CHARGEBACK GUIDES

Shopify chargeback vs inquiry: what's the difference

By ChargeFix team · Updated 3 October 2026

Two notices land in your Shopify admin on the same Monday. They sit under the same filter and carry almost the same wording. One has taken £70 from you already. The other has taken nothing, and you can still make it go away with a refund.

A Shopify inquiry is an early request for information in which no money moves and a refund is still possible. A chargeback is the formal dispute: Shopify debits the amount and the £10 UK fee at once, and a refund through Shopify is no longer possible. An inquiry can escalate to a chargeback, so telling them apart on day one matters.

Last updated: 3 October 2026. Written by the ChargeFix team.

The 30-second answer (TL;DR)

  • An inquiry takes no money and gives you a window to refund or respond. A chargeback takes the disputed amount and the £10 UK fee immediately.
  • Shopify gives 65 to 75 days for inquiries. A chargeback gives you 7 to 21 days to respond, then up to 75 days for the card company to decide.
  • Once a chargeback has started, Shopify says you cannot refund through it. During an inquiry you can.
  • An inquiry can escalate to a chargeback and add the fee. We could not find when escalation can happen or how often it does.
  • On a £60 order, refunding an inquiry costs £60. Losing the same dispute as a chargeback costs £70, so the refund route saves £10 and your time, but only if you were going to lose.
  • Responding to an inquiry beats refunding it when your chance of winning is above (£10 plus extra time cost) divided by (order plus £10). At £60 with a short response, that is about 21%.
  • We could not confirm whether inquiries count toward Shopify's chargeback rate, so treat them as if they might.

Shopify chargeback vs inquiry at a glance

Inquiry Chargeback
Money taken at the start None Amount plus £10 UK fee
Refund through Shopify Still possible Not possible once started
Shopify's timeframe 65 to 75 days 7 to 21 days to respond, then up to 75 days of review
Can it escalate? Yes, to a chargeback, adding the fee It is already the formal stage
Cheapest moment to act Now, with a refund or a response Now, with evidence

Table of contents

What is the difference between a Shopify chargeback and an inquiry?

An inquiry is a bank asking a question. A chargeback is the bank taking the money while it decides. In an inquiry nothing is debited and a refund is still possible, while in a chargeback Shopify debits the amount and the £10 UK fee at once and you can no longer refund through Shopify.

The distinction sounds technical until you see the cost. A merchant who spots an inquiry has a choice, and the cheapest version of that choice is a refund that costs only the sale. A merchant who spots a chargeback has already paid, and the only way to get the money back is to win.

That is why the first job on any dispute notice is to find out which kind you are holding. Shopify shows both under the same Chargeback and inquiry status filter, so the label on the order, not the filter, tells you which one you have. Our guide to where to find chargebacks in Shopify admin walks through the screens.

Most guides on Shopify chargeback vs inquiry treat the two as one topic and spend their space on the chargeback. We think that is backwards. The inquiry is the one you can actually do something cheap about.

How do a chargeback and an inquiry compare side by side?

In any Shopify chargeback vs inquiry comparison, look at six points: money, refund options, timing, response window, escalation and cost if you lose. An inquiry wins on every point except one: it is not final. It can still turn into a chargeback, and then every cost on the chargeback side applies.

Point Inquiry Chargeback
Money debited None Disputed amount plus £10 (UK)
Refund through Shopify Possible Not possible once started
How long it runs 65 to 75 days Up to about 96 days at the outer edge
Your response window We found no stated window 7 to 21 days
If you do nothing We could not confirm Shopify files a thin response on the due date
Cost if you lose a £60 order £60 if you refund, or the chargeback cost if it escalates £70, with the fee returned only on a win
Fee returned on a win Not applicable, no fee Yes, the £10 returns on a win

Two cells in that table say "we found no" or "we could not confirm". That is deliberate. Shopify's help pages we reviewed give a timeframe for inquiries but not a response deadline, and they do not say what happens to an inquiry that goes unanswered. Rather than guess, we say so, and recommend you treat an inquiry as urgent anyway.

