Dispute Fees by Country: What AU Stores Selling Overseas Pay

You sell to Singapore, the US and the UK from a Shopify store in Melbourne. A dispute lands from a customer in Texas. Which country's fee do you pay: theirs, yours, or someone else's?

Dispute fees by country follow where your business is based, not where the customer lives. Stripe says fees vary by business location, and for an Australian store on Shopify Payments the chargeback fee is A$25, returned if you win. A customer in Texas or Tokyo does not change that number, though currency swings can.

This guide is for you if:

You run an Australian Shopify store and ship to customers in other countries.
You have seen dispute fee tables for other countries and are not sure which one applies to you.
You want to know what an overseas dispute really costs once currency and shipping are counted.

Last updated: 19 October 2026. Written by the ChargeFix team. Reviewed against sources on 19 October 2026.

The 30-second answer (TL;DR)

The fee depends on where your business is based, not where the customer is. Stripe's own page says dispute fees vary by business location.

For an Australian store on Shopify Payments, the chargeback fee Australia merchants pay is A$25. You get it back if you win.

Stripe's published fees for Australian accounts are A$25 when a dispute is received and another A$25 if you counter it. Shopify's help page quotes A$25 for Shopify Payments, so use the figure your own account shows.

An overseas dispute costs more than the fee: the amount can move with the exchange rate, and currency conversion fees can apply.

The fee is the same on a A$40 order and a A$400 order, so dispute fees by country hurt small orders most.

Use a simple break-even rule to decide whether a dispute is worth answering.

Do this today (10 minutes):

Open your last three disputes and note the fee charged on each.

Check which currency each dispute was in, and whether the amount differs from the original sale.

List the three overseas markets that generate the most disputes.

The monthly review template later in this guide turns those notes into a routine.

From dispute to decision

Stage	What it means for the fee	Your move
Day 0: dispute lands	The amount and the A$25 fee leave your balance	Note the currency and the amount
Days 1 to 21	You decide whether to answer	Use the break-even rule
After you submit	The card company reviews, up to 75 days	The fee returns only if you win
Decision	Win returns amount and fee, loss does not	Update your market review

Which country's dispute fees by country table applies to you?

You pay the fee set for your own business country, not your customer's. Stripe says that dispute fees vary based on your business location, and its published table lists a fee for each country where a business can be based. An Australian business sits in the Australian row, whoever the customer is.

This is the single most common mix-up about dispute fees by country, and it is easy to see why. When you search for dispute fees by country online, you see tables with US$15, 20 pounds, 20 euros and a long list of others. They are not a menu of what your customers' countries charge. They are a list of what a business pays depending on where that business is set up.

Shopify's help page says the same thing from the other side: the fee is set per country, and for Australia it is A$25. It also says Shopify might refund the chargeback fee depending on your country or region. For Australian Shopify Payments stores, the A$25 is returned when you win.

So when a customer in Texas disputes a payment to your Melbourne store, the dispute fees by country entry that applies is the Australian one. The customer's bank still decides the outcome and the customer's time limits still apply, but the dollar fee is yours.

A quick story (illustration). Lena sells skincare from Sydney and ships to the US, the UK and New Zealand. She finds a table of dispute fees by country and decides that her American customers must be the cheap ones at US$15. They are not. Every dispute costs her the Australian fee of A$25, whoever the customer is. What does differ is the dispute rate. Her New Zealand orders take three weeks and produce twice as many "not received" claims as her local ones. The fee was a red herring. The market review she built afterwards was the real fix.

What are the published dispute fees by country?

Stripe publishes its dispute fees by country in each country's local currency. Australia is A$25 for a dispute received and A$25 more if you counter it. Shopify's help page lists A$25 for Australia and other figures for other countries, so check which provider your account uses.

Here is a selection from Stripe's published dispute fees by country, for businesses based in each country. Amounts are in each country's local currency. These are Stripe direct fees. Shopify Payments has its own help page, so treat this table as a way to see the pattern and use your own account's figure for decisions.

