Visa · Consumer Disputes
Reason code 13.9: Non-Receipt of Cash or Load Transaction Value
The cardholder attempted a cash withdrawal at an ATM or a value load transaction and did not receive the cash or loaded value, in full or in part, despite being debited. This is an ATM and load-device dispute rather than a merchant sales dispute. The typical case is an ATM that debited the account but dispensed nothing or short-dispensed.
Issuer filing window
120 days from the transaction processing date
Merchant response window
typically 20-30 days to respond, depending on the acquirer
Why 13.9 chargebacks happen
- An ATM malfunctioned mid-dispense, debiting the account while jamming or retracting the bills.
- The machine dispensed a partial amount but recorded the full withdrawal.
- A power or network failure interrupted the transaction after the debit but before dispense.
- A load transaction, such as adding value to a prepaid product, debited the funding card without crediting the value.
- The cash was retracted by the machine when the customer failed to take it within the timeout.
How to fight a 13.9 chargeback
- Pull the ATM's electronic journal for the transaction showing a completed dispense of the full amount.
- Provide the terminal's balancing and cash-reconciliation records for the period, since an ATM that balances to the penny did not eat the withdrawal.
- Submit fault and event logs demonstrating no dispense error, retract event, or jam at the transaction time.
- Include camera footage of the customer taking the cash where available.
- For load transactions, show the value ledger crediting the loaded amount to the customer's product.
How to prevent 13.9 chargebacks
- Maintain dispense mechanisms on a preventive schedule, since jams and short-dispenses are overwhelmingly mechanical.
- Reconcile ATM cash daily against the electronic journal so dispense discrepancies surface immediately.
- Configure retract handling to reverse the debit automatically when cash is retracted.
- Monitor terminals remotely for fault codes and take error-prone machines out of service quickly.
- For load products, make the funding debit and the value credit atomic, reversing the debit when the load fails.
Frequently asked questions
- Does 13.9 apply to online purchases?
- No. It exists for cash disbursement and value load transactions, essentially ATM withdrawals and prepaid loads where the cardholder was debited without receiving the cash or value. An ecommerce sale disputed for non-delivery comes through as 13.1 instead. If a 13.9 reaches a pure ecommerce MID, it has been misrouted and your acquirer should reject it.
- How does an ATM operator fight a claim that the machine did not dispense?
- The electronic journal is the core evidence: it records the dispense command, the notes presented, and any retract or error events for the exact transaction. Pair it with the day's cash balancing showing no surplus in the machine, and camera footage if the site has it. A journal showing clean full dispense plus balanced cash defeats nearly any non-receipt claim.
- What happens when an ATM short-dispenses a withdrawal?
- The cardholder is debited the requested amount but receives less, and the issuer disputes the shortfall under 13.9. The machine's journal and cash count will show the surplus, and the correct outcome is refunding the difference. Deployers who reconcile daily catch these before the dispute arrives and can proactively adjust, which preserves the relationship with the site owner and sponsor.
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