The next sections put pounds and dates on the comparison.

What happens to your money in each case?

In an inquiry, nothing leaves your account unless you choose to refund. In a chargeback, Shopify takes the amount and the £10 fee when the dispute is filed, and they come back only if you win. On a £60 order that is a £70 difference in cash position on day one.

Example 1 (illustration)

The same £60 order, shown as it moves through each path. Cash is relative to the sale being kept.

Path Day one If you refund If you respond and win If you respond and lose
Inquiry £0 −£60 £0 Escalates, so see the chargeback path
Chargeback −£70 Not possible £0 (amount and fee returned) −£70

The table shows why timing matters. An inquiry that you answer well never touches your cash. A chargeback hits your cash on day one, and for months you carry the debit.

If your Shopify balance cannot cover a chargeback, Shopify says UK stores have the shortfall debited from the bank account on file outside the normal payout schedule, with a second attempt after three business days if the first fails. An inquiry carries none of that risk.

For the full picture of what a chargeback costs once goods, shipping and time are included, see our true cost of a chargeback in the UK calculator.

How long does each one take?

Shopify gives 65 to 75 days for an inquiry. For a chargeback you have 7 to 21 days to respond, and the card company can then take up to 75 days after you submit, so about 96 days at the outer edge. If an inquiry escalates, the two clocks can stack.

Example 2 (illustration)

An inquiry appears on Monday 12 October 2026. Dates are Shopify's figures added up, not promises.

Event Date How we got it
Inquiry appears Monday 12 October 2026 Starting point
Earliest end of Shopify's inquiry timeframe Wednesday 16 December 2026 12 October plus 65 days
Latest end of Shopify's inquiry timeframe Saturday 26 December 2026 12 October plus 75 days
If it then escalated and ran a full chargeback About Thursday 1 April 2027 26 December plus 96 days

The last row is a ceiling, and a pessimistic one. We do not know at what point in an inquiry's life escalation can happen, and Shopify's pages do not give a total. It is arithmetic built from stated figures, so use it to plan cash, not to predict an outcome.

The practical reading is that an inquiry feels slow because nothing seems to happen. Our post on how long a Shopify chargeback takes covers the chargeback side in more detail, including the planning ceilings of 82, 96 and 171 days.

Can an inquiry turn into a chargeback?

Yes. Shopify's help pages say an inquiry can escalate to a chargeback, and if it does the fee is added and the chargeback clock starts. We could not find when in an inquiry's life escalation can happen, or how often it does, so assume any open inquiry could escalate.

That is the real risk of ignoring one. When an inquiry escalates, you go from a position where a refund is still possible to one where it is not. The disputed amount and the £10 fee are debited, and the response window of 7 to 21 days applies.

So the cheapest time to decide is while the inquiry is open. At that point you have three honest choices: refund, respond, or do both in the right order by responding and refunding if the customer is plainly right.

If a lost chargeback began as an inquiry, Shopify says an issuer response may appear as well. Where the bank supplies one, Shopify shows a summary and the full document. It is worth reading, because it tells you what the bank weighed.

Should you refund an inquiry or respond to it?

Respond when your chance of winning is above the fee plus your extra time, divided by the order plus the fee. At £60 with a short response that is about 21%, and at £250 about 6%. Refund when the customer is right, when the order is small, or when your own records contradict you.

The sum compares two bets. Refunding costs the order amount for certain. Responding costs nothing if you win, and if you lose it may escalate to a chargeback costing the order plus £10. So the extra stake is the £10 fee plus the extra time you spend.

Example 3 (illustration)

The thresholds assume that losing the inquiry means a chargeback with the £10 fee, which is the pessimistic case. Time is valued at £20 an hour. A short response costs £5 over refunding, and an unprepared one costs £45. "Never" means even a certain win would not cover the extra time.

Order value Win chance needed, short response Win chance needed, unprepared response
£15 60.0% Never
£30 37.5% Never
£60 21.4% 78.6%
£120 11.5% 42.3%
£250 5.8% 21.2%

Read the £60 row. A prepared merchant needs about a one in five chance, and an unprepared one needs nearly four in five. Preparation, not the fee, drives the decision, which echoes what we found for chargebacks in our post on whether it is worth fighting a chargeback.

