Visa's cancellation code, decided on the cancellation policy, whether the buyer agreed to it, and whether the merchant honored it.
Visa 13.7 lives at the intersection of policy and proof. The merchant may have a perfectly clear cancellation policy, may have honored it exactly, and still lose the dispute if they cannot show the buyer agreed to those terms before the charge was placed. The policy is the case, and without a record of acceptance, the issuer has only the buyer's account of what was agreed.
How the dispute actually arrives
A 13.7 typically arrives between 3 and 90 days after the disputed transaction, which for subscriptions is often a renewal rather than the original signup. The merchant receives the notification through their processor with the cardholder's claim summarized: cancelled and still charged, returned and not refunded, free trial that converted without consent. The merchant has 30 days from receipt of the notification to respond.
Subscription businesses see the bulk of 13.7 disputes. Physical-goods sellers see them on returns where the refund timing slipped or where the buyer disputes a restocking fee. Both patterns are defensible with the same kind of evidence.
What the issuer is looking for
Issuers reviewing a 13.7 ask two questions in sequence. What was the cancellation or refund policy, and did the buyer agree to it. Then: did the merchant honor that policy.
The policy as presented at the point of sale is the centerpiece. A screenshot of the checkout page on the date of the original transaction, or a record of the terms the buyer clicked through, is worth more than the current version of the terms page on the merchant's site. Policies change. The issuer wants to see what the buyer saw when they bought.
Evidence the buyer accepted those terms is the second piece. A click-through record, a checkbox state in the order log, or an email confirmation that quoted the cancellation terms back to the buyer all serve. Without an acceptance record, a generous court could argue the terms were never binding.
The communication trail is the third piece. If the buyer claims they cancelled by email on a certain date and the merchant's records show no such email, the issuer takes the merchant's records seriously, especially where the merchant offers a documented cancellation path the buyer did not use. If a refund or partial refund was already issued, the records of that refund usually narrow the dispute to the unrefunded portion.
Usage records matter for subscriptions and digital products. A buyer claiming they cancelled a SaaS subscription before the renewal, where the platform's audit log shows continued logins through and past the renewal date, is making a difficult case.
Common scenarios merchants see
A subscription the buyer believed they cancelled but was billed again. The merchant's records typically show either no cancellation request or a request that did not follow the documented path. The dispute turns on whether the documented path was clearly presented and reasonably easy to use.
A returned physical product where the refund has not arrived within the policy window. If the return tracking shows the package was received but the refund has not been issued, the merchant has limited grounds. The right move is often to issue the refund and accept the chargeback, then close the gap in operations rather than fight at representment.
A SaaS or course where the buyer requested a refund inside the window and was declined under a no-refund-after-access clause. The clause itself is defensible if the buyer agreed to it and used the product before requesting the refund.
A free trial that converted to a paid plan. The strongest position is a checkout flow that required the buyer to acknowledge the trial-to-paid conversion explicitly, with the conversion date and amount stated. The weakest position is a buried disclosure in the terms.
What this code is not
Reason code 13.7 is not a claim that the merchandise never arrived. If the buyer says they cancelled before delivery and the package was sent anyway, the dispute may arrive under Visa 13.1 (merchandise or services not received) instead. It is also not a fraud claim. If the buyer says the charge was not theirs, the dispute belongs under a 10-series code. Merchants who submit non-receipt evidence on a 13.7 are arguing the wrong case.
Where this fits in our service
Visa reason code 13.7 is where weak cancellation flows show up as lost revenue. The rebuttal letter is built from the policy as presented, the acceptance record, the communication trail, and the usage data. The same merchant can win 13.7 cases under one cancellation flow and lose them under a redesign. If you are reading this because you just received one, you can start with a free first letter.
Official source: Visa rules. Last reviewed 2026-05-11.