Why should merchants avoid too many chargebacks?

Because the schemes escalate: Visa VAMP and the Mastercard Excessive Chargeback Program flag merchants from a 1.5% ratio, acquirers add reserves and fees, and a terminated merchant can be listed on MATCH or VMSS for five years, which blocks card acceptance with most processors.

Step 1: monitoring programs

Visa’s VAMP rates a merchant in Asia Pacific, Canada, Europe or the US as Excessive from a 1.5% ratio of fraud reports and disputes, with at least 1,500 events a month, since 1 April 2026. Mastercard flags an Excessive Chargeback Merchant at 100 chargebacks and a 1.5% ratio in a month, with assessments that grow every month above the threshold.

Step 2: acquirer measures

The acquirer carries the risk, so it reacts first: rolling reserves, delayed payouts, higher pricing and a remediation plan.

Step 3: termination and blacklisting

If nothing improves, the account is closed and the merchant is reported to Mastercard’s MATCH or Visa’s VMSS. A listing stays active for five years, and most processors refuse listed businesses and their owners. Winning the chargebacks afterwards does not remove it.

What it means for payment operators

Under VAMP, acquirers are also monitored on their whole portfolio. Tracking dispute ratios per merchant every day, and enabling pre-chargeback alerts where they climb, keeps one merchant’s problem from becoming the platform’s.