There is one more consideration the table cannot show. A refund does not bring the goods back. If the customer still has the item and you refund, you have lost the sale and the stock. If the claim is that the parcel never arrived, a refund may be the honest answer, and the numbers above only tell you what the alternative costs.

A related note from Shopify's help pages: you can also talk to the customer, and a customer who agrees can drop the dispute. Shopify cautions that the banks involved can take a long time to update, so keep your evidence until the matter is closed.

What happens if you ignore an inquiry?

We could not confirm what Shopify does with an inquiry that goes unanswered, and its help pages we reviewed give no response deadline for inquiries. Do not assume silence is safe. The one thing we do know is that an inquiry can escalate to a chargeback, and then a refund is no longer possible.

That uncertainty is the reason to treat an inquiry as a decision to make now, not a notice to file. Compare the two ways of being wrong. If you answer an inquiry you could have ignored, you lose a few minutes. If you ignore one that escalates, you lose the chance of a £60 refund and gain a £70 debit.

Our post on what happens if you don't respond to a Shopify chargeback covers the chargeback side in full: Shopify files a thin response on the due date, nothing more can be added afterwards and the result is final. The inquiry side has fewer known facts, which is itself a reason to act early.

How do you tell which one you have?

Open the order. A banner appears when a chargeback or inquiry exists, and the status label on the order tells you which. Do not rely on the filter alone, because Chargeback and inquiry status groups both. A quick second check is your balance: a chargeback shows a debit for the amount and fee, and an inquiry shows none.

Here is the quick routine.

  1. In Shopify admin, go to Orders and open Search and filter.
  2. Add the Chargeback and inquiry status filter and select Open.
  3. Open each order and read the status label and the banner.
  4. Check your balance or payout for a debit on that order.
  5. Note the type, the reason and any date shown, then decide.

Look at the inquiries first. A refund is still possible and costs nothing in fees, which makes them the most time-sensitive notices on the list. Our guide to where to find chargebacks in Shopify admin shows the screens in order, and why the banner is the most reliable signal.

One caution about labels. We have described Shopify's wording as we found it, but admin screens change. If the status label does not match what you expect, read the help page that matches the label on your screen.

Does an inquiry count toward your chargeback rate?

We could not confirm it. Shopify's monitoring page says its rate counts all disputes opened, not just lost ones, and does not say whether inquiries are included. Stripe's summary of Visa's rules says its ratio includes fraud warnings as well as disputes, so an early notice can count even when no money moves.

The practical consequence is simple. Do not treat an inquiry as free. Even if it never costs you money, it may count, and an inquiry that escalates certainly does once it becomes a chargeback.

Shopify publishes no threshold for its monitoring, and says a high rate can affect Shopify Payments account health and lead to reserves on payouts. Our chargeback rate calculator and thresholds post shows how to work out your own rate, and why a small store can reach 0.5% with a single dispute.

Refunding an inquiry does not reduce what you already know about the problem. Log it either way, with the reason, and look for patterns at the end of the month.

How does the picture differ on Stripe?

Stripe's documentation says inquiries are mostly an American Express and Discover feature and that Visa and Mastercard no longer use them. It adds that responding to an inquiry, or fully refunding it while it is still an inquiry, avoids the dispute fee, and that an unescalated inquiry closes after 120 days.

That reads differently from Shopify's 65 to 75 days. We have not confirmed how the two descriptions fit together, because they come from different pages describing different systems. The safe approach is to check which description applies to your account and card mix.

Shopify help pages Stripe documentation
Inquiry timeframe 65 to 75 days Closes after 120 days if not escalated
Fee at inquiry stage None, fee added only if it escalates Dispute fee avoided if you respond or fully refund
Cards that use inquiries Not stated in the pages we read Mostly Amex and Discover
Chargeback fee (UK) £10, returned on a win £20 received, not returned, plus £20 counter fee returned on a win

For UK merchants taking mostly Visa and Mastercard on Stripe, the upshot is that most formal notices arrive as disputes. The cheap off-ramp of an inquiry may be rarer than on Shopify. Our post on Stripe dispute fees in the UK covers the fee side.

