Network
VisaCode
11.1Response window
30 calendar daysWin difficulty
HardDispute type
AuthorizationVisa 11.1 — Card Recovery Bulletin: What It Is and How to Respond
Note: 11.1 is extremely rare for e-commerce merchants and primarily affects physical retail and older payment systems.
Visa 11.1 is filed when a merchant processed a transaction using a card that was listed on Visa's Card Recovery Bulletin (CRB) — a list of cards that should be seized or declined. The CRB was a mechanism Visa used to flag compromised, fraudulent, or cancelled card accounts. Merchants were required to check the bulletin and, if a card appeared on it, were expected to decline or confiscate the card.
The CRB is largely a legacy concept — modern electronic authorization systems automatically flag cards in real-time, making the manual CRB process obsolete for most merchants. 11.1 is therefore extremely rare in contemporary card processing and almost exclusively relevant to merchants with very old payment systems or specific legacy setups. Most e-commerce and modern card-present merchants will never receive this code.
Can you win this dispute?
Fight this dispute if...
- ✓You can show you checked the CRB and the card was not listed at the time of authorization.
Accept this chargeback if...
- ✗The card was on the bulletin and you processed the transaction anyway.
Evidence checklist
- ✅ Required
Authorization records showing the CRB was checked: Documentation that the Card Recovery Bulletin was consulted at the time of authorization and the card was clear — i.e., not listed on the bulletin.
- ✅ Required
Processor confirmation: Processor confirmation that the card was not flagged during authorization — confirmation from your payment processor that the card passed authorization checks at the time of the transaction.
Key deadlines
Response window: 30 calendar days from the notification date.
Frequently asked questions
What is Visa 11.1 and what is the Card Recovery Bulletin?
Visa 11.1 is filed when a merchant processes a transaction using a card that appears on Visa's Card Recovery Bulletin (CRB) — a list of compromised, fraudulent, or cancelled card accounts that merchants were required to check before authorizing transactions. Processing a card that was listed on the CRB creates chargeback liability under reason code 11.1.
How is the CRB used today?
The Card Recovery Bulletin is largely a legacy concept. Modern electronic authorization systems automatically flag problematic cards in real-time at the point of authorization, making the manual bulletin-checking process obsolete for virtually all contemporary merchants. The CRB is no longer distributed in the traditional sense for most payment systems.
Who still receives 11.1 disputes?
11.1 is extremely rare and primarily affects merchants using very old payment systems that predate modern real-time authorization infrastructure, or merchants with specific legacy setups that don't route through standard electronic authorization. E-commerce and most card-present merchants with modern terminals will almost never encounter this code.
How does electronic authorization prevent 11.1?
Modern electronic authorization networks check cards against issuer databases in real-time when a transaction is submitted. If a card is flagged as compromised, cancelled, or fraudulent, the authorization is declined immediately — no manual bulletin check is required. This real-time flagging has completely replaced the manual CRB process for modern payment systems.
Related reason codes
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