# Chargeback ratio calculator: Visa and Mastercard · CheckoutScale > Source: https://checkoutscale.com/best/chargeback-ratio-checker-your-dispute-ratio-against-visa-and-mastercard-threshol ## Chargeback ratio checker: your dispute ratio against Visa and Mastercard thresholds Your chargeback ratio is the month's chargebacks divided by the month's transactions. Visa and Mastercard each need a high ratio and a minimum number of chargebacks before they flag a merchant. Enter last month's figures to see how close you are to each threshold. By [Marcus Reyes](/authors/marcus-reyes), Editor. Published 14 October 2026. **The short answer:** Mastercard puts a merchant in its Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM) tier at 100 chargebacks and a 1.5% ratio in the same month, and in the High Excessive tier (HECM) at 300 chargebacks and 3%. Visa's excessive line in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific is 150 basis points (1.5%), counted on fraud reports plus disputes, once that count reaches 1,500 a month. Most processors start worrying near 0.9%. [Check your own numbers](#calculator) below. This is an estimate. It uses your chargebacks and transactions only. Visa's published ratio also counts fraud reports and divides by settled card-not-present transactions, and Mastercard divides by the previous month's sales, so your processor's figure can differ from this one. ### Check your chargeback ratio Transactions this month Chargebacks this month Last month's transactions (optional, for Mastercard) Card network Visa and Mastercard Visa only Mastercard only Check my ratio Count transactions and chargebacks for one card network if your processor reports them separately. A blended figure across networks is a rougher estimate. Enter your month's transactions and chargebacks, then press Check my ratio. ### How chargeback ratio is calculated Divide the chargebacks you received in a period by the transactions you processed in it. Card networks quote the result in basis points, where 100 basis points equal 1%. So 180 chargebacks on 20,000 transactions is 0.9%, or 90 basis points. Each network then adjusts that simple formula. Visa's [Acquirer Monitoring Program fact sheet](https://corporate.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/corporate/visa-perspectives/security-and-trust/documents/visa-acquirer-monitoring-program-fact-sheet-2025.pdf) defines the VAMP ratio as fraud reports (TC40) plus disputes (TC15), divided by settled transactions (TC05), and it covers card-not-present sales only. Some disputes resolved through pre-dispute tools or Compelling Evidence 3.0 are left out, depending on when the data arrives. Mastercard divides this month's chargebacks by last month's sales, as both JPMorgan's [excessive chargeback FAQ](https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm/merchant-services/documents/payment-network-updates/MC%5FExcessiveChargebacks%5FFAQ%5F02092022.pdf) and Braintree's program summary describe it. That lag makes a fast-growing month look worse than it is, which is why the calculator has an optional field for last month's count. A dispute you win can still sit in the ratio your processor watches. Sellers in payment forums keep reporting that disputes they won still counted against them, so plan as if every chargeback that arrives is counted. ### Visa: the VAMP thresholds this checker uses Visa folded its old dispute and fraud monitoring programs into the [Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program](https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/security-trust/introducing-visa-acquirer-monitoring-program.html), effective 1 April 2025, with an advisory period that ran to 30 September 2025. Visa names a merchant as excessive only when both of these are true: * **A VAMP ratio of 150 basis points or more** in Asia Pacific, Canada, Europe and the United States, in force since 1 April 2026 according to the fact sheet. Latin America and the Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region have separate rules, which this checker leaves out. * **At least 1,500 fraud reports plus disputes in the month.** Visa's [program update](https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/security-trust/visa-vamp-program-update-fraud-disputes.html) calls this the minimum VAMP count and says it exists to keep normal business swings out of the program. The count matters more than most sellers expect. A store with 400 chargebacks on 20,000 orders has a 2% ratio, yet it is well under 1,500 events, so Visa's published rule does not put it in the excessive tier. Its acquirer can still act on its own terms. Before VAMP, Visa's dispute program applied at a dispute-to-sales ratio above 0.90% with more than 100 disputes in a month, as JPMorgan's 2022 [monitoring programs FAQ](https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm/merchant-services/documents/payment-network-updates/PB%5FMonitoringPrograms%5FFAQ%5F02092022.pdf) put it. That rule is retired. The calculator still shows it as the acquirer warning line, because it is where many processors and high-risk providers still draw their own limit. ### Mastercard: ECM and HECM thresholds Mastercard's program needs both numbers at once. JPMorgan's FAQ states that a merchant ID "must exceed both number of chargebacks and chargeback basis points thresholds to be noncompliant," and Braintree's [Mastercard program page](https://developer.paypal.com/braintree/articles/risk-and-security/card-brand-monitoring-programs/mastercard-programs/excessive-chargeback-program) dates that dual rule to October 2019\. Both are acquirers' summaries of Mastercard's rules. | Tier | Chargebacks in the month | Ratio | | --------------------- | ------------------------ | -------------- | | Excessive (ECM) | 100 to 299 | 1.50% to 2.99% | | High excessive (HECM) | 300 or more | 