What does a Monday with both types look like?

Imagine five notices on one Monday: three chargebacks and two inquiries. The chargebacks have already taken £275 from you. The two inquiries have taken nothing, but could add another £131 if both escalated. Work the inquiries first, because they are the only ones where a refund is still an option.

Example 4 (illustration)

Three chargebacks (£45, £60 and £140) and two inquiries (£35 and £76). The £10 fee applies to each chargeback, and to an inquiry only if it escalates. The win chances are our guesses for the sake of the example.

Notice Type Cash debited today Your evidence Threshold from Example 3 Call
£35 order Inquiry £0 Thin, about 30% 33.3% Refund
£76 order Inquiry £0 Carrier proof, about 50% 17.4% Respond
£45 order Chargeback £55 See decision table Score and decide
£60 order Chargeback £70 See decision table Score and decide
£140 order Chargeback £150 See decision table Score and decide

The chargebacks total £275 of debits (£245 of orders plus £30 of fees). If both inquiries escalated, they would add £111 of orders and £20 of fees, so £131. That is the exposure the inquiry decisions are protecting.

Two small points about the table. The £35 inquiry is a close call, since 30% sits just under 33.3%, so a slightly better pack would flip it. And the chargebacks cannot be refunded through Shopify, so the only question left is whether to fight, which our decision table answers.

This is the working core of the Shopify inquiry vs chargeback difference. The same Monday, the same five notices, and three of them are already costing you while two are still choices.

What should you do on day one of each?

On an inquiry, find it, read the reason, decide between refund and response using the table above, and act within a few days. On a chargeback, note the due date, check your balance can cover the debit, score your evidence and decide whether to fight. Both end with a log entry.

Inquiry, day one

  1. Open the order and confirm it is an inquiry, with nothing debited.
  2. Read the reason and any message from the customer.
  3. Check your records for anything that contradicts you, such as a returned parcel or an unanswered email.
  4. Use the thresholds in Example 3 to choose refund or response.
  5. If the customer is right, refund and say why in a short message.
  6. If you respond, send one strong document and a short, plain note.
  7. Log the date, the reason and what you did.

Chargeback, day one

  1. Confirm it is a chargeback and note the due date. If no time is shown, we found the cut-off is 11:59 PM on that date in your store's time zone.
  2. Check that your balance, or your bank account, can cover the amount and the £10 fee.
  3. Read the reason and collect the one document that answers it.
  4. Score your evidence and decide whether to fight, using our decision table.
  5. Set your own deadline two working days early.
  6. Log the date, amount, reason and decision.

The two lists share their first and last steps. Open the order, read the type and write it down. Most missed deadlines start with someone assuming the notice was the other kind.

How do you stop inquiries turning into chargebacks?

You cannot stop the customer contacting their bank, but you can make it less likely and make the response faster. Answer customers quickly, refund genuine problems before they escalate, and keep a recognisable name on their statement. Shopify itself encourages talking to the customer, and a customer who agrees can drop a dispute.

Three habits matter most.

Reply fast and plainly. A worried customer who gets a clear answer within a day is less likely to go to their bank than one who waits a week. We have no audited figure for how much it helps, so treat it as common sense, not a promise.

Refund early when you are wrong. A refund given before a dispute opens costs the sale and nothing more. A refund during an inquiry costs the same, and a refund after a chargeback begins is not possible through Shopify.

Check the inquiry list every day. Two minutes in the admin at a fixed time catches notices while a refund is still on the table.

This is the part ChargeFix is being built to take off your plate: spotting which notice you hold, the date that matters and whether to refund or respond, for a flat fee rather than a cut of what you recover. It is not live yet, but you can join the waitlist at chargefix.pro.

What's different for UK merchants?

UK merchants face a £10 Shopify Payments fee on chargebacks, a possible bank debit, and customers with a long window to dispute. An inquiry carries none of those costs, which makes the early decision more valuable. This section is general information, not legal advice.

