# Chargeback ratios: Visa and Mastercard · Campaign Buyer

> Source: https://campaignbuyer.com/reviews/chargeback-ratio-calculator-are-you-near-the-visa-and-mastercard-monitoring-line

## Chargeback ratios: Visa and Mastercard

Enter your monthly counts and calculate each network's ratio with its own formula, then compare it with the Visa and Mastercard monitoring thresholds.

By [Dana Rourke](/authors/dana-rourke), Lead Reviewer. Reviewed by [Campaign Buyer Editorial](/authors/editorial). Updated 24 October 2026\. 

You get each network's ratio from the sales month that network uses, then you compare it with the matching row in the tables. The figure is an estimate from the counts you type. Your acquirer's notice is the official result.

Mastercard's one-month lag between sales and disputes is easy to overlook in the fourth quarter, when checkout volume picks up. [How to read a chargeback rate](/reviews/chargeback-rate) covers what the percentage means and what to change while the account is still open.

[See your ratios](#calculator)

### Calculate both ratios

This is also a chargeback rate calculator. You get one percentage per network from the counts you enter. The worked example further down uses the numbers already in the fields.

Visa, this calendar month 

Payments captured 

Disputes (TC15) 

Early fraud warnings (TC40) 

Leave blank for zero.

Payments in both reports 

Add only the payments that sit on both reports. Stripe counts those a second time.

Region for the excessive threshold 

Asia Pacific, Canada, the EU, the US, and Latin America and the Caribbean Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) 

Checkout.com subtracts exceptions from the fraud and dispute totals. This form adds the three Visa counts as you type them. If your report already removed items, reduce the dispute or fraud figure by that amount first.

Mastercard 

Chargebacks opened this month 

Sales count, prior month 

June chargebacks use May sales. At least 1.

Optional label 

Month you are checking 

Calculate the ratios 

The counts you enter and the ratios this page works out are stored anonymously, with no name or email, so we can see which thresholds readers are checking.

Press Calculate. The tables below list the thresholds, so you can check them before you run the form.

### Visa's VAMP formula

Sales are the long stack. Disputes and fraud reports are the short stack. The green line is a program threshold.

[Stripe's monitoring guide](https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/monitoring-programs) says Visa compares disputes and fraud reports with captured payments in the same calendar month. The count adds disputes (TC15) and early fraud warnings (TC40). A payment in both reports is counted twice. Type how many of those payments you have, and the form includes that second count.

[Checkout.com](https://www.checkout.com/docs/business-operations/manage-disputes/scheme-monitoring-programs) writes the ratio as TC15 plus TC40, minus exceptions, divided by settled transactions. [Visa's 2025 fact sheet](https://corporate.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/corporate/visa-perspectives/security-and-trust/documents/visa-acquirer-monitoring-program-fact-sheet-2025.pdf) is the program document from the network. The rows below are Stripe's summary for merchants, and this form uses those thresholds.

| Line             | Ratio | Count | Where                  |
| ---------------- | ----- | ----- | ---------------------- |
| Early            | 0.5%  | 5     | Every listed region    |
| Excessive        | 1.5%  | 1,500 | Outside CEMEA          |
| Excessive, CEMEA | 2.2%  | 150   | CEMEA, plus 75,000 USD |

Both the percentage and the count have to be met. On Checkout.com's current schedule, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America sit on the lower excessive row, and CEMEA sits on the higher one. Before that schedule, Latin America and the Caribbean was already on the lower row, while Asia Pacific, Europe and North America were on the higher row.

### Mastercard's excessive chargeback ratio

[Braintree's card-brand FAQ](https://developer.paypal.com/braintree/articles/risk-and-security/card-brand-monitoring-programs/frequently-asked-questions) divides chargebacks opened in a calendar month by the prior month's sales count. June's chargebacks use May's sales.

The [excessive chargeback program](https://developer.paypal.com/braintree/articles/risk-and-security/card-brand-monitoring-programs/mastercard-programs/excessive-chargeback-program) has two tiers. Braintree says the count and the ratio both have to be met.

| Tier                               | Chargebacks | Ratio          |
| ---------------------------------- | ----------- | -------------- |
| Excessive Chargeback Merchant      | 100 to 299  | 1.50% to 2.99% |
| High Excessive Chargeback Merchant | 300 or more | 3.00% or more  |

A 2.5% ratio with only 60 chargebacks is below the count of 100 the first tier requires. A count of 400 at 2% falls short of the higher tier, which starts at 3%, while the lower tier stops at 299 chargebacks.

