Tradeify Chargeback Policy 2026: Refund Rules & Disputes Explained

Tradeify's chargeback policy is one of the simplest and harshest in the prop space: any chargeback filed against a Tradeify charge results in immediate account termination and a permanent platform ban. The policy applies regardless of whether the chargeback was intentional, accidental or triggered by an automated bank fraud system.

Because Tradeify uses one-time pricing on most products, the most common accidental-chargeback scenario (disputing a forgotten recurring subscription) does not apply. But the consequence when a chargeback does happen is identical to subscription firms: account closure across the entire customer profile, not just the disputed transaction.

This guide walks the full policy, the available alternatives (refunds through support), the practical avoidance protocol, and the edge cases that catch traders out (bank-initiated disputes, crypto payments, duplicate charges).

Quick Answer

If you file a chargeback against any Tradeify transaction, your account is terminated and you are banned from the platform. The policy is zero-tolerance, applied at the customer level (all accounts under your name), and the ban is permanent. Always contact Tradeify support before considering a chargeback.

What Triggers the Policy

A chargeback is triggered when you (or your bank) dispute a Tradeify charge through your credit-card or banking provider. Tradeify is notified of the dispute by its merchant processor and the account-termination protocol activates immediately.

Triggers include:

• Manually filing a chargeback through your bank or card-issuer dashboard.
• Filing a fraud claim that results in the bank reversing the charge.
• Automated fraud protection on your card that auto-disputes a Tradeify charge without your explicit consent.
• Disputing a duplicate charge through the chargeback rail rather than through Tradeify support.
• Filing a service-not-as-described claim through your card-issuer.

Notably the policy does not distinguish intent. Even an automated bank action that the customer did not authorize triggers the same consequence as a deliberate dispute. This is harsh in edge cases but matches the standard policy across the prop industry.

Tradeify Versus Subscription-Based Firms

Tradeify's one-time pricing model reduces but does not eliminate chargeback risk. Subscription firms see more chargebacks because customers forget about recurring charges and dispute them as unrecognized. Tradeify's one-time charges are typically deliberate and remembered, so the structural rate of accidental disputes is lower.

Despite the lower risk profile, the consequence math is identical. A trader with an active funded account at Tradeify has just as much to lose from a chargeback as a trader at a subscription-based competitor.

Refunds: The Proper Alternative

Tradeify offers refunds on evaluations that have not been activated or traded on. The refund pathway is through support, not through the bank. A refund preserves your account standing; a chargeback destroys it.

How to request a refund:

• Contact Tradeify support through the help center or official Discord channel.
• Provide the order number, transaction date and account email.
• Confirm the evaluation has not been activated or traded on.
• Wait for support to process the refund through the original payment method.
• Allow standard processing time depending on the original payment rail.

Refunds for activated or traded accounts are at the firm's discretion and typically not granted because trading constitutes use of the service. The clean window for a refund is between purchase and first activation.

Account-Level Enforcement

Tradeify enforces chargebacks at the customer level, not the account level. If you have multiple evaluations or funded accounts and file a chargeback on any single transaction, every account under your name gets terminated.

This is enforced through KYC cross-referencing: payment data, identification documents and email addresses are used to detect attempted account creation after a chargeback ban. New accounts created under different emails but matching KYC data are detected and closed.

Pending Payouts at Time of Chargeback

All pending payouts are frozen and forfeited when a chargeback triggers termination. If you had a withdrawal request being processed or unrealized profits in your funded account, those are lost. The forfeiture is not a separate penalty; it is structural because the account itself ceases to exist on the firm's side.

Even funded accounts in good standing with significant profit history are subject to this rule. The chargeback policy applies regardless of how successful your trading has been or how much profit you have already withdrawn.

Reversal: Can You Undo a Chargeback?

Once a chargeback is filed the termination is typically immediate and irreversible. Even if you contact your bank to withdraw the dispute, Tradeify may not reinstate your account because the damage to the firm's merchant relationship is already done.

Chargebacks damage merchant processor relationships in two ways: each dispute incurs a fee for the merchant regardless of outcome, and elevated chargeback rates can trigger penalty pricing or termination of the merchant account. From the firm's perspective, allowing reversals would weaken the deterrent effect.

