Chargebacks: prevent, defend, reduce
A chargeback costs you the product, a dispute fee and hours of work — and under Visa's tightened VAMP thresholds, a ratio that runs too high puts your merchant account itself at risk. A large share is "friendly fraud": customers reclaiming money they owe. There is a structural fix for that.
Three tracks, one goal: a lower ratio
Analysis
We dissect your dispute data: which reason codes, which products, which payment methods. There is almost always a pattern — and therefore a fix.
Defense
The right evidence per dispute (representment): delivery proof, customer communication, session data. Structured defense wins significantly more than ad-hoc replies.
Prevention
Recognizable billing descriptors, well-tuned fraud filters, alerts (Ethoca, Verifi RDR), a smart 3-D Secure strategy and — where useful — tooling like Chargeflow.
Frequently asked questions
What does a chargeback actually cost me?
More than the order value. You lose the product, pay a dispute fee to the processor and sink time into the defense. Industry analyses put the all-in cost at well over a hundred dollars per chargeback — apart from the risk to your account when the ratio runs too high.
Is fighting disputes worth it?
Yes — with the right evidence. Merchants who defend disputes in a structured way win about half of the cases they fight. It comes down to the right documentation per reason code: tracking data, customer communication, IP and device details.
What is VAMP and why should I care?
Visa consolidated its fraud and dispute monitoring into one program — VAMP — where fraud and non-fraud disputes count toward a single combined ratio, with thresholds that have been tightening since 2025. Merchants above the line face remediation demands, fines passed down by their acquirer, reserves, or termination. See our VAMP health check.
Is your chargeback ratio creeping up?
Book an intro call and bring your latest dispute overview. We will point out immediately where the win is — in prevention, defense, or both — and where you stand against the VAMP thresholds.