Chargeback Management Challenges

If you’re a merchant having some type of an issue with chargebacks, you’re not alone. This growing threat can be one of the biggest challenges a card-not-present merchant will face. Chargebacks reduce revenue, drain valuable resources, and create financial instability, threatening a business’s longevity.

Effective chargeback management is hindered by several challenges, but one of the biggest is the inability to accurately  determine risk factors. Studies have show that nearly half of all chargebacks are processed with reason codes which identify unauthorized card activity as the culprit. When interviewed independently, however, consumers reveal that most transaction disputes are actually made out of convenience: the customer simply didn’t have time to contact the merchant.

The reason codes used to categorize transaction disputes come directly from the card networks; merchants would seem to have no reason to doubt them. In case after case, however, the real motivation turns out to  be something completely different, and usually not a legitimate reason for filing a chargeback.

This inability to identify the true cause of chargebacks renders the bulk of prevention and representment strategies effectively useless.

Chargebacks themselves are just symptoms of a larger problem. For successfully management, what merchants really need is an understanding of the three sources: what they are, why they exist, and most importantly … what can be done about them.