If a chargeback was filed in error (for example by your bank's automated fraud system), contact both your bank to withdraw the dispute and Tradeify support to explain the situation immediately. Speed matters. The faster you act, the better the chance Tradeify may consider reinstatement, though it is not guaranteed.

Bank-Initiated Disputes

Aggressive fraud protection systems sometimes auto-dispute charges that look unusual to the bank's algorithm. Common triggers include first-time merchant on the card, larger-than-average charge, or merchant flagged as high-risk by the card network.

If your bank auto-disputes a Tradeify charge without your consent:

• Contact your bank immediately to withdraw the dispute and confirm the charge as legitimate.
• Contact Tradeify support with screenshots of the bank's notification and your communication confirming withdrawal.
• Provide proof of identity and the original purchase confirmation to support.
• Request expedited review of the account status.
• Avoid making new purchases on the same card until the issue is resolved.

Acting within 24 hours improves the odds materially. Tradeify support can sometimes intervene before the merchant processor records the dispute as a formal chargeback if the bank withdraws fast enough.

Duplicate Charges and Billing Errors

Duplicate charges happen occasionally because of payment processor retries, network timeouts or user-side accidental double-clicks at checkout. The correct path is to contact Tradeify support, not to file a chargeback.

How to handle a duplicate charge:

• Take screenshots of both transactions in your card statement showing the duplicate.
• Note the transaction dates and amounts precisely.
• Contact Tradeify support with the screenshots and your account email.
• Wait for support to verify and reverse the duplicate through the payment system.
• Avoid filing the chargeback even if support takes a few business days to respond, because once filed the bank dispute supersedes any internal reversal.

Tradeify can reverse duplicate charges internally through the payment system without triggering the chargeback rail. The internal reversal preserves your account; the chargeback destroys it.

Crypto Payments through Confirmo

Crypto payments through Confirmo are generally non-reversible by the nature of blockchain settlement. Chargebacks in the traditional sense are not technically possible the same way they are with credit cards. However, any attempt to dispute or reverse a crypto transaction through other means (claiming fraud through an exchange, reporting to authorities for refund) would still be treated as a terms violation.

For crypto purchases, refunds are processed in the same crypto asset and routed back to the original wallet. Processing time depends on chain congestion and Confirmo's internal review.

Permanent Ban and KYC Detection

Bans from chargebacks are permanent. There is no waiting period after which you can create a new account. Tradeify cross-references payment data, identification documents and email addresses through its KYC and AML verification pipeline to detect attempted account creation after a ban.

Detection mechanisms include:

• Payment method matching (card numbers, bank account numbers, wallet addresses).
• KYC document matching (passport or ID numbers, addresses).
• Email address matching and detection of aliases.
• IP address and device fingerprint pattern detection.
• Cross-firm data shared through industry KYC services where applicable.

Attempts to circumvent the ban typically result in detection at the KYC stage when the new account requests a payout. The firm does not chase the new evaluation purchase; it catches the violation at the payout-verification step, which means the trader has paid for the new account and traded it without ever being able to extract value.

Practical Avoidance Protocol

Six practical rules to never trigger the chargeback policy:

• Always contact Tradeify support before initiating any dispute through your bank.
• Use a primary payment method, not a one-off virtual card, so bank fraud algorithms do not flag the merchant as unfamiliar.
• Verify your card details and billing address match exactly on checkout to reduce auto-fraud triggers.
• Screenshot every charge and keep a folder of order confirmations for reference.
• If you suspect a duplicate charge, raise it with support within 24 hours via email and Discord.
• Never let a family member or friend buy an account on your payment method without confirming KYC alignment, because shared payment methods can entangle account standing.

How Chargebacks Work Technically

Understanding the chargeback process at the technical level clarifies why Tradeify treats them as zero-tolerance. A chargeback is a forced reversal of a credit card transaction initiated by the cardholder's issuing bank, processed through the card network (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) and ending with the merchant's acquiring bank debiting the merchant's account.