Business country	Currency	Dispute received fee	Dispute countered fee
Australia	AUD	25	25
New Zealand	NZD	25	25
Singapore	SGD	15	15
United States	USD	15	15
Canada	CAD	15	15
United Kingdom	GBP	20	20
Euro area (for example Germany, France, Ireland)	EUR	20	20
Switzerland	CHF	20	20
Hong Kong	HKD	85	85
India	INR	1,000	1,000
Japan	JPY	1,500	No countered fee
Mexico	MXN	150	No countered fee

Stripe's page says the countered fee is new and applies when you counter disputes initiated after 17 June 2025. In Stripe's own guidance, the dispute received fee is not refunded, and the countered fee is returned if you win. Shopify's help page says that on Shopify Payments the fee comes back when you win. Those two statements describe different products, so check the one that matches your setup.

Where dispute fees by country differ between providers, trust the page for your own product. Shopify's help page, as I read it, quotes A$25 for Australia, US$15 for the United States and 10 pounds for the United Kingdom. Stripe lists 20 pounds for a UK business. The difference is a good reminder that fee tables from different providers do not always match. Always read the page for the product you actually use.

What do dispute fees by country really tell you about your own costs?

Dispute fees by country tell you your fixed cost per dispute, and that is all. A fixed fee from the dispute fees by country tables matters more on a A$40 order than on a A$400 order. The bigger costs of an overseas dispute are the amount itself, the goods you have already shipped and any swing in the exchange rate.

Order value	A$25 fee as a share of the order
A$40	62.5%
A$75	33.3%
A$150	16.7%
A$300	8.3%
A$600	4.2%

On a A$40 order, the dispute fees by country figure for Australia is more than half the sale. If you lose, you are out the sale, the goods and the fee. That is why the cheapest orders deserve the most prevention, such as clear descriptors, tracking and fast replies, and why the break-even rule in the next section matters more for small baskets.

Many Australian stores also see a pattern with markets once they compare dispute fees by country with dispute rates by country. A country where shipping takes three weeks produces more "not received" claims. A country where your statement name looks foreign produces more "unrecognised" claims. The fee is the same either way, so the real difference between markets is the dispute rate, not the dispute fees by country.

How does currency change what an overseas dispute costs?

For overseas customers, the disputed amount is converted at the exchange rate on the day the bank files the dispute, not the day of the sale. Stripe's guide says the converted dispute amount can differ from the original, and none of the dispute fees by country tables show that swing, giving an example where a 100 euro sale became a 107.86 euro chargeback three months later. A currency swing can add or cut your loss.

Illustration 1: an overseas dispute with a currency swing. A US customer pays US$100 for an order. Assume US$1 equals A$1.52 on the day of the sale, so you receive about A$152. Three months later the customer disputes the payment. Assume US$1 now equals A$1.58, so the dispute is about A$158. The fee is A$25. The goods cost A$60 and postage was A$22. All of these exchange rates are assumptions for the sum, not forecasts.

Line	A$
Original sale received	A$152
Dispute amount converted at the new rate	A$158
Dispute fee	A$25
Total taken if you lose	A$183
Goods and postage already spent	A$82
Loss if you lose	A$183 less A$152 received, plus A$82 spent: A$113 net out

Another way to see it: if the dollar moved the other way, the converted amount would be smaller and the loss would shrink. The point is that you cannot know the loss on day one. A currency move is a swing you do not control, so the sensible reaction is to answer early and keep the file strong.

Shopify's Markets fees page adds two related costs: a currency conversion fee and a cross-border fee. It says a currency conversion fee applies on payments in a non-domestic currency, with rates it lists for the United States and France and a rate for all other regions, but Australia is not named. It also says a cross-border processing fee, the cross-border fee in plain words, applies on cards issued outside the store's country, and does not state the rate. I could not confirm what these fees are for an Australian store, so open your own Shopify Payments fee page and read the figures that apply to you. Those fees come on top of the dispute fee, so overseas customers can cost more at every stage. A currency conversion fee and a cross-border fee are charged on the sale, before any dispute exists.

What does one overseas order cost when it is disputed, line by line?

Add up every piece, not only the fee in the dispute fees by country tables. For a modest overseas order, the fee, the postage and the goods together can be larger than the sale. This is why the chargeback fee Australia stores pay, though small, sits on top of much bigger costs.

Illustration 3: a A$90 order to the UK. The goods cost A$35 and international postage was A$28. The dispute is for the full A$90 and the fee is A$25. For simplicity, assume no exchange-rate swing. I have not priced any currency conversion or cross-border processing fee, because I could not confirm the rates for an Australian store, so any such fee would make the lose column worse.

