than going through the review stages above.
Dispute was accepted — you accepted the dispute, and the amount was automatically returned to the traveler, so no further action was needed.
Responding to a dispute
While a dispute is in the evidence needed stage, you have two options:
Accept the dispute. If you recognize the dispute as valid, you can accept it directly from the dispute card. The disputed amount was already deducted from your balance when the dispute was raised, so accepting won't return any funds - it simply closes the case. This can't be undone, so it's worth being sure before confirming.
Note: If your account has a negative balance, you'll need to top it up before this option becomes available.
Submit evidence to counter it. If you'd like to challenge the dispute, you can upload evidence directly from the dispute card. You'll be guided through a short set of steps covering the details of the case and any supporting documents you'd like to include — receipts, invoices, your terms and conditions, or message threads with the participant.
Note: Evidence sent by email can no longer be accepted or reviewed — everything needs to go through this upload step.
🚨 A few important things to keep in mind when uploading:
The specific evidence we ask for depends on the reason for the dispute — you'll be guided through exactly what's needed as you go.
Include full context with anything you submit - for messenger conversations, the date and the participant's name or contact details; for emails, the sender, recipient, and date.
Combine multiple screenshots into a single PDF where you can.
Accepted file formats: PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, TXT, CSV, HEIC, and images. Video and audio files aren't accepted.
Each file can be up to 10MB, and your evidence can't exceed 19 pages in total.
Once submitted, your response moves to the bank's review stage, and there's nothing further to do while the bank makes its decision. The bank typically takes 60–90 business days to review the case and reach a decision.
Archiving a resolved dispute
Once a dispute reaches its final decision - won, lost, or accepted - you'll see an Archive dispute button on the card. Archiving simply folds the dispute under the payment's details, keeping it out of your active list. You can always unarchive it later to see the full case again.
Important notes:
Any team member with payout permissions on your account can view and respond to a dispute. Team members without payout access but with access to trips can view disputes.
The dispute card shows an estimated decision window rather than an exact date, since banks don't share one with us directly - most decisions take up to 3 months.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to receive a decision about a dispute?
Once you've submitted your evidence, the bank typically takes 60–90 business days to review the case and reach a decision. This is out of our hands - banks don't share an exact date, so what you see on your dispute card is an estimate rather than a fixed timeline. We will email you once the bank has made its decision.
What happens if I accept the dispute or miss the response deadline?
Accepting the dispute closes the case immediately. If you miss the response deadline, you won't be able to submit evidence directly, but the case isn't automatically lost — our disputes team will step in and challenge the claim on your behalf using any information already available. You can still track the outcome from your dashboard just like any other dispute.
I lost the dispute - can I appeal the decision?
No. Disputes are decided by the traveler's bank or credit card company, and once a decision is made, it's final - the payment can't be recovered or re-contested.
I only see "Disagree & Counter" on my dispute card, but not the "Accept & Refund" option?
This happens when the case is still at the inquiry stage, before the participant's bank has filed a formal dispute. At this point, no funds have been deducted from your balance yet, so there's nothing to refund — "Accept & Refund" only appears once it becomes a formal dispute. In the meantime, you can still respond with information through "Disagree & Counter," which may help resolve things before it escalates.
How are ACH, SEPA, BACS, and other direct debit disputes handled?
These payment methods work differently from cards - your customer disputes them directly with their bank in writing, rather than through a dispute button, and they can't be countered with evidence. When one of these is disputed, you'll see it marked as Dispute Lost automatically on the dispute card, and the participant will need to resubmit the payment for you to receive the funds again.
Check out our comprehensive guide for detailed information regarding the causes of disputes, relevant fees, and your chances of a successful outcome: How does WeTravel handle disputes?