The merchant (Tradeify in this case) incurs three costs from every chargeback regardless of outcome: the disputed funds are immediately withdrawn from the merchant account, a chargeback fee (typically 15 to 100 dollars) is charged by the acquirer, and the chargeback rate (chargebacks divided by total transactions) is tracked by the card network with penalties for elevated ratios.

If a merchant's chargeback ratio exceeds card network thresholds (typically 1 percent for standard Visa, 1.5 percent for high-risk programs), the merchant can lose its acquiring relationship entirely. For Tradeify and every other prop firm, maintaining a clean merchant relationship is operationally critical because no alternative-payments rail offers the same volume capacity.

Why Refunds Are the Right Channel

Tradeify's refund pathway exists precisely because chargebacks damage both parties. A refund processed by the merchant directly reverses the original charge without going through the card network's dispute system. There is no chargeback fee, no ratio impact and no merchant-relationship damage.

For the customer, the refund pathway preserves account standing. For the merchant, it preserves the acquiring relationship. Both sides are structurally better off with refunds versus chargebacks even when the underlying issue (duplicate charge, wrong product, accidental purchase) is identical.

The friction in the refund pathway is that it requires the customer to contact support and wait for processing. The chargeback pathway is faster from the customer's perspective (file with the bank, funds returned within days) but produces consequences (account termination, ban) that vastly exceed the speed benefit.

Timing: How Long Do You Have?

Several time windows matter in the Tradeify chargeback workflow:

• Refund eligibility: pre-activation evaluation purchases. Once an account is activated and traded, refund eligibility drops to firm discretion.
• Chargeback filing window: 60 to 120 days from the transaction date depending on card network rules. After this, chargeback is no longer mechanically possible.
• Pre-arbitration response window: typically 30 days for the merchant to respond once a chargeback is filed.
• Bank-withdrawal window: some banks allow the cardholder to withdraw a dispute within a few days of filing.
• Account-reinstatement window: Tradeify support may consider reinstatement requests in the first 24 to 48 hours after a bank-initiated chargeback, beyond which reinstatement is rare.

Acting fast in any of these windows materially improves the outcome. The single most important window is the 24-hour zone right after a chargeback is filed, because that is when both the bank and Tradeify can sometimes still unwind the dispute administratively.

Activated Versus Un-Activated Accounts

Tradeify's refund policy depends materially on whether the account has been activated and traded. The standard structure:

The window of clean refund eligibility is short: from purchase to first activation. Once trading begins, the refund becomes discretionary. Most accidental purchases (wrong product size, wrong account type) should be flagged with support before activation to preserve the refund pathway.

How Tradeify's Policy Compares to Peers

Most futures-prop firms apply similar zero-tolerance chargeback policies because the underlying merchant-processor relationship is similar across the industry. The differentiator is typically the refund pathway and the speed of support response.

Tradeify's structural advantage is the one-time pricing model reducing accidental disputes. The disadvantage is the same as every peer: the consequence when a chargeback does happen is total and permanent. Refund-before-dispute is the right protocol everywhere.

Common Misconceptions

Five things traders get wrong about the policy:

• I can reverse a chargeback by asking my bank. Sometimes the bank withdraws, but Tradeify rarely reinstates because merchant damage is done.
• Bank-initiated disputes are not my fault and the firm should make an exception. The policy does not distinguish intent.
• A chargeback only affects the disputed account. False, all accounts under the customer profile terminate.
• I can create a new account under a different email after a ban. KYC catches this at payout.
• Crypto payments are exempt because they cannot be charged back. The terms still apply; only the technical vector changes.

Bottom Line

Tradeify's chargeback policy is zero-tolerance. Any chargeback (filed by you or by your bank's automated system) results in immediate termination of every account under your name and a permanent platform ban. Pending payouts are forfeited. KYC cross-referencing detects attempts to create new accounts after a ban.

The structural risk is lower than at subscription firms because Tradeify uses one-time pricing, but the consequence when a dispute does happen is identical. Always contact support first for refunds, duplicate-charge issues or billing errors. Refunds on un-activated evaluations are available through the support pathway.

For traders who already had a chargeback triggered by an automated bank action, immediate dual outreach (bank to withdraw, Tradeify to explain) within 24 hours improves the odds of a discretionary reinstatement, though it is not guaranteed.