Line	If you win	If you lose
Sale amount kept	A$90	A$0
Chargeback fee	Returned	A$25 gone
Goods	A$35 spent	A$35 spent
Postage	A$28 spent	A$28 spent
Net result	A$27 profit	Loss of A$88

The swing is A$115. On this order the profit from winning is only A$27, so even a win is thin. Losing costs more than three times that profit. A single lost dispute on an order like this wipes out the margin on about three similar orders. That is the case for tracked shipping and a recognisable statement name on every overseas parcel.

It is also the case for choosing markets with care when you compare dispute fees by country and margins. If a market ships slowly, sells low-margin items and produces many disputes, the maths can turn against you even when the fee looks small.

Is it worth fighting an overseas dispute?

Fight when your chance of winning is higher than your break-even. The break-even win chance is your time cost divided by the amount plus the fee, because that sum is the swing between winning and losing. A bigger order has a lower break-even, so large overseas orders are almost always worth a proper file.

Illustration 2: break-even by order value. Assume a response takes two hours and your time is worth A$40 an hour, so the effort costs A$80. The fee is A$25.

Order value	Amount plus fee	Break-even win chance
A$40	A$65	123 percent, so not worth fighting on time alone
A$75	A$100	80 percent
A$150	A$175	46 percent
A$300	A$325	25 percent
A$600	A$625	13 percent

For the A$40 order, the effort costs more than the whole swing. If it takes you 20 minutes, A$13, the break-even drops to about 20 percent, so a short, ready-made response can still make sense. This is where a tool that drafts the file for you changes the sum. The rule is that effort should scale with the swing, not with the fee tables.

For overseas orders, also consider what the dispute says about your process, because dispute fees by country will not tell you that. Three disputes from the same country in a month is a signal worth fixing, whatever you decide on each one.

Do other payment methods have different dispute fees?

Yes, and the rules differ in more ways than the dispute fees by country. Stripe says local payment methods such as Klarna and PayPal have their own dispute processes. The provider, not a card issuer, decides, the window is often about 180 days, some charge a fee only when you lose and others add nothing beyond the standard fee.

That matters when you sell overseas, because many overseas customers prefer a local wallet or a buy-now-pay-later method. Each one can bring its own deadline and fee. The guide on Shopify Payments against PayPal and other gateways compares the rules side by side. For now, the practical advice is to read the dispute page of every payment method you switch on, and to record the fee and window in one place.

What changes when the customer is overseas?

With overseas customers, evidence is harder, deadlines are the same and the customer's bank is far away. The same evidence list applies, but the tracking trail is longer, the language may differ and the customer is less likely to answer your email. Lead with the strongest delivery record and keep the story simple.

Challenge	Why overseas makes it harder	What helps
Delivery proof	Handover between carriers breaks the trail	Tracking screenshots from each stage, final scan with date
Contact	Time zones and language slow replies	Short messages, plain English, a clear subject line
Recognition	A foreign statement name may look unfamiliar	A recognisable name, order email, product name on the statement
Time limits	Longer transit leaves less time to respond	Submit early, do not wait for the due date
Currency	The dispute amount may differ from the sale	Show the original currency and amount in your file

Stripe says card networks typically allow cardholders about 120 days to dispute, with more time in some situations, and that for local payment methods like Klarna and PayPal the window is often 180 days. For an overseas order with a three-week delivery, a dispute can arrive months after you shipped, so keep records long enough. The guide on international customers covers the evidence in depth.

What should you do in the first week of an overseas dispute?

Note the amount, currency and due date, check which of the dispute fees by country applied, then start the file. Do not let the distance make you slow. A dispute from overseas has the same due date as a local one, and the card company has the same 75 days to decide.

Here is a day-by-day plan for an overseas dispute that lands on Wednesday 2 December 2026, with a due date of Wednesday 16 December 2026. Your own due date will be on the notice, and Shopify says the window is usually 7 to 21 days. Because of the festive season, the plan submits early.

Date	Task	Output
Wed 2 Dec	Read the notice. Note the amount, currency, fee and due date.	One-line note
Thu 3 Dec	Export the order, payment checks and delivery records. Screenshot the final tracking scan.	Core exhibits saved
Fri 4 Dec	Apply the break-even rule. Decide to fight or accept.	Decision logged
Mon 7 Dec	Write to the customer, kindly and briefly.	Message sent
Tue 8 Dec	Draft the cover note with the original currency and amount.	Draft v1
Wed 9 Dec	Read it cold. Fix gaps.	File v2
Fri 11 Dec	Submit, three business days before the due date.	Confirmation saved

Shopify Payments sends your response on the due date even if you added nothing, so a half-built file at the deadline still goes out. Finish on the Friday.

