Dispute monitoring programs

Card schemes (like Visa and Mastercard) monitor your dispute activity month by month, comparing it to your sales. If the number of disputes (also known as chargebacks) you receive exceeds the levels deemed acceptable by the scheme, you may be placed on their monitoring program.

Once you’re on a program, the scheme can charge you monthly fines and additional fees, until you reduce the dispute activity back down to acceptable levels.

We will let you know if you’re at risk of being placed, or have been placed, on a program, and work with you to reduce your disputes.

If you fail to comply within a specified time period (this depends on the scheme), the scheme can refuse to continue processing your payments. This is rare, but it's best to take immediate action if you're enrolled on a program.

Learn about Visa’s and Mastercard’s dispute monitoring programmes below.

The Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP) has two levels: Standard or Excessive (or High-Risk). The total number of disputes you had in a month and your dispute-to-sales ratio for that month decide which level you’ll be placed on. We will notify you if you're placed on the program.

If you're at risk of exceeding the program's thresholds, you won't be placed on the program immediately. Instead, we’ll send you an Early Warning notification and you’ll be given time to reduce your dispute levels to avoid being placed on the program.

Visa calculates the dispute-to-sales ratio as follows: the number of disputes you received during the month divided by the number of sales you processed during that same month, multiplied by one hundred.

For example, if you had 175 disputes in January, and had 5,500 sales in January, you would have a dispute-to-sales ratio of 3.18% (175 / 5500 x 100).

This would place you on the Standard level of the VDMP (if you were in a non-high-risk merchant category).

Visa will remove you from the program if your dispute activity falls below the Standard thresholds for three consecutive months.

Mastercard’s Acquirer Chargeback Monitoring Program (ACMP) has two levels: Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM) or High Excessive Chargeback Merchant (HECM). The total number of chargebacks you had in a month and your chargeback-to-sales ratio for that month decide which level you’ll be placed on. We will notify you if you're placed on the program.

Mastercard measures your chargeback rate in ‘basis points’, using the number to define which level of the program you fall into.

These basis points are calculated as follows: the number of chargebacks issued during the month in question, divided by the number of Mastercard transactions you processed in the previous month, multiplied by 10,000.

For example, if you had 185 chargebacks in February and processed 7,500 payments in January, you would have a chargeback rate of 247 basis points (185 / 7500 x 10,000 = 246.66, rounded up to 247). This would place you on the Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM) level of the program.

Mastercard will remove you from the program if your dispute activity falls below the ECM thresholds for three consecutive months.

If you need support or have questions about the dispute monitoring programs, please contact our Risk team at risk@checkout.com.