# Chargeback ratio calculator: Visa VAMP and Mastercard · OfferROAS > Source: https://offerroas.com/best/chargeback-ratio-calculator-where-your-mid-sits-against-visa-and-mastercard-thre ## Chargeback ratio calculator for Visa and Mastercard Enter one month of sales and disputes to see the ratio each network computes and the monitoring tier your merchant account lands in. Estimate based on Stripe's published summary of the network rules * [Calculator](#calculator) * [Visa VAMP tiers](#visa) * [Mastercard ECP tiers](#mastercard) * [Worked example](#example) By [OfferROAS Editorial](/authors/offerstack-editorial), checkout and payments desk. Updated 13 October 2026. Q4 lifts order volume, and the disputes from those orders follow it into your monthly count. Your chargeback ratio is the number your acquirer and the card networks judge the merchant account by: disputes in a month divided by transactions. Visa and Mastercard each run a monitoring program on it, and they divide by different months, so one figure from your dashboard can sit under one network's line and over the other's. Put a month's numbers in below. You get the ratio each network would compute, the tier it falls in according to [Stripe's summary of the Visa and Mastercard programs](https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/monitoring-programs), and what that tier sets in motion. Treat it as an estimate. Your acquirer counts from the network reports for each MID, and those totals can differ from your checkout's dispute tab. ### Where does your MID sit this month? Card network Visa (VAMP) Mastercard (ECP) Where the merchant account is US, Canada, EU, AP or LAC CEMEA Settled Visa transactions this month Mastercard transactions captured last month Disputes raised this month TC40 fraud reports this month (optional) Check my ratio With the sample numbers above (10,000 settled Visa transactions, 45 disputes and 5 fraud reports), the VAMP ratio is 0.50%, which meets the lower tier in Stripe's VAMP summary. Change the figures and press the button for your own month. ### How the chargeback ratio is calculated The chargeback rate formula is disputes divided by transactions, times 100\. The networks agree on that much and disagree on which transactions go underneath. Stripe's documentation puts it plainly: Visa divides by payments in the same calendar month, and Mastercard divides by payments in the previous month. * **Visa VAMP ratio.** (Disputes + TC40 fraud reports this month) ÷ settled transactions this month × 100\. Visa calls the top line the VAMP count. * **Mastercard ECP rate.** Chargebacks raised this month ÷ transactions captured last month × 100. Two details move the Visa number more than merchants expect. Since 2025 the count takes every dispute, fraud-coded or not, and [Visa says all TC40 fraud reports go into it](https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/security-trust/security-program-takes-aim-payments-fraud.html) as well. According to [Stripe's monitoring FAQ](https://support.stripe.com/questions/monitoring-program-faqs), a transaction that appears on both the fraud report and the dispute report counts twice. That is why the calculator adds the two fields together without removing overlap. Both formulas count a dispute in the month it is raised. The calculator follows that and asks for disputes raised, whatever happened to them afterwards. The same disputes, two denominators: Visa reads this month's sales, Mastercard reads last month's. The thresholds here come from the networks' own announcements and from Stripe's documentation of how it applies them. No merchant account was put through either program for this page. Our [research method](/methodology) explains how we source payment topics. ### Visa VAMP thresholds and what they trigger The [Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program](https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/security-trust/introducing-visa-acquirer-monitoring-program.html) took effect on April 1, 2025 and folded five older fraud and dispute programs into one. Visa ran an advisory period until September 30, 2025, so this autumn is the first Q4 with VAMP fully live. Stripe's documentation lists two tiers. A business meets a tier when both its VAMP count and its VAMP ratio reach the figures in that row. | Tier | VAMP count | VAMP ratio | Region | | ------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ----------------------- | | Non-compliant | 5 | 0.5% | All regions | | Excessive | 1,500 | 1.5% | US, Canada, EU, AP, LAC | | Excessive | 150 | 2.2% | CEMEA | The excessive ratio outside CEMEA was 2.2% until April 1, 2026, when Stripe's FAQ says the global limit dropped to 1.5%. Latin America already sat at 1.5%, and CEMEA stays at 2.2% with an extra volume test that this calculator does not model. Meeting the excessive criteria in a data month puts the business into monitoring, which comes with requirements and a deadline. Stripe's warning is blunt: missing them can lead the network to refuse further payments to you. The non-compliant tier is the earlier signal, and Stripe's page gives it no separate penalty, so use it to trace where the disputes come from while the numbers are still small. Visa publishes the complete rules in its own VAMP fact sheet, and your acquirer can tell you which version it applies to your account. ### Mastercard ECP thresholds The Excessive Chargeback Program has two levels, and a merchant is placed only when the chargeback count and the chargeback rate both meet the level's threshold. A thousand chargebacks at 0.8% does not qualify, and neither do 60 chargebacks at 4%. * **Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM).** 100 to 299 chargebacks and a rate of 1.5% to 2.99%. * **High Excessive Chargeback Merchant (HECM).