How do you review dispute fees by country in your own markets?

Once a month, list your overseas markets with orders, disputes and fees paid, and put your dispute fees by country next to your sales by country. You will see which markets cost more in disputes than they earn in margin. That is a business decision, and the review makes it visible. The template below fits in a spreadsheet.

MONTHLY OVERSEAS DISPUTE REVIEW  (month of [date])

Market   Orders   Sales A$   Disputes   Fees paid   Lost A$   Win/lose
US       [ ]      [ ]        [ ]        [ ]         [ ]       [ ]
UK       [ ]      [ ]        [ ]        [ ]         [ ]       [ ]
NZ       [ ]      [ ]        [ ]        [ ]         [ ]       [ ]
SG       [ ]      [ ]        [ ]        [ ]         [ ]       [ ]

Dispute rate by market  = disputes / orders
Cost per order by market = (fees + losses) / orders

Questions
  [ ] Which market has the highest dispute rate?
  [ ] What is the most common reason in that market?
  [ ] Is delivery time or statement name the likely cause?
  [ ] Do I need tracked shipping, a clearer descriptor or a different carrier?
  [ ] Does the cost per order still leave a margin?

Shopify says winning does not remove a dispute from your chargeback rate, because the rate is based on disputes filed. So a market with many won disputes can still push your rate up. Looking at disputes filed, not only lost, gives you the true picture.

Which prevention steps matter most for overseas customers?

Tracked shipping, honest delivery estimates, a recognisable statement name and fast replies, which cut the number of times you pay the dispute fees by country at all. Shopify's preventing chargebacks page recommends all four. Overseas, each one matters more because the gaps are longer and the customer cannot walk into a shop to ask.

Step	Why it matters more overseas	Effort
Tracked shipping on every parcel	Long journeys need a visible trail	Choose a tracked service for each market
Honest delivery estimate at checkout	Three weeks promised and three weeks taken is a happy customer	Set per-market estimates
Recognisable statement name	A foreign charge looks suspicious	Check your Shopify Payments name
Reply within one business day	Time zones stretch every exchange	Set an auto-reply with your hours
Clear returns rules	Return postage across borders is costly	Say who pays, in plain words
Price in the buyer's currency where sensible	Avoids surprise on the statement	Review your market settings

The guide on billing descriptors covers the statement name in detail. A name that looks like your store, not a legal entity or a payment code, is one of the cheapest ways to cut overseas "unrecognised" disputes.

What should you check on your own fee pages before you compare dispute fees by country?

Open three pages and write down what each says: your payment provider's dispute page, your Shopify Payments fee page and the fee page for any wallet you offer. Fee tables on the internet are about other people's accounts. Yours is the only one that counts.

MY DISPUTE FEE CHECKLIST

[ ] Which provider processes my cards? (Shopify Payments, Stripe, other)
[ ] My business country on that account: [ ]
[ ] Fee when a dispute is received: [ ]
[ ] Is there a second fee if I respond? [ ]
[ ] Is the fee returned if I win? [ ]
[ ] Currency conversion fee on non-domestic payments: [ ]
[ ] Cross-border fee on cards issued outside Australia: [ ]
[ ] Fees for each wallet or buy-now-pay-later method I offer: [ ]
[ ] Date I last read each page: [ ]

Update the sheet whenever a provider announces a change. The second fee on Stripe, for example, only began for disputes initiated after 17 June 2025, which is the kind of change an old blog post would miss. A five-minute check twice a year keeps your dispute fees by country figures current, and keeps your break-even sums honest.

What is different for Australian merchants?

General information, not legal advice.

Fees and process

The chargeback fee Australia merchants pay on Shopify Payments is A$25, returned if you win. Stripe lists A$25 for a dispute received and another A$25 if you counter, for disputes initiated after 17 June 2025, on its own accounts. The response window is usually 7 to 21 days and the card company's review can take up to 75 days after you submit.

Overseas sales and consumer law

The dispute fees by country tables say nothing about consumer law. The ACCC says an overseas business selling directly to Australians must follow the Australian Consumer Law. The page I read does not say whether those consumer guarantees cover an Australian business selling to overseas buyers, so I cannot tell you how they apply to your export orders. Check the consumer law of the buyer's country, or ask an adviser, before you rely on a refund rule.