Mastercard removes the merchant after three consecutive months below the first-tier threshold.

### A worked example

Take 8,000 Visa payments captured in October, 35 disputes, 10 fraud warnings and no overlap. The count is 45\. The ratio is 0.56%. That count is above the early count in the Visa table, and 0.56% falls between the early percentage and the excessive percentage for a merchant outside CEMEA.

For Mastercard, 120 chargebacks opened in June against 6,000 sales in May come out to 2.0%. The count and that percentage both fall in the first tier, so the tier's two requirements are met.

Run those June chargebacks against the October capture count, using Visa's same-month method, and the ratio comes out to 1.5%. The prior-month sales above are the base Mastercard uses.

### Why your dashboard ratio can differ

[Stripe's measuring guide](https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/measuring) says the networks' monitoring programs use dispute activity, counted on the dispute date. Stripe's own dispute rate is counted on the charge date, so a dashboard rate can sit lower than the network ratio.

Braintree counts a chargeback in the month it is raised, which can drop a pile of disputes onto a quiet sales month. One percentage that mixes Visa and Mastercard follows neither formula. A blended dashboard prints that mixed figure.

A win leaves the chargeback in the filing month. Braintree counts it against the ratio regardless of outcome.

### If your ratio is near a threshold

Updating the descriptor, setting alerts and making the offer clear are the next steps. [How to read a chargeback rate](/reviews/chargeback-rate) walks through them.

Each merchant account keeps its own Visa ratio when sales are split across more than one merchant ID. The [multi-MID routing](/reviews/multi-mid-routing) guide explains that split. We read the program pages and the vendor documentation, then compare them. That method is written up on [the methodology page](/methodology).

### My take

I'd judge the month by whether the count and the ratio clear the same row, on Visa and on Mastercard separately. A mixed dashboard percentage is the figure I would set aside until those two are split.

[Run your counts](#calculator)

### Frequently asked questions

Is a chargeback ratio the same thing as a chargeback rate? 

Shops use both names for one percentage. Monitoring programs count disputes in the month they are raised. A rate tied to the original charge date can print a different figure, so a dashboard rate and a network ratio can disagree.

What is the Visa chargeback threshold for 2026? 

Use the Visa table above. The excessive percentage there follows Checkout.com's current schedule, and CEMEA keeps the higher excessive percentage in that table, along with a dollar-volume gate you compare with your own volume.

What puts a merchant in the Mastercard excessive chargeback program? 

A tier applies only when the chargeback total and the percentage land in the same row of the Mastercard table. Meeting one column leaves the merchant outside that tier.

Does a refund remove a chargeback from the ratio? 

A filed chargeback stays in the month it was raised. Braintree counts it whatever the later outcome, including a case you win. If the customer never files, that sale adds nothing to the count.

### Sources

* [Stripe: dispute and fraud monitoring programs](https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/monitoring-programs)
* [Stripe: measuring disputes](https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/measuring)
* [Braintree: Mastercard Excessive Chargeback Program](https://developer.paypal.com/braintree/articles/risk-and-security/card-brand-monitoring-programs/mastercard-programs/excessive-chargeback-program)
* [Braintree: card brand monitoring FAQ](https://developer.paypal.com/braintree/articles/risk-and-security/card-brand-monitoring-programs/frequently-asked-questions)
* [Checkout.com: scheme monitoring programs](https://www.checkout.com/docs/business-operations/manage-disputes/scheme-monitoring-programs)
* [Visa: acquirer monitoring program fact sheet (2025)](https://corporate.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/corporate/visa-perspectives/security-and-trust/documents/visa-acquirer-monitoring-program-fact-sheet-2025.pdf)

[How to read a chargeback rate](/reviews/chargeback-rate) [Multi-MID routing](/reviews/multi-mid-routing) [All reviews](/reviews) [How we research](/methodology) 

Written by

Dana Rourke

Lead Reviewer

Dana Rourke is the lead reviewer at Campaign Buyer. She covers trackers and attribution on this site: she reads what long-term users report about each tool, checks its documentation and pricing, and verifies prices with the vendor before writing the verdict. Keeping the rankings honest mostly means writing down what the top pick gets wrong, so she does that first.

[danar@campaignbuyer.com](mailto:danar@campaignbuyer.com)

Last checked 2026-10-24

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