** 300 or more chargebacks and a rate of 3% or more. Stripe's own pages give two starting figures. Its program table starts ECM at 1.5%, while its Mastercard FAQ says fines apply in any reporting month with at least 100 chargebacks and a 1% chargeback-to-sales ratio. The calculator flags both lines, and if your result falls between 1% and 1.5%, ask your acquirer which figure it uses. Fines begin in the second month and grow after that. Leaving takes three consecutive months under the threshold, and a merchant who falls below HECM while still meeting ECM moves down a level instead of out. ### Your acquirer's limit usually comes first The network programs set the fines. The contract you signed sets when your account is at risk, and its number is often lower. A payments law firm writes that [one percent is the figure most acquirers put into their merchant agreements](https://globallegallawfirm.com/chargeback-ratio-merchant-account-termination/), and an industry guide to [processor warnings](https://paymentsandrisk.com/docs/chargebacks/processor-warnings/) says the first warnings often arrive around 0.9%. So a Visa result that sits comfortably under the 1.5% excessive line can still draw a letter from the bank that holds your MID. Read the chargeback clause in your own agreement and compare it with the plain disputes-to-sales figure the calculator prints under every result. The gateway is a separate layer from the acquirer. As our [NMI vs Authorize.net comparison](/compare/nmi-vs-authorize-net) explains, underwriting and holds sit with the merchant service provider. Operators on several MIDs should run this check for each account, since each one is held to its own contract. Our [Konnektive vs Sticky.io comparison](/compare/konnektive-vs-sticky-io) and [Checkout Champ review](/reviews/checkout-champ) cover the CRMs that report per-MID numbers. ### Worked example: one offer, two networks **Visa, October.** The offer settles 10,000 Visa transactions. Cardholders raise 45 disputes and issuers file 5 TC40 fraud reports. The VAMP count is 45 + 5 = 50, and the ratio is 50 ÷ 10,000 × 100 = 0.50%. Both figures reach the non-compliant row (5 and 0.5%), and both are far from excessive, which needs 1,500 counted items and 1.5% outside CEMEA. If those 5 fraud reports were on sales that were also disputed, they would still count twice. **Mastercard, February.** The same merchant captured 9,500 Mastercard transactions in January and received 120 chargebacks in February. The rate is 120 ÷ 9,500 × 100 = 1.26%. The count clears 100 and the rate clears 1%, so the month meets the fine line in Stripe's FAQ. It stays under the 1.5% where Stripe's table starts ECM. Our advice: watch the Mastercard month after your biggest Visa month. A launch that spikes sales in one month and then cools is exactly when the prior-month denominator shrinks against the disputes the spike produced. ### Frequently asked questions Is the Visa chargeback threshold 0.9% or 1%? Neither figure is a Visa program line today. Numbers near 0.9% and 1% are what acquirers tend to write into merchant agreements or use for warnings, and older guides still quote limits from programs Visa retired in 2025\. Under VAMP, Stripe lists 0.5% as the lower tier and 1.5% (2.2% in CEMEA) as the excessive tier. Does winning a dispute lower my ratio? As Stripe describes both formulas, a dispute is counted in the month the cardholder raises it. The outcome comes later and the count does not shrink when you win, so a won case still sits in that month. Why does Mastercard divide by last month's sales? Most disputes arrive weeks after the purchase, so Mastercard compares this month's chargebacks with the sales that produced them. The effect for a growing offer: a big month inflates Visa's denominator at once, while on Mastercard the extra sales only help the following month. Do fraud reports count if the buyer never filed a dispute? Yes, on Visa. Issuer TC40 fraud reports are part of the VAMP count, and a sale that is reported as fraud and also disputed is counted twice. What should I do if my number is over a line? Find out which offer, traffic source or billing step produces the disputes, then talk to your acquirer with that answer before the next month closes. On Mastercard, leaving the program takes three months in a row under the threshold, so a plan made early saves fines. ### Changelog * 13 October 2026: First published, with VAMP tiers after the April 2026 change to 1.5% and the Mastercard ECM and HECM bands from Stripe's documentation. ### What we read #### Other sources 6 discussions and reviews read for this page. Quotes are excerpts; open a link to read the original in context. 1. \[visa-vamp\] [Introducing the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program ](https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/security-trust/introducing-visa-acquirer-monitoring-program.html) Blog 2. \[visa-disputes\] [Security program takes aim at payments fraud ](https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/security-trust/security-program-takes-aim-payments-fraud.html) Blog 3. \[stripe-months\] [Dispute and fraud card monitoring programs ](https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/monitoring-programs) Blog 4. \[stripe-mc-fines\] [Monitoring program FAQs ](https://support.stripe.com/questions/monitoring-program-faqs) Blog 5. \[legal-1pct\] [Chargeback ratio and merchant account termination ](https://globallegallawfirm.com/chargeback-ratio-merchant-account-termination/) Blog 6. \[warnings-09\] [Processor warnings ](https://paymentsandrisk.com/docs/chargebacks/processor-warnings/) Blog ### Related reading * [Best ad tracking software for paid-traffic offers](/best) * [NMI vs Authorize.net gateway comparison](/compare/nmi-vs-authorize-net) * [Konnektive vs Sticky.io checkout comparison](/compare/konnektive-vs-sticky-io) * [Checkout Champ review](/reviews/checkout-champ) * [How we research payment topics](/methodology) Written by OfferROAS Editorial Editorial desk OfferROAS Editorial is the desk behind the site's reviews and rankings. 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