Communicating with Support Effectively

Support response speed and effectiveness depend on the quality of the inquiry. A well-structured support message includes the order number, the transaction date, the account email, screenshots of the relevant charge or dispute notification, and a clear statement of the desired resolution. Vague messages take longer to resolve because they require back-and-forth clarification.

Template for a chargeback-avoidance support inquiry:

Subject Line

Use a specific, actionable subject like 'Duplicate charge on order 12345 dated 2026-04-15, requesting reversal' rather than a generic 'Help with charge' or 'Question about my account'. Specific subjects route faster to the right support tier.

Body Structure

Order number, transaction date, account email, exact issue, screenshots of evidence, and the specific resolution requested. Brief and complete beats long and rambling. Support agents process specific data faster than narrative descriptions.

Follow-Up Cadence

If support has not responded within 48 hours, follow up once with a brief check-in. Avoid multiple parallel tickets through different channels (email, Discord, web form) for the same issue because that fragments the case and slows resolution.

What Constitutes Service Use

Tradeify's refund eligibility depends on whether the account has been activated and traded. The exact definition of activation and use matters because it determines whether a refund is available.

• Logging into the dashboard alone typically does not count as activation.
• Activating the evaluation (clicking the activate button on the account) does count as service use.
• Placing any trade, even a single demo trade in the simulator, counts as use.
• Linking the account to a trading platform without trading is gray area, verify with support.
• Receiving the Rithmic credentials counts as service delivery even if not used.

The cleanest refund pathway is to never activate an evaluation you do not intend to trade. If you purchased the wrong product, contact support immediately before activation and request a swap or refund.

Practical Trader FAQs Beyond the Rule Book

Beyond the published rules, traders working through the chargeback policy typically have a recurring set of practical questions that the help center does not directly address. Most of them resolve to a small handful of principles.

How to Build Confidence in the Mechanic

Confidence comes from explicit testing. Run a small position through the mechanic in question, verify the dashboard behavior matches the published rule, and only scale up once the mechanic is confirmed. Most traders skip this validation step and discover edge cases on a serious account, which is the expensive way to learn.

How to Document Edge Cases

When a rule produces an unexpected outcome, screenshot the dashboard immediately, note the timestamp and the exact trade or event that triggered it, and submit a clarifying question to support. Building a personal edge-case log saves time on subsequent accounts and creates a record useful for support escalation if needed.

How to Handle Ambiguity

Some rule language is intentionally flexible to allow the firm's risk team discretion. When in doubt, ask support before taking the action, not after. Pre-clearance through support is cheap insurance; post-violation review is much more expensive.

Long-Term Account Health

Treating the account as a long-term asset rather than a short-term lottery ticket changes the optimization function. Long-term traders win by minimizing rule-violation risk, maintaining clean compliance history, and compounding payouts across many cycles.

Five long-term habits that pay off:

• Pre-session checklist that runs through the rule set every morning.
• Post-session journal that logs decisions, outcomes and rule-impact for each trade.
• Monthly review of account performance against the rule profile.
• Quarterly check of the firm's help center for policy updates.
• Annual reassessment of whether the firm is still the right fit for the current strategy.

How to Read the Help Center Effectively

The help center is the source of truth for current rules. Reading it effectively requires distinguishing between the headline summary (which is often simplified) and the detailed rule text (which contains the edge cases). Always click through to the underlying article rather than relying on a summary or a FAQ-style snippet.

When the help center is updated, the date of the most recent edit is usually visible. Compare against the date when you last reviewed the rules. Material changes typically warrant a session-level review of how the change affects your strategy.

Long-Tail Scenarios Worth Knowing

Three less-common scenarios that have produced support tickets in the past:

• Card replaced by issuer mid-account-life: the original charge can still be disputed by the new card, so update your support contact if a card change happens.
• Identity-theft chargebacks: if your card is genuinely compromised, the chargeback is unavoidable, prioritize support communication to document the situation.
• Country-specific bank fraud rules: some jurisdictions auto-dispute international charges over a threshold, verify your bank's policy on US-based merchants before purchasing.

Frequently Asked Questions