Reason code · Mastercard
Mastercard 4841: cancelled recurring transaction
4841 means the customer says they cancelled a subscription or recurring plan and kept getting charged. Mastercard now handles it under 4853 Cardholder Dispute. The bank has 120 days from the disputed charge to file.
What 4841 means
4841 is the old Mastercard code for Cancelled Recurring or Digital Goods Transactions. The customer says they ended a subscription, membership or plan and you kept charging the card.
Mastercard has moved it into 4853 Cardholder Dispute, as the Cardholder Dispute of a Recurring Transaction condition. Its Chargeback Guide says banks may still send 4841 for now, but the code will eventually be eliminated.
What the customer told their bank
“I cancelled months ago.” “I never signed up for monthly billing.” “The free trial was supposed to end.” Sometimes they cancelled in a way your system never saw, like a reply to a marketing email.
Time limit
The bank has 120 calendar days from the disputed charge. Each charge has its own clock, so one customer can dispute several months at once.
Your deadline is the due date on your notice. Mastercard gives your bank 45 days to respond, and your processor keeps part of that.
What proof matters
The recurring terms the customer accepted, when they accepted them, and the date they cancelled compared with the date of the charge. Use of the service after the cancellation date matters too.
Keep a clean record of how customers cancel and when each request reached you. Mastercard’s rules say a merchant shouldn’t keep delivering or billing once it has a cancellation notice, so the timing usually decides the case.
Recurring has a definition
Mastercard treats billing with no set end date as recurring. A fixed plan, say six payments, is installment billing, and different rules apply. Mastercard’s subscription standards also expect clear terms up front and, for annual plans, a reminder 7 to 30 days before the next charge. Skipping the reminder hands the customer a story.
The common mistake
Charging after a cancellation request because it “hadn’t been processed yet.” If the request came first, the charge is hard to defend. Fix the cancellation path, not just the dispute.
Dispute Daddy builds this for you
Dispute Daddy lines up the terms, the cancellation date and the charge date from your own records, and builds the response for you to approve. See how the method works.
