Consumer Disputes
173 Duplicate Charge
Details
American Express reason code 173 is issued when a cardholder believes they were charged more than once for a single purchase. This often happens due to technical issues during checkout, manual entry errors, or confusion when a transaction is reattempted.
In many cases, one of the transactions may have been authorized but not captured—or reversed before settlement. These disputes usually stem from a lack of clarity in the billing history, and they can often be resolved with clear documentation from the merchant.
Timing to raise the dispute (Issuer/Cardholder)
Timing to respond to the dispute (Acquirer/Merchant)
How to respond?
If the transactions were not duplicates, show that each charge was valid and distinct:
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Provide unique receipts, signed orders, or shipping confirmations for each transaction
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Include transaction timestamps or authorization logs showing separate purchases
How to prevent?
Put systems in place to avoid accidental double charges and reassure customers at checkout:
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Configure your payment system to detect and block duplicate authorizations
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Clearly communicate to customers when a transaction is retried or reversed