What is Visa VAMP?
The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) monitors fraud, disputes and card testing across Visa payments. Its fraud-and-dispute ratio measures reported fraud and disputes against settled card-not-present Visa transactions. It covers both domestic and cross-border activity. Visa program overview.
If your processor has contacted you about VAMP, start with three questions: Which threshold applies to your account? What is driving your reported ratio? What corrective actions does your processor require?
This guide explains the numbers and provides a practical starting point for that conversation.
What are the VAMP thresholds in 2026?
Visa’s published excessive-merchant criteria include:
| Region | VAMP ratio | Monthly fraud-and-dispute count | Additional amount criterion |
|---|---|---|---|
| US, Canada, EU and Asia-Pacific* | At least 1.5% | At least 1,500 | None listed |
| Latin America and Caribbean* | At least 1.5% | At least 1,500 | None listed |
| Central Europe, Middle East and Africa | At least 2.2% | At least 150 | At least US$75,000 |
The US, Canada, EU and Asia-Pacific reduction took effect April 1, 2026. These criteria apply together, and Visa qualifies this table by the acquirer’s portfolio standing. Acquirer thresholds are separate: 0.5% Above Standard and 0.7% Excessive, with minimum-count requirements.
Visa’s fact sheet separately flags Brazil, Chile and India for later announcements. Confirm current local applicability with your acquirer. Visa thresholds and regional notes.
Treat the excessive threshold as an escalation point, not an operating target. For example, Stripe’s documentation also lists a non-compliant category at a 0.5% ratio and five fraud/dispute records. Ask your provider which requirements apply to your account. Stripe monitoring guidance.
Can your acquirer’s VAMP ratio affect your business?
Yes. Visa monitors the acquirer’s portfolio as well as individual merchants. An acquiring bank must manage the combined fraud and dispute activity of the merchants it supports. Your business contributes to that portfolio, but your own ratio and the portfolio ratio are separate measures.
Visa lists portfolio thresholds of 0.5% for Above Standard and 0.7% for Excessive, with minimum monthly counts. Its published excessive-merchant table is expressly conditional on the acquirer not being in those categories. Visa portfolio and merchant criteria.
The practical implication is that being below the merchant excessive threshold does not guarantee your acquirer will accept your risk level. A struggling portfolio can create pressure to tighten merchant controls or require improvement. Acquirers can also apply their own risk parameters. This does not mean every compliant merchant automatically enters monitoring because other merchants perform poorly. Verifi’s explanation of acquirer risk parameters.
Ask your processor: Is this request driven by my merchant-level VAMP results, your portfolio standing, or an internal risk policy? What ratio and improvement deadline apply to my account?
How do you calculate your VAMP ratio?
VAMP ratio = (TC40 fraud count + TC15 dispute count, after applicable exclusions) ÷ TC05 settled transaction count × 100.
What do TC40, TC15 and TC05 mean in a VAMP report?
These codes identify the records used in the calculation:
- TC40: an issuer-reported fraud record. It is not necessarily a chargeback.
- TC15: a dispute record—what merchants commonly call a chargeback. It includes fraud and non-fraud disputes.
- TC05: a settled sales transaction.
Visa excludes qualifying disputes resolved before chargeback and TC40 fraud records that qualify for Compelling Evidence 3.0, subject to data-extract timing. Resolving an alert does not automatically remove an associated fraud report. Visa calculation.
What is the VAMP ratio for 5,000 monthly Visa transactions?
Suppose your monthly report shows:
- 5,000 settled Visa card-not-present transactions. Use the eligible Visa count, not total orders across all payment methods.
- 30 TC40 fraud records.
- 25 TC15 chargebacks remaining after applicable exclusions.
Your VAMP ratio is (30 + 25) ÷ 5,000 × 100 = 1.1%.
For comparison, the chargeback-only calculation using those same counts is 25 ÷ 5,000 × 100 = 0.5%. Your VAMP ratio is higher because it also includes reported fraud. Some of those fraud reports and chargebacks may concern the same payments; do not automatically deduplicate them.
This is a hypothetical example, not a client result. A count of 55 does not meet the 1,500-count excessive-merchant criterion in the US table above. That does not mean the account is free of risk: provider requirements and the acquirer’s portfolio standing still matter.
Why is VAMP different from your chargeback rate?
A transaction appearing in both the fraud and dispute reports can count twice. Records are assigned to the month reported, which may differ from the purchase month. Winning a dispute does not automatically remove it from monitoring. These differences can make a dashboard chargeback rate a poor substitute for your VAMP report. Stripe’s reporting explanation.
For internal tracking, keep fraud, disputes, exclusions and settled transactions in separate columns. Avoid estimating the numerator by simply adding every alert email to your chargebacks.
