How does Visa calculate the VAMP chargeback ratio?

Visa calculates the VAMP ratio by adding fraud reports to disputes and dividing by settled transactions, counted as events on card-not-present sales. Refunds and won disputes do not remove an entry, so the ratio on your processor dashboard can be a different number from the one Visa uses.

What does the VAMP ratio count?

It counts events, not dollars. VAMP is the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program, and Visa's fact sheet defines the ratio as fraud reports (TC40) plus disputes (TC15), divided by settled transactions (TC05).

A TC40 is a fraud report an issuer sends to Visa, a TC15 is a dispute, and a TC05 is a settled sale. Only card-not-present Visa transactions count, domestic and cross-border. A merchant who tracks disputes divided by sales in dollars, or disputes alone, is measuring something Visa does not.

A fraud report counts even when no dispute follows. Stripe notes that a transaction appearing in both TC40 and TC15 counts twice. Pull your own monthly TC40 and TC15 counts and compare them with the dashboard figure.

Do refunds or won disputes lower the ratio?

No, they leave it where it was. Stripe's documentation says monitoring programs ignore refunds and dispute outcomes, and that a withdrawn dispute still counts.

Refunding after an early fraud warning does not cancel the report either, unless the refund is processed as a reversal within about 2 hours of capture. A merchant who refunds quickly to keep customers happy may still carry the event. One who wins every dispute carries it as well.

Two kinds of event do come out. Visa's fact sheet excludes disputes resolved through pre-dispute solutions, and TC40 fraud that qualified for Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE 3.0), a Visa evidence framework for fraud disputes. Both are subject to the timing of the data extract. Check whether you have alerts set up and keep the account-level records CE 3.0 needs.

What are the VAMP thresholds in 2026?

For merchants, the excessive level is 150 basis points, or 1.5%. It was 220 basis points at launch, and a footnote in Visa's fact sheet says it was reduced on 1 April 2026 in Asia Pacific, Canada, the EU and the US.

A merchant must also have at least 1,500 fraud-plus-dispute events in the month before it is identified, and both tests have to be met. A merchant with 1,500 events on 50,000 settled transactions has a ratio of 3% and meets both. A merchant with fewer than 1,500 events is not identified however poor its ratio looks.

Acquirers, the banks that hold merchant accounts, face lower limits: Above Standard from 50 basis points and Excessive from 70 across the portfolio. Visa describes the program as acquirer-facing, so we infer that most merchants will feel it through their processor, which can add reserves, fines or conditions of its own. Ask your processor which ratio it uses internally, because its limits can be tighter than Visa's.

How new is VAMP?

The current program took effect on 1 April 2025, so it is younger than many merchants assume. Visa's introduction post, dated 30 August 2024 and updated on 24 March 2025, says VAMP consolidates five earlier fraud and dispute programs into one, with the evolved program effective 1 April 2025.

The advisory period ended on 30 September 2025, so the numbers now carry consequences. Older guides carry thresholds and program names that no longer apply. Check a guide's date before relying on any figure in it, and read why the dashboard chargeback ratio misleads for the gap between the two numbers.

Takeaway: what to do this week

1. Run the Visa count yourself. Add your TC40 and TC15 events for the month and divide by settled card-not-present transactions, or ask your processor for the figures.
2. Check both tests. Compare the ratio with 1.5% and the event count with 1,500, since you are identified only when both are met.
3. Stop counting on refunds. A refund does not remove a fraud report unless it is a reversal within about 2 hours of capture, so treat early fraud warnings as counted.
4. Run the count before the holiday peak. Your processor dashboard shows a trend, but it cannot tell you whether you are near the Visa line.

Sources: Visa, "Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program Fact Sheet 2025", including footnote on the 1 April 2026 threshold; Visa, "Introducing the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program", 30 August 2024, updated 24 March 2025; Stripe Docs, "Dispute and fraud card monitoring programs" and "How disputes work", undated. All checked 24 October 2026.