Card costs and rules

The NAB page I read says surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit cards ends from 1 October 2026, with lower interchange caps on foreign-issued cards from 1 April 2027. These affect what you pay to accept cards, not your dispute fee, but they sit beside dispute fees by country in the real cost of overseas sales.

Time limits and records

State consumer bodies say chargeback time limits commonly run from 45 to 120 days depending on the card provider, and the ACCC notes that time limits may apply when you sell online. I carried the range from earlier research and could not re-open the Consumer Affairs Victoria page. Pay Advantage advises keeping records for 12 to 18 months.

What I could not verify: the exact currency conversion and cross-border rates for an Australian Shopify Payments store, whether Shopify's countered fee differs from Stripe's, how Australian consumer law applies to exports, and a published win rate for overseas disputes.

What are the common mistakes with dispute fees by country?

Reading another country's dispute fees by country table as if it applied to your store.
Assuming the customer's country sets the fee.
Ignoring the countered fee if you use Stripe directly.
Treating the chargeback fee Australia stores pay as the whole cost, when the amount, goods and exchange rate matter more.
Skipping small overseas orders in the review, where the fee hurts most.
Answering every dispute the same way, regardless of the break-even.
Waiting for the due date, when Shopify Payments sends whatever is on file.
Forgetting that a won dispute still counts toward the chargeback rate.

Frequently asked questions

Which country's dispute fees by country apply to my Shopify store?

Your own business country, which is why dispute fees by country tables list businesses, not customers. Stripe says dispute fees vary by business location, and Shopify's help page sets the fee per country. For an Australian store on Shopify Payments the chargeback fee is A$25, returned if you win, whichever country the customer lives in.

What are Stripe's published dispute fees by country?

Stripe's published table shows, for example, A$25 for Australia, NZ$25 for New Zealand, US$15 for the United States, 20 pounds for the United Kingdom and 20 euros for the euro area, each with a matching countered fee. These are Stripe direct fees for businesses based in each country.

Does Shopify Payments charge a second fee as well?

Shopify's help page, as I read it, gives a single chargeback fee for Australia of A$25, returned if you win. Stripe lists a separate countered fee for its own accounts. I could not verify whether Shopify Payments adds one, so check your account's fee page before you plan around it.

Do I get the dispute fee back if I win?

On Shopify Payments in Australia, yes. Shopify says the amount and the fee come back when you win. Stripe's own guidance says the received fee is not refunded and the countered fee is returned if you win. Check the page for the product you use.

Can the exchange rate change what an overseas dispute costs?

Yes. Stripe says the converted dispute amount can differ from the original sale because the rate on the dispute day differs from the rate on the sale day. Its example shows a 100 euro sale becoming a 107.86 euro chargeback. The change can add to or cut your loss.

Is the chargeback fee Australia stores pay worth fighting on a small order?

Often only with a short, ready-made response. On a A$40 order the break-even is above 100 percent if the file takes two hours, but about 20 percent if it takes 20 minutes. Effort should scale with the swing. Small orders also deserve the most prevention.

How long can an overseas customer wait before disputing?

Stripe says card networks typically allow cardholders about 120 days, with more time in some cases, and that payment methods like Klarna and PayPal often allow about 180 days. Keep delivery records for at least that long, and Pay Advantage suggests 12 to 18 months.

Do currency conversion fees apply to disputes?

Shopify's Markets fees page says a currency conversion fee applies on payments in a non-domestic currency, and a cross-border processing fee applies on cards issued outside the store's country. It does not name Australia or state the cross-border rate, so check your own Shopify Payments fee page.

Should I stop selling to overseas customers in a country with many disputes?

Only after the numbers say so. Compare the market's cost per order, meaning fees plus losses divided by orders, with its margin. A better descriptor, tracked shipping or a clearer delivery estimate often fixes the problem without leaving the market.

Does winning a dispute reduce my chargeback rate?

No. Shopify says the chargeback rate is based on disputes filed, not outcomes, so a won dispute still counts. You get the amount and the A$25 fee back, but the filing remains on your rate. Prevention is the only way to keep the rate down.

Start free trial with ChargeFix

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Dispute fees by country: what Australian stores selling overseas actually pay