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No, stopping payments is the same as ceasing to send in payments.

The chargeback is a contractual dispute resolution process. The consumer says they shouldn't have to pay for a valid reason. The merchant gets to provide evidence otherwise. A decision is made and both parties have agreed in advance (via the merchant agreement and cardholder agreements) to be bound by that decision. This is one of the consumer protections that make using plastic safer than using cash/checks.



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.




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