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Seems to me those are all legal recourses, which obviously always existed. But disputing a charge on my card means I don’t have to open a legal case against a c

• dragonwriter 3y ago
  > Seems to me those are all legal recourses No, they are all payment disputes. The evidence in court records is from someone taking advantage of legal recourse for such disputes, yes. > But disputing a charge on my card means I don’t have to open a legal case against a company. The money is somewhat in escrow and it’s up to VISA/Mastercard to deal with the merchant. Having a third-party middle-man handling some subset of payment disputes in the first instance before recourse to the legal system also doesn’t originate with credit cards; even the language you use to describe it references the older and more general concept of escrow. And, of course, as a consumer on credit even before credit cards, and without an intermediary, you neither had to open a legal case against the seller or contact a third party in most cases for a payment dispute, you simply withheld payment. It was the seller who had to initiate a legal case against a purchaser on credit in the event of a payment dispute, and that largely remains unchanged.