Where can you get VAMP alerts and see your VAMP report?
Start with your payment processor or acquiring bank. Ask your account manager or risk team how to access your monthly VAMP report and receive warnings about a rising ratio. Request the data month, merchant identifier, settled Visa transaction count, TC40 fraud count, TC15 chargeback count and applied exclusions.
If you already use a chargeback-alert provider, ask whether it also offers VAMP reporting, fraud-data access or ratio notifications. These may be separate services. Confirm whether its dashboard uses complete processor data or only the alerts it receives; an alert feed alone may not contain everything needed to calculate VAMP.
For example, Stripe documents a VAMP dashboard with Visa-reported results and its own estimates. Confirm which figures are official and which are provisional. Stripe VAMP reporting.
Are VAMP warnings the same as chargeback alerts?
No. A VAMP warning concerns your monitoring status or ratio; a chargeback alert concerns a particular payment. A fraud notification can also identify a TC40 record. Ask your provider which type of notification you are receiving and what action it requires.
Useful questions for your provider include:
- Can I see TC40 fraud reports separately from TC15 chargebacks?
- Does your reporting include every relevant merchant account and descriptor?
- How often is the data updated, and can you notify me when my ratio rises?
- Can you show which alert resolutions were reflected in my VAMP report?
- Who handles a discrepancy between your estimate and the processor’s official report?
For support with alerts and fraud data, explore DirectPayNet’s chargeback prevention and fraud management services.
How can you lower your Visa VAMP ratio?
Start by identifying the problem behind the numbers. Our recommended approach is to organize your investigation into three areas: payment fraud, customer disputes and reporting accuracy.
How can you prevent customer disputes from becoming chargebacks?
Make your business name recognizable on statements, show refund and cancellation policies clearly, provide delivery tracking and respond promptly when customers report a problem. Clear communication can prevent confusion from becoming a dispute. Dispute-prevention practices.
For a subscription business, we recommend reviewing the full cancellation journey yourself. Can a customer find it easily, complete it successfully and receive confirmation? For physical products, compare the delivery promise on the sales page with actual fulfilment times.
Then review complaints by product, campaign and billing model. Use that breakdown to decide what to fix first. A recurring product complaint deserves a different response from an unfamiliar billing descriptor.
How can you prevent card testing and payment fraud?
Card testing involves automated attempts to validate payment details. Use layered protections, such as rate limits, bot detection and appropriate checkout controls; a single filter may not stop an attack. Card-testing prevention.
We recommend reviewing suspicious traffic with your gateway or fraud provider, then assessing each proposed rule against both fraud reduction and legitimate customer approvals. Record the date of each change so you can compare the results.
Do Ethoca, CDRN and RDR help lower your VAMP ratio?
Ethoca Alerts, CDRN and RDR can help prevent eligible cases from becoming chargebacks. They are useful tools alongside fraud prevention, clear billing and responsive customer service.
| Tool | How it helps |
|---|---|
| Ethoca Alerts | Shares fraud and dispute notifications from participating issuers so merchants can act before a chargeback, including issuing an appropriate refund. |
| Verifi CDRN — Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network | Gives merchants an opportunity to resolve covered Visa and non-Visa cases by issuing a credit before a chargeback is filed. |
| Verifi RDR — Rapid Dispute Resolution | Uses automated rules to resolve eligible Visa cases with a cardholder credit before a chargeback begins. |
Coverage and handling differ. Confirm issuer coverage, enrollment, response deadlines and resolution reporting with your provider. Ethoca Alerts, Verifi CDRN and RDR.
Do all chargeback alerts count toward VAMP?
No. Alerts are notifications, not an additional category in the VAMP calculation. The fraud-and-dispute ratio counts eligible TC40 fraud records and TC15 chargebacks. A non-fraud alert is not a TC40 record, but an unresolved case that becomes a TC15 chargeback can still contribute to VAMP. VAMP is therefore not limited to fraud cases.
Can resolving a fraud alert prevent a payment from counting twice?
Yes, when resolution prevents the chargeback and the payment has an associated TC40 fraud report. The TC40 may remain, but avoiding the TC15 prevents the additional chargeback count. An alert marked as fraud should not automatically be assumed to have a matching TC40; reconcile the records with your provider.
| What happens to the payment? | Potential contribution to the VAMP count |
|---|---|
| A TC40 fraud report remains, and timely resolution prevents the chargeback | One fraud record, subject to applicable exclusions |
| Both a TC40 fraud report and a TC15 chargeback remain | Two records, subject to applicable exclusions |
| A non-fraud case is resolved before chargeback, with no TC40 report | No TC40 or TC15 contribution from that case |
| A non-fraud case becomes a TC15 chargeback | One chargeback record, subject to applicable exclusions |
Visa’s calculation and exclusions, Stripe’s reporting explanation.
