Visa VAMP and chargeback ratio monitoring for merchants

What the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program measures

VAMP replaced Visa's older separate fraud and dispute programs. It looks at two kinds of events on card not present Visa payments: fraud reports filed by issuers and disputes. Both are counted together and divided by the number of settled Visa transactions in the same month. That number is your VAMP ratio.

Visa's VAMP program sets the excessive merchant threshold in the US at 1.5 percent since April 2026, and a minimum of 1,500 counted fraud reports and disputes in the month also applies. Acquirers are measured on their whole portfolio against lower acquirer levels, which is why many set internal merchant limits below 1.5 percent. Visa has changed these levels over time, and your acquirer may use stricter internal limits, so check your acquirer's notice for the numbers that apply to you.

A merchant above the threshold can face fines passed on by the acquirer, a required remediation plan, a higher reserve, or in serious cases the loss of the merchant account. Fees and steps vary by acquirer.

Note that fraud reports count even when no chargeback follows. A refund after an early fraud warning stops the chargeback but may not remove the fraud report from the VAMP count. That is why prevention matters as much as winning disputes.

The Mastercard Excessive Chargeback Merchant program

Mastercard runs its own program. It looks at chargebacks in a calendar month against transactions in the previous month. A merchant is generally flagged as an Excessive Chargeback Merchant at roughly 1.5 percent and 100 chargebacks in a month, with a lower early tier that starts at about 1 percent. Like Visa, Mastercard and acquirers adjust these rules, so treat the numbers as a guide and confirm with your acquirer.

You can change every threshold in the app to match your acquirer's limits.

How the chargeback ratio monitor works

NoChargeback reads sales, disputes and early fraud warnings from each connected account and computes a ratio per account and per network for the current month.

• Separate Visa and Mastercard ratios for every connected account
• Early fraud warnings counted next to disputes, as an estimate of the fraud reports that VAMP counts
• Email alerts when a ratio reaches 70 percent and 90 percent of its threshold
• Trend chart by day, so you see the direction, not only the level
• A projected month end ratio based on the pace so far

Processor data does not include every fraud report an issuer files, so the VAMP figure in the app is an estimate. Your acquirer's report is the official number. The monitor's job is to warn you early enough to act.

A worked example with hypothetical numbers

The numbers below are made up to show the arithmetic. They do not describe any real merchant.

Suppose a store has 20,000 settled Visa transactions in a month. At the 1.5 percent merchant threshold, the limit is 300 cases. The 70 percent alert fires at 210 cases and the 90 percent alert at 270 cases.

By the middle of the month the store has 100 disputes and 25 early fraud warnings, 125 cases in total. If the pace holds, the month ends near 250 cases, a ratio of 1.25 percent, or about 83 percent of the threshold. The 70 percent alert has not fired yet, but the monitor shows the projection, so the store knows the month is heading past it.

At that point the store still has time to act: turn on 3DS for risky orders, refund early fraud warnings where a refund is cheaper, and pause a product that draws disputes.

What to do when an alert fires

A ratio alert is a signal to change something this month, not next month. NoChargeback links each alert to the actions that lower the ratio fastest.

• Answer early fraud warnings and inquiries quickly from the chargeback alerts feed
• Apply prevention rules such as 3DS triggers, Radar style rules and velocity limits
• On Scale and Enterprise, use Ethoca alerts and Visa RDR so more cases close before they count
• Review the reason code report to find the product, country or traffic source behind the rise

Ratio per account for operators with many merchant accounts

Acquirers watch each merchant account on its own. A healthy total can hide one account in trouble. NoChargeback shows every connected account on one screen, sorted by risk, with its Visa and Mastercard ratios side by side.

The ratio monitor and email alerts are included on every plan. Scale adds a multi account dashboard, network alerts and API access. Paying yearly saves 50 percent. Compare plans on the pricing page.