On fees, Shopify's help page lists £10 GBP for the United Kingdom and says it is returned if you win. An inquiry carries no fee unless it escalates. We read the page on 2 October 2026, so check before relying on it.

On timing, MoneyHelper says a debit card gives chargeback protection on all purchases with 120 days to claim, and credit cards add Section 75 for items from £100 to £30,000. It adds that banks should tell the customer the outcome within eight weeks. Disputes can therefore arrive months after the sale, and the customer's own timetable is not the same as yours.

On cash, if your Shopify balance cannot cover a chargeback, UK stores have the shortfall debited from the bank account on file, with a retry after three business days. Keep a buffer.

For the wider UK picture, start with our guide to Shopify chargebacks in the UK, and for the fee itself see the Shopify chargeback fee in the UK.

Common mistakes

  1. Treating an inquiry as a chargeback with a smaller number. It is a different stage, with a refund still possible.
  2. Ignoring an inquiry because nothing was debited. It can escalate, and then a refund through Shopify is gone.
  3. Trying to refund through Shopify after a chargeback has started. Shopify says you cannot.
  4. Refunding an inquiry without a message. Say why, so the customer understands the matter is settled.
  5. Responding to an inquiry with an unprepared pack. At £60 that needs nearly a four in five chance to pay.
  6. Assuming Stripe and Shopify describe inquiries the same way. Their pages differ, so check yours.
  7. Believing an inquiry cannot hurt your rate. We could not confirm it either way.
  8. Never logging inquiries. They show you the reasons that become chargebacks.

FAQ

What is the difference between a Shopify chargeback and an inquiry?

An inquiry is an early request for information, with nothing debited and a refund still possible. A chargeback is the formal dispute, in which Shopify debits the disputed amount and the £10 UK fee at once and you can no longer refund through Shopify. An inquiry can escalate to a chargeback.

Does a Shopify inquiry cost money?

Not at first. No money is debited while an inquiry is open, and no fee is charged. If the inquiry escalates to a chargeback, the amount and the £10 UK fee are debited. Refunding during the inquiry costs only the sale, so it is usually the cheapest way out when the customer is right.

Can I refund a Shopify inquiry?

Yes. Shopify's help pages say a refund is still possible during an inquiry, which makes it the cheapest point to decide whether to refund or respond. Once the dispute becomes a chargeback, Shopify says you cannot refund through it, and the customer must drop the dispute first.

How long does a Shopify inquiry take?

Shopify gives 65 to 75 days for an inquiry, and nothing is debited meanwhile. If it escalates, the chargeback clock follows, with 7 to 21 days to respond and up to 75 days for review. Stacked together that is a planning ceiling, not a forecast, and most disputes finish sooner.

Can a Shopify inquiry turn into a chargeback?

Yes. Shopify says an inquiry can escalate, and if it does the fee is added and the chargeback clock starts. We could not find when escalation can happen or how often it does, so treat any open inquiry as one that might escalate and decide early.

Do I need to respond to a Shopify inquiry?

We found no stated deadline for inquiries and nothing on what happens if you do not answer, so treat it as urgent. Either refund, if the customer is right, or respond with one strong document. Respond rather than refund when your chance of winning clears the threshold for your order value.

Is it better to refund an inquiry or respond?

Refund when the customer is right, the order is small, or your records contradict you. Respond when your chance of winning beats the fee plus extra time over the order plus fee, which is about 21% at £60 with a short response. An unprepared response needs nearly 79% at that price.

Can I refund a chargeback after it has started?

Not through Shopify. Its help pages say a refund is not possible once a chargeback has started, so the customer must first drop the dispute with their bank. If they agree, a withdrawal letter can be sent to Shopify Support, though success is not guaranteed and it can take 30 to 90 days.

Join the ChargeFix waitlist

ChargeFix is being built for UK Shopify merchants who want to know at a glance whether a notice is a Shopify chargeback vs inquiry, and what to do about each, with flat, fixed pricing instead of a share of what they recover. It is not live yet, so nothing here is a promise about your results.

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