Chargebacks
A chargeback is when a customer's bank forcibly reverses your transaction. You lose the money, pay a fee ($15-100), and it counts against your ratio.
Pick Your Mode
You're in danger of hitting network thresholds. Stop reading and go to Reduce Chargebacks Fast. That playbook is designed for the next 72 hours.
- Pull your last 20 disputes and classify by actual cause (fraud vs. friendly vs. merchant error)
- Call 2 customers who disputed. Ask what actually happened.
- Set a simple rule: fight everything over $100, skip everything under $25. Test if that's worth the effort over 30 days.
That's it. Optimization can wait.
Under $100K/month: Your processor's default fraud tools are probably fine. Focus on clear descriptors and easy refunds. Don't buy a chargeback prevention vendor yet.
$100K-$1M/month: Alert services (Ethoca, Verifi CDRN) start making sense. They cost ~$30-40 per alert but prevent the $25-100 chargeback fee and ratio hit.
Over $1M/month: You need a representment strategy. Either build internal capability or hire a vendor. Alert services are mandatory.
Over $10M/month: You probably need a dedicated person for disputes. Consider guaranteed chargeback solutions for high-risk segments, but read the contract carefully.
These are the numbers that matter. Exceed them and you're in a monitoring program with monthly fines.
- 0.65% + 75/mo: Early warning (VDMP)
- 0.9% + 100/mo: Standard program, fines begin
- 1.8% + 1,000/mo: Excessive program
- 1.0% + 100/mo: ECM
- 1.5% + 100/mo: HECM
Every chargeback has a reason code. The code determines what evidence you need to fight it.
Feedback Loop: Talk to Your Customers
Before you optimize your representment process, talk to 5 customers who disputed.
Questions to ask (fact-seeking, not opinion-seeking):
- "What were you trying to do when you made this purchase?"
- "What did you expect to see on your statement?"
- "What did you do when you first noticed the problem?"
- "Walk me through what happened after that."
5 conversations will teach you more than 5 hours of dashboard analysis. You'll learn whether you have a representment problem or a root cause problem.
You can fight back. It's called representment. Win rates vary by reason code:
- Fraud (10.4, 4837): 15-25% without 3DS, 70%+ with 3DS authentication
- Not received (13.1): 60-80% with signed delivery confirmation
- Cancelled recurring (13.2): 40-50% with clear cancellation policy evidence
For a month, add delivery photos to 50% of "goods not received" response packets. Track win rate difference. If no improvement, stop doing it.
Prevention beats representment. Every prevented chargeback saves the fee, the operational cost, and keeps your ratio clean.
Response Deadlines
Miss these and you auto-lose.
| Action | Visa | Mastercard | Amex |
|---|---|---|---|
| Representment | 30 days | 45 days | 20 days |
| Pre-arbitration | 30 days | 30 days | 45 days |
| Arbitration | 10 days | 10 days | — |
MATCH (Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants) is Mastercard's database of terminated merchants. Visa has TMF (Terminated Merchant File). Getting on either makes it extremely difficult to get payment processing.
How You Get Listed
| Reason Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 01 | Account data compromise |
| 02 | Common Point of Purchase (fraud ring) |
| 03 | Laundering |
| 04 | Excessive chargebacks |
| 05 | Excessive fraud |
| 06 | Bankruptcy/liquidation/insolvency |
What Being Listed Means
- 5 years on the list (most cases)
- No processor will onboard you (they check MATCH before approval)
- Your principals are listed too (owners, 25%+ shareholders)
- Follows you to new businesses (name matching)
Excessive chargebacks or fraud today can make you unemployable in payments for 5 years. Prevention is the only real solution.
Next Steps
- Chargeback Fundamentals - Start here
- Reason Codes Overview - Understand why
- Prevention Basics - Stop them early
- Representment Guide - How to respond
- Compelling Evidence - What wins
- Time Frames - Don't miss deadlines
- Zero Point Nine Panic - Emergency
- Reduce Fast - 72-hour playbook
- Alert Services - Deflection tools
See Also
- Network Programs - Monitoring program details
- Friendly Fraud - First-party dispute abuse
- Risk Scoring - Preventing upstream fraud
- Device Fingerprinting - Linking abusers
- Processor Management - Working with processors
- Decline Codes - Understanding auth declines
- Holds and Reserves - Processor reserve impacts