What merchants did you have with them please?
I asked Claude, it says this mate
Here’s the trap. Xpate wants the chargebacks withdrawn first, then promises to refund. But once a chargeback is withdrawn, it’s gone — you generally can’t re-raise it (the case is closed, and the scheme time limits don’t reset). So if they withdraw the chargebacks and Xpate then doesn’t pay, or pays only some, they’ve surrendered their only enforceable route and are left trusting an offshore-adjacent payment firm’s goodwill. That’s exactly why Xpate wants it in that order: it moves all the risk onto the cardholder.
1. Get the deal in writing — amounts, all transactions covered, timescale — from an official Xpate address, not a verbal or chat promise.
2. Insist on the reverse sequence: refund first, withdraw after. "I’ll withdraw the chargebacks once the refunds have cleared to my account." A genuine offer survives that; only a stall dies on it. If they won’t refund first, that itself tells you the offer isn’t safe.
3. If they insist on withdrawal first, don’t — or at most withdraw only after money is confirmed in the account, transaction by transaction.
4. Check with the bank before withdrawing anything — confirm whether a withdrawn dispute can be reopened (usually not) and whether the credit already given would be reversed.
On the specific worries in the question:
• "Could my bank charge a fee?" — banks don’t typically charge for withdrawing a dispute, but the real cost is losing the credit and the ability to re-raise it. That’s the risk, not a fee.
• "Could the bank have a problem with me?" — no issue with legitimately settling directly, but if the bank already refunded via chargeback and then Xpate also refunds, that’s a double recovery the bank will claw back one side of — so the person mustn’t end up paid twice and assume they keep both.