3.00% or more | Mastercard's own [merchant guidance on disputes](https://www.mastercard.com/global/en/news-and-trends/Insights/2024/how-can-merchants-dispute-credit-card-chargebacks.html) warns that a high ratio may bring higher fees and a frozen merchant account. That risk applies whether or not you win the individual cases. ### Worked examples: three months, three outcomes | Transactions | Chargebacks | Ratio | Mastercard | Visa | | ------------ | ----------- | --------------- | ---------- | ----------------------- | | 20,000 | 180 | 0.90% (90 bps) | Below ECM | Below 150 bps | | 8,000 | 100 | 1.25% (125 bps) | Below ECM | Below 150 bps | | 15,000 | 240 | 1.60% (160 bps) | In ECM | Over ratio, under count | The first month has enough chargebacks for Mastercard's count, but 0.9% is far from the 1.5% ratio, so it stays out of ECM. On Visa it is 60 basis points under the excessive line and nowhere near 1,500 events. It does sit exactly on the old 0.90% acquirer level, which is where a processor's risk team usually starts asking for a chargeback plan. The second row is a smaller store with a worse rate. Its 100 chargebacks reach Mastercard's count while the 1.25% ratio still misses the tier, and Visa's line is 25 basis points away. Ten more chargebacks on the same volume would not change the network picture, but they would push it past both parts of the retired 0.90% and 100-dispute rule. The third month crosses both of Mastercard's ECM conditions. Its 160 basis points also clear Visa's ratio, but 240 events is far below the 1,500 minimum, so Visa's published rule would not name it excessive. That gap between networks is the main reason to check both. ### What is a good chargeback ratio? My take: if you sell supplements, trial offers or anything else on cold paid traffic, keep every merchant account under 0.9% and act on the first month that creeps toward it. The network programs start at 1.5%, but processors set reserves, raise fees and close accounts well before that, and the 0.90% line from the old Visa rules is still the one high-risk providers quote. Our guide to [high-risk merchant account providers](/best/best-high-risk-merchant-account-providers-for-online-sellers) covers how reserves and underwriting react to a rising rate. Spreading volume across more accounts lowers each account's count but does nothing for the underlying rate. The [MID capacity planner](/best/mid-capacity-planner-how-many-merchant-accounts-your-monthly-volume-needs) turns sales, a per-account cap and that ratio into an account count. Order-management platforms built for rebilling offers watch this per account. The [Sticky.io review](/reviews/sticky-io) covers its VAMP-aware monitoring and MID health alerts, and the [Konnektive review](/reviews/konnektive) covers the CRM many direct-response brands run beside it. To bring the rate itself down, our guide to [chargeback management software](/best/chargeback-management-software) compares Ethoca and Verifi alerts and the providers that resell them. The [Chargeflow review](/reviews/chargeflow) is the self-serve vendor in that set, with the public per-use fees and the invoice complaints beside them. ### Limits of this calculator It leaves out three things a processor's report includes. Fraud reports (TC40) add to Visa's count and ratio, and only your acquirer can see them. Pre-dispute exclusions can lower the Visa number. Card-present sales are left out of VAMP's denominator, so if you also sell in person, enter your online transactions only. Processor-specific limits at Stripe, Shopify Payments or a high-risk acquirer are set in your contract, and some are tighter than any network rule. Read the monitoring clause before the first campaign scales. If you are still choosing where to process, our guide to [merchant of record vs payment processor](/compare/merchant-of-record-vs-payment-processor) explains who carries the chargebacks in each model, and the [checkout cost calculator](/best/checkout-cost-calculator-what-each-platform-costs-at-your-monthly-revenue) shows what each platform charges at your monthly revenue. More tools and rankings are on the [Best of hub](/best), and [how we research](/methodology) explains where our figures come from. ### Frequently asked questions What chargeback ratio does Visa allow? Visa does not publish one allowed percentage. In the US, Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific its excessive line is a VAMP ratio of 150 basis points, and it applies only to merchants with at least 1,500 fraud reports and disputes combined in the month. What is the Mastercard Excessive Chargeback Program? It is Mastercard's monitoring program for merchants with too many chargebacks, in two tiers called ECM and HECM. A merchant lands in a tier only in a month when its chargeback count and its ratio both reach that tier's line. Is a 1% chargeback rate bad? Neither network flags it on its own, but it sits above the 0.90% level acquirers have long quoted as their warning point. Expect questions, a reserve or a fee change from your processor well before Visa or Mastercard get involved. Does winning a chargeback lower my ratio? Often it does not. Each processor sets its own rule, and many count the dispute on the day it arrives whatever the outcome. Visa's VAMP leaves out some disputes resolved through pre-dispute tools or Compelling Evidence 3.0, depending on when the data lands. Written by Last checked 2026-10-14 --- We rank the platforms that build the pages and host the checkout for teams running paid traffic: order bumps, one-click upsells, split-testing whole checkouts, different checkouts per traffic source, and payment routing for high-risk verticals. CheckoutScale [Top ↑](#main) We may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. It never affects our rankings. © 2026 CheckoutScale. Independent and reader-supported.