Chargebacks and SEPA direct debit returns: two risks few providers explain honestly

The short answer

In online retail, card and direct debit are the two payment methods that let the customer reverse a payment. The rules could hardly be more different. The card costs more, the procedure is regulated, and the merchant can defend itself. Direct debit is cheap, and the customer can reverse it for eight weeks without a reason. If you offer both, you need to know both risk profiles.

Card: the chargeback process

The customer’s deadline: 120 days from payment. For travel and event tickets, the period only starts on the date of the event. A ticket bought in January for an August festival can be disputed until December.

The process:

1. American Express has a preliminary stage (retrieval request). Visa and Mastercard no longer use one.
2. Formal chargeback: the card scheme debits the amount, and the money is held back for the whole process. The merchant has seven to 21 days to respond, depending on the scheme.
3. Dispute (representment): the merchant submits evidence. The card-issuing bank takes 60 to 75 days to review it.
4. Arbitration, only where the network rules allow it.

Duration: two to three months until a final decision. The outcome is final. Even if the customer says they have withdrawn the complaint, the merchant still has to respond with evidence.

Fees (using Stripe as an example, price list accessed on 9 October 2026): 20 euros per chargeback received and 20 euros per dispute response; the response fee is refunded if the merchant wins. SEPA direct debit has its own fees at Stripe, see below.

In practice, most cases are not lost on the facts. They are lost because the merchant misses the seven-to-21-day response deadline.

Direct debit: the customer’s right

With the SEPA Core direct debit, the payer can demand a refund “without giving reasons” under section 675x (2) BGB (the German Civil Code). The deadline is eight weeks from the debit (subsection 4). The bank must refund or refuse within ten business days (subsection 5). For unauthorised direct debits, meaning those without a valid mandate, the period is 13 months (section 676b BGB).

The SEPA Business-to-Business direct debit, which only works between companies, is different. According to the Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (the German banking industry committee), there is no right to object to authorised payments. The payer’s bank checks the mandate before debiting the account, and in return the eight-week right falls away. If you sell to business customers with fixed amounts, you should know this option; it requires the customer to register the mandate with their own bank as well.

For the merchant, this means that with the Core direct debit there is no defence against the return itself. The claim still exists under civil law. But the merchant has to collect it alone, through reminders, debt collection or the courts.

What does a direct debit dispute mean?

“Direct debit returned” always means the same thing on your bank statement: the money is gone again. Behind it, though, are four different processes, which the SEPA rulebook of the European Payments Council (Core Rulebook 2025, in force since 5 October 2025) keeps clearly apart. The difference decides how you should respond.

Process	Who triggers it	When	Typical reason	What you do
Reject	Customer’s bank or the system	before settlement	wrong IBAN, account closed, customer refuses in advance	check the data, call the customer
Return	Customer’s bank	up to 5 inter-bank business days after settlement	insufficient funds, account closed, customer deceased	collect again after speaking to the customer
Refund	Customer	up to 8 weeks after the debit	no reason needed	contact the customer, reissue the claim
Refund, unauthorised	Customer	up to 13 months after the debit	no valid mandate	produce the mandate

The first two are usually a cash-flow problem or a data error. A phone call often sorts it out, and Stripe, for example, can automatically retry up to twice when an account has insufficient funds, if you switch this on. A refund requested by the customer is a signal instead: they dispute the claim, do not recognise the merchant name on their statement, or have cancelled and no longer want to pay. In Germany, you will usually not be told the reason; Stripe notes that no additional details are provided for data protection reasons.

A common, avoidable trigger: the customer does not recognise the transaction. If you collect under your payment provider’s name instead of your own company name, you invite refunds that have nothing to do with the goods.

When are direct debits returned?

The short answer: most technical returns arrive in the first week, refunds requested by the customer up to eight weeks later. Only after that is the money from an authorised Core direct debit really safe.

The rulebook requires returns by the bank to be settled no later than five inter-bank business days after the settlement date. Stripe’s documentation recommends treating a SEPA direct debit as successful no earlier than six business days, because most failures happen within that window.

Worked example for a direct debit charged on Thursday, 1 October 2026 (no payment-system holidays in this period):

Event	Latest date
Return by the bank (empty account, account closed)	Thursday, 8 October 2026
Refund requested by the customer without a reason	Thursday, 26 November 2026 (eight weeks), settlement up to two business days later
Refund because no mandate exists	1 November 2027 (13 months)

In practice, this means: for new customers with large baskets, ship only after the first-week return window. You cannot wait out the eight-week risk; you can only limit it by choosing which customers get direct debit.

What does a returned direct debit cost the merchant?

Two items: your payment provider’s fee, and the value of the goods if you have already shipped them. Examples from published price lists:

Provider	Successful direct debit	Failed/returned	Refund requested by customer
Stripe (accessed 9 October 2026)	0.35 euros	3.50 euros	15.00 euros
secupay, Lastschrift Collecting (price list dated 7 May 2026, net)	per contract	2.50 euros per returned debit	2.50 euros (price list does not distinguish by reason)

Worked example, basket size 40 euros via Stripe: the successful direct debit costs 0.35 euros. If the customer requests a refund after three weeks, you are missing the 40 euros plus a 15-euro fee. A single case like this eats up the direct debit fees of just over 40 successful payments. With a basket of 200 euros, the fee is a side issue; what matters then is the goods already shipped.

Can you pass the costs on to the customer? The damage actually incurred, yes, if the customer is responsible for the return, for example because the account had insufficient funds. Under section 309 no. 5 BGB, a flat fee in your terms and conditions must not exceed the damage to be expected in the ordinary course of events, and the customer must remain free to prove that the damage was lower. Processing time or profit margins do not belong in it. In an individual case, ask your lawyer.

The comparison

	Card	SEPA direct debit
Customer’s deadline	120 days	8 weeks without a reason, 13 months where no mandate exists
Reason required	yes (reason code)	no
Defence	yes, with evidence in the process	none against the return, only debt collection
Provider fee (Stripe as an example)	20 euros per chargeback plus 20 euros per dispute response	15 euros per refund, 3.50 euros per return
Transaction costs (Mollie as an example)	1.80 % plus 0.25 euros	0.35 euros flat

What to do now

1. Offer direct debit only to customers with a purchase history or for small recurring amounts. Steer first-time buyers with large baskets towards card, PayPal or insured invoice payment.
2. Track card response deadlines. Create one calendar entry per chargeback, and keep the evidence ready to use: delivery confirmation, correspondence, IP address, login.
3. Review your reversal rate per payment method every month. Card schemes fine or terminate merchants above certain rates.
4. Document direct debit mandates properly. Otherwise the 13-month period applies instead of eight weeks.