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If you take card payments online, Visa's dispute rules affect you whether you have heard of them or not. In 2025, Visa replaced its separate fraud and dispute monitoring programs with one combined program, the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP). On April 1, 2026, the main merchant threshold dropped to 1.5% in most regions. Here is how it works and what it means for your business.
What VAMP is
VAMP is how Visa monitors fraud and disputes on card-not-present transactions, meaning online, phone and other remote payments. It watches both merchants and the acquiring banks that serve them. When a merchant goes over the limits, the acquirer is expected to act, which can mean fees, monitoring, a reserve, or in serious cases closing the account.
How the VAMP ratio is calculated
Visa's published formula, effective June 1, 2025, is:
VAMP ratio = (fraud reports + disputes) ÷ settled transactions
- Fraud reports are filed by card issuers when a cardholder says a purchase was fraudulent (known as TC40 reports).
- Disputes are chargebacks raised by issuers (TC15).
- Settled transactions are your completed sales for the month.
The key change from the old programs: fraud and disputes now count together. Processor documentation notes that a single transaction with both a fraud report and a dispute counts twice.
A worked example
An online store settles 40,000 card-not-present Visa transactions in a month. Issuers file 380 fraud reports and the store receives 300 disputes. Its VAMP ratio is (380 + 300) ÷ 40,000 = 1.7%. That is over the 1.5% ratio, but with 680 counted events it is under the 1,500 minimum count in the U.S., so the merchant threshold is not met that month. The same store with three times the volume and the same rate would be. Run your own numbers with our chargeback ratio calculator.
The thresholds
A merchant is identified as "Excessive" when both the ratio and the monthly count are met:
| Region | Ratio | Minimum monthly count |
|---|---|---|
| U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia Pacific | 1.5% (2.2% until March 31, 2026) | 1,500 fraud reports and disputes |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 1.5% | 1,500 fraud reports and disputes |
| Central Europe, Middle East and Africa | 2.2% | 150, with at least USD 75,000 in fraud and disputes |
Acquirers have their own limits: "Above Standard" from 0.5% and "Excessive" from 0.7% across their whole portfolio. This matters to you because an acquirer over its own limit is under pressure to act on its riskiest merchants first. Processor documentation also describes much lower triggers, around 0.5% with only a handful of counted events, for merchants whose acquirer is flagged. In practice, many acquirers now set internal limits well below 1.5%, so ask yours which number applies to you.
What counts, and what doesn't
According to Visa's fact sheet, two things are excluded from the ratio, both depending on when the data is pulled:
- Disputes resolved through pre-dispute solutions, where the case is settled, usually with a refund, before it becomes a chargeback.
- Fraud reports that qualify for Compelling Evidence 3.0, Visa's rules for showing that a "fraud" claim came from a genuine returning customer.
Refunding after a chargeback has been filed, or winning the dispute, does not remove it from the count. How specific tools such as Rapid Dispute Resolution are treated has been debated in the industry, so confirm with your processor before relying on any one tool.
Card testing: the enumeration limit
VAMP also watches for card testing, where fraudsters run thousands of stolen card numbers through a checkout to see which work. A merchant can be identified when at least 20% of its authorization attempts are enumerated and there are at least 300,000 such attempts in a month. Rate limits, CAPTCHA on checkout, and blocking repeated small authorizations help prevent it.
What happens if you go over
- Grace period: industry guides report a three-month grace period for a first breach in a rolling 12 months before enrollment.
- Fees: Visa's fact sheet doesn't list them, but several processors report a fee of about $8 per counted fraud report or dispute for Excessive merchants, usually passed through by the acquirer.
- Account action: your acquirer may add a reserve, lower your processing limits, require a remediation plan, or close the account.
How to stay under the limit
- Find the main causes of your disputes using reason codes. Our reason code lookup explains each one.
- Stop fraud at checkout with address and security code checks, 3-D Secure and velocity limits.
- Use a billing descriptor customers will recognize.
- Use pre-dispute alerts to refund before a dispute is filed.
- Keep the order data you need for Compelling Evidence 3.0: IP address, device ID, account login and delivery address.
Our step-by-step guide covers each of these: how to lower your chargeback ratio.
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This article summarizes Visa's published VAMP fact sheet and processor documentation as of November 2026. Rules and regional thresholds can change. Check with your acquirer for the limits on your account.
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