How to Keep Up with Visa Chargeback Thresholds

What Are Chargeback Thresholds?

The chargeback threshold is a fixed limit of chargebacks a merchant can process during a certain period of time. To put it simply, the acquirer allows sellers to have a certain number of chargebacks without being affected by any penalties or additional fees. However, when the number of chargebacks exceeds the predefined limit, the acquiring company usually imposes sanctions on the business.

Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program: What’s New for E-commerce Sellers

Previously, Visa transactions were monitored by three programs: the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), the Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP), and the Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP). However, starting October 2025, the VFMP and VDMP will retire, leaving all the work to the updated version of VAMP. Here, we explore the terms that come with the introduced changes that e-commerce merchants must be aware of.

• VAMP ratio. The new VAMP ratio will be calculated by TC40+ non-fraud disputes divided by total sales count. The allowed limit will be 1.5% from October 2025 and 0.9% from January 2026. Anything above the limit will be considered excessive, and merchants risk getting fined.
• Enumeration ratio. Card testing, or enumeration transactions, is one of the most prevalent fraud techniques scammers use to verify stolen card information. Merchants who fail to detect and block these attempts risk enrolling in the VAMP program if more than 20% of their submitted transactions are identified as enumeration attacks. The enumeration ratio is calculated by dividing the number of enumerated transactions by the total number of transactions.
• Resolved and refunded disputes. The VAMP ratio won’t be affected by settled cases; however, this works only for disputes resolved or refunded through Visa solutions such as Compelling Evidence 3.0, meaning other cases will fall under TC40, but it is not finally settled yet.
• No above-standard stage. Only merchants with excessively high VAMP or enumeration ratios will be enrolled in the VAMP. Sellers will no longer be enrolled in the "above-standard” or early warning programs. Additionally, starting January 1st, 2026, the “above-standard” ratio for acquirers will be 0.3-0.5%.
• Grace period. Before Visa enforces penalties, merchants are given 6 months to get their performance back on track. If sellers fail to bring their CTR back under the allowed limit during this period, starting the 4th month, Visa introduces penalty fees that affect both fraudulent and non-fraudulent disputes.
• Advisory period. VAMP will include an advisory period from April 1 to September 30, 2025. Acquirers will receive “advisory” notifications if they or their merchants trigger program thresholds. While called “advisory,” these notifications still indicate actual breaches of the monitoring program's standards.

The upcoming changes will first affect European countries and are expected to be deployed in other countries later this year. Rewatching your chargeback prevention strategies to prepare for the new VAMP enrollment conditions is vital to avoid penalty fees and secure your revenue and reputation.

How to Avoid Excessive CTR Penalties

Getting enrolled in the VAMP program is undoubtedly unpleasant. However, sellers can take several proactive measures to prevent this. Below, we list efficient tactics for keeping your chargeback threshold ratio low and avoiding financial losses caused by legitimate chargebacks, fraud, and Visa enforcement fees.

• Communicate with your clients. Listening to your customers' complaints, helping them find solutions, and making improvements based on their suggestions is a simple but efficient way to maintain customer satisfaction. Keep in touch with your clients to enhance their trust and minimize the risk of chargebacks.
• Make your policies clear. Refunding a purchase is better than dealing with a chargeback. Make your refund, subscription, and cancellation policies clear so that your clients know what they sign up for.
• Ensure your products fit the description and pictures. False advertisements can severely decrease customer satisfaction. To minimize chargebacks and customer churn, make sure your descriptions fit the product's qualities and the pictures are accurate so that your clients get exactly what they ordered.
• Partner with a trustworthy delivery service. “The product never arrived” is one of the most popular excuses fraudsters use when filing a chargeback request. Partner with a reliable shipping company that offers tracking services and requires a protocol signed by a client to finish the delivery to avoid scammers winning a dispute like this. This way, you will always know whether the “the product never arrived” claim is illegitimate, which will help you win the dispute and keep your CTR low.
• Partner with a chargeback-prevention company. Chargeback-prevention services like MidArmor offer various solutions for automatically resolving disputes and collecting data. These tools provide prevention alerts to notify merchants about chargeback disputes and resolve them before the bank approves them. Investing in such software will help you address a chargeback issue effectively while saving time for more crucial tasks.
• Block potential fraudsters. Sometimes, it might be challenging, but blocking customers who were noticed engaging in fraudulent activity is necessary to keep your business safe. Monitor your clients’ activity to notice suspicious patterns and act quickly.
• Communicate with your acquirer. It is best to keep in touch with your acquiring bank to avoid potential issues. Notify your acquirer of unusual business transactions, ask about policy changes, and seek professional advice to improve your CTR.

Remember: an efficient, proactive strategy is key to your business's security. Resolving issues before they occur is a clever tactic that helps merchants avoid financial problems and maintain good relationships with partners and customers. Analyze your data frequently to notice and strengthen your weak spots before they cause problems.