An acquirer is the financial institution that processes credit card payments for merchants. They’re basically the main support system in the chargeback world and give merchants the tools and help needed to stop and fight payment disputes. They also take care of all the technical parts of every transaction. Acquirers are the main link between […]
A chargeback alert is an early warning that lets merchants know when a customer starts a dispute. With these alerts merchants can take care of the problem before it turns into a formal chargeback that could hurt their ability to process payments. Most processors will send you these alerts within just a few hours after […]
Chargeback arbitration is where everything ends up if a dispute with a cardholder can’t be resolved any other way. At this point, an employee at Visa or Mastercard looks at the case and makes a ruling you can’t appeal. Cases with bulletproof documentation can go either way – it hinges on who reviews it and […]
Credit card authorization is when your payment system double-checks that a customer actually has money in their account and they’re using their own card. The whole verification happens in maybe 2-3 seconds while your processor communicates with their bank and then you either get the green light or it gets declined. I worked with a […]
AVS is a fraud-prevention tool that verifies billing addresses in card-not-present transactions to help merchants cut down on chargebacks. When customers buy online, over the phone, or through mail order, they’re typing in their card information without physically presenting the card – which opens the door for fraudsters with stolen card numbers. AVS compares the […]
A Bank Identification Number (BIN) is the first 4-8 digits of any payment card number that tells you which bank issued the card. It’s a valuable tool that merchants can use to identify fraud patterns and stop chargebacks before they happen. The problem is that most merchants don’t pay enough attention to these numbers when […]
A credit card chargeback happens when a customer’s bank takes money straight out of a merchant account and returns it to the customer. The bank doesn’t need to ask first – they just take the money. This hits businesses hard because the sale is lost, fees between $15-$100 have to be paid, and if it […]
I’ve handled payment disputes for years, and what’s still striking is how much chargebacks actually drain from a business. Let’s say that you have a hundred-dollar transaction that goes south. Between the chargeback fee (which usually runs you fifteen to twenty-five dollars), whatever penalties your processor decides to hit you with, and if you’ve already […]
Chargeback ratio measures how frequently transactions get disputed compared to total sales. Payment processors look at this number every month to decide if they should continue accepting credit card payments from the business. Businesses get taken aback by how strict the limits are. Visa caps merchants at 0.65%, and Mastercard gives a bit more room […]
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