How much could preventing chargebacks reduce your VAMP ratio?
Return to the hypothetical 5,000-transaction example. Suppose 10 of the 25 chargebacks could instead have been successfully prevented through timely alert resolution, with the outcome reflected in the same report. Keep the 30 fraud records unchanged:
| Scenario | TC40 fraud records | TC15 chargebacks | VAMP ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original example | 30 | 25 | 1.1% |
| With 10 chargebacks prevented | 30 | 15 | 0.9% |
The chargeback-only ratio would fall from 0.5% to 0.3%. If those 10 prevented chargebacks relate to payments already in the TC40 count, those payments would contribute once rather than twice. The fraud reports still remain. This illustrates prevention, not retroactive removal of chargebacks already filed, and is not a promised result.
How should you respond to chargeback alerts?
Assign responsibility for monitoring alerts, processing appropriate refunds or credits, and confirming resolution within the provider’s deadline. Check for previously refunded transactions to avoid duplicate refunds. Track missed deadlines and cases that still become chargebacks.
Ask for case-level reconciliation of alerts, refunds, TC40 reports, TC15 chargebacks and exclusions. Confirm which outcomes reached the monthly report. Neither buying an alert service nor issuing a refund alone guarantees that every potential chargeback will be prevented.
Need help choosing or reviewing chargeback alerts? DirectPayNet can discuss Ethoca, CDRN and RDR options alongside your existing fraud controls. Contact us about chargeback prevention.
Can an alert service remove a chargeback that has already been filed?
Pre-dispute tools are designed to act before a chargeback is filed. Once a chargeback exists, follow your processor’s dispute-response process and decide whether to accept it or submit evidence. Do not issue another refund without checking whether the customer has already been credited. Winning a chargeback does not automatically remove its monitoring record. Verifi pre-dispute resolution, Stripe dispute monitoring.
What should you do after a VAMP warning?
Use this checklist to organize your response:
- Obtain the report. Request the data month, monitored account or descriptor, ratio, counts and exclusions.
- Confirm the warning category. Ask whether it concerns your merchant-level results, the acquirer’s portfolio, enumeration, or a provider-specific risk requirement.
- Get the requirements in writing. Confirm the deadline, required improvement, applicable fees and conditions for leaving monitoring.
- Identify the main cause. Review fraud patterns alongside cancellations, fulfilment complaints and customer-service records.
- Assign corrective actions. Give each action an owner, completion date and measurable result.
- Review progress with the processor. Compare your estimates with the official monthly report and investigate discrepancies.
For Stripe users, its documented VAMP dashboard includes Visa-reported data and Stripe estimates. Monitoring can involve fees and, if unresolved, loss of processing access. Confirm your actual obligations rather than assuming a universal fine or grace period. Stripe VAMP dashboard and monitoring guidance.
Does refunding a payment remove a TC40 fraud report?
Not necessarily. Stripe explains that suspected fraud on a captured payment can still be reported even after a refund. Stripe monitoring guidance.
Should you wait until you exceed the VAMP threshold?
We recommend acting when a trend or warning appears. Ask your processor to agree on an internal target and review cadence appropriate to your account.
Will changing payment processors fix a high VAMP ratio?
Do not make that assumption. Before considering a move, ask both providers how your existing status and obligations will be handled. Build a plan that addresses the source of the fraud or disputes as well as payment continuity.
What should you prepare before requesting VAMP help?
Gather the warning, recent monthly VAMP reports, processing statements, a summary of your products and billing model, and a list of the prevention tools already active. That gives the person reviewing your account a useful starting point.
Where can you watch a practical discussion of VAMP prevention?
Watch Maria’s VAMP and card-testing prevention episode for a discussion of fraud controls, billing descriptors and chargeback-prevention tools.
Recorded in 2025: this episode provides background on prevention. Use the updated written guide and your processor’s current instructions for thresholds, dates and program requirements that may have changed since recording.
Where can you get help with VAMP and chargeback prevention?
DirectPayNet helps online businesses assess payment-processing challenges and explore fraud-prevention and chargeback-management options. If you need help understanding what to review next, contact DirectPayNet with a summary of your situation.
Last updated September 17, 2026; the alert, calculation and acquirer sections were checked against public documentation on that date. Your acquirer or processor should confirm the requirements applicable to your account.
Call: +1 (514) 819-1174 | 1-800-657-8272
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: This document is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, financial, or compliance advice. The information contained herein reflects our understanding as of March 2026 and may change as Visa updates its policies or as industry practices evolve. Accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Merchants should consult directly with their payment processors, acquiring banks, or other providers to confirm current requirements and guidelines.
