Outside of the vendor's relationship with the credit card company, a chargeback is identical to ceasing payment. The credit card company has zero control or inf

Outside of the vendor's relationship with the credit card company, a chargeback is identical to ceasing payment. The credit card company has zero control or influence over contract disputes. At best they can threaten a vendor relationship for disregarding their arbitration (which vendors will do simply because they have to pay somewhere in the range of $700 to pursue), but they won't and don't do that. So you can find stories by the thousands of people who won a chargeback, and then were hounded by collections and ruined credit. Because Visa and Mastercard don't overrule contract law. Credit cards are safer/more powerful simply because money is influencing, and he who controls the money controls the relationship. They don't override contract law, however.