Visa VAMP threshold 2026: why winning disputes won't lower your ratio

Most dispute advice is about winning. Visa's monitoring program measures something else: how many disputes and fraud reports you receive, compared with how many card-not-present payments you settle. Under that measure, a dispute you win with perfect evidence costs you exactly as much ratio as one you lose.

That changes where the effort should go. This guide explains what VAMP counts as of October 2026, how to calculate your own ratio, and which prevention steps act early enough to keep a dispute out of the numerator.

What VAMP measures

VAMP measures the share of your card-not-present Visa transactions that turn into fraud reports or disputes. Visa launched it as one program replacing its separate fraud and dispute monitoring programs, and its May 2025 announcement notes that the formula now includes "all disputes," fraud and non-fraud alike.

Visa's VAMP fact sheet defines the ratio as:

Stripe's monitoring programs page adds three practical details. Visa calculates the ratio monthly, against payments in the same calendar month. A transaction that appears in both the TC40 and TC15 reports is counted twice. And early fraud warnings count as fraud regardless of their outcome, even though they aren't disputes.

VAMP thresholds by region (checked October 2026)

The merchant "excessive" threshold tightened on 1 April 2026 in four regions. Visa's fact sheet records the change from 2.2% to 1.5% in Asia Pacific, Canada, the EU and the US, and Stripe's documentation lists the current values.

Three other numbers sit around those thresholds:

• Acquirer portfolios are measured too. Visa's fact sheet flags an acquirer's whole portfolio at 0.5% ("above standard") and 0.7% ("excessive"), which is why acquirers watch individual merchants well below 1.5%.
• Stripe lists a lower level. Its monitoring page shows a "non-compliant" threshold at a 0.5% VAMP ratio, and says Visa may assess fees to merchants above it, alongside the fees assessed at the excessive level.
• Internal limits vary. As Justt's summary of the April 2026 change points out, acquirers can set internal limits stricter than Visa's own.

Why winning a dispute doesn't lower your VAMP ratio

The ratio is fixed the day the dispute is filed. Stripe's monitoring page explains that programs don't consider dispute outcomes; if they did, they would have to wait months for every decision. As Stripe puts it, "they're also more interested in how successfully you prevent disputes than in whether you win them."

Stripe's evidence best practices make the same point twice: dispute activity is "calculated based on the disputes received, not won or lost," and a withdrawn dispute still counts as a dispute. Refunds have limits too. According to Stripe's guide to how disputes work, refunding a payment after a fraud warning doesn't affect the warning; only a reversal, which usually happens within two hours of capture, can prevent the fraud report.

There's also the matter of odds. Stripe's own win-likelihood table puts even its highest-rated disputes at about a 60% chance of being overturned. Evidence still matters for the disputes you do receive; the dispute evidence hub covers how to answer them on every channel. But a strategy built on winning leaves the ratio untouched and the outcome uncertain.

How to calculate your VAMP ratio

You can estimate your ratio from your own data before your processor tells you about it. Stripe users can see VAMP metrics in a dedicated dashboard; on other processors, the arithmetic is simple.

1. Count settled card-not-present Visa transactions for a calendar month.
2. Count disputes received in that month, whatever the reason. Stripe notes that for US accounts, dispute counts lag: count disputes from the 5th of the month to the 5th of the next.
3. Count fraud reports (early fraud warnings) received in that month.
4. Add disputes and fraud reports, then divide by settled transactions.

An example, for illustration only: a store settles 60,000 card-not-present Visa transactions in a month and receives 520 disputes and 380 fraud reports, of which 80 are the same transactions. The VAMP count is 900, because the overlapping 80 count twice, and the ratio is 900 ÷ 60,000 = 1.5%. That store is below Visa's 1,500-event floor for excessive identification, but it sits at the excessive ratio and three times Stripe's non-compliant level. Its acquirer will notice long before Visa does.

Prevention that works before a dispute is filed

Only actions that keep a dispute from being filed, or that move it into an excluded category, reduce the ratio. These are the levers, ordered by how early they act.

The first three are where physical-goods sellers have the most room, because they address the disputes that start with a buyer's doubt about the parcel. A buyer who watched their own order being packed, approved it, and received a link to that record with the tracking number has an easier path than the bank: they can look. A buyer whose return was filmed and refunded within days has no reason to file "credit not processed."

The last two are processor-side. Justt's summary notes that disputes resolved through Visa's Rapid Dispute Resolution or Verifi's CDRN are excluded; ask your processor which pre-dispute products it offers. Compelling Evidence 3.0 depends on data you must store at checkout; the requirements are in which disputes packing video can support, and which need CE 3.0.

A 30-day plan to bring your VAMP ratio down

The ratio trails your changes by a month or more, so start with measurement and put prevention where most disputes come from.

Copy-ready messages that head off disputes

These go to the buyer, not the bank. Their job is to answer a doubt before it becomes a dispute.

How PallasMark keeps disputes out of the ratio

PallasMark is built to put the evidence in front of the buyer before a dispute exists, and to hand you a clean file for the disputes that still arrive.

The buyer approves the parcel before it ships. For high-value or dispute-prone orders, you hold the parcel and send the buyer the sealed packing recording with one tap. They open a link with no app, account or password, watch, and choose Approve or Report an issue. Links are valid for 7 days by default, the page speaks 7 languages, and the record keeps how long they watched. You can require them to watch a share of the video before the approve button unlocks, and, if you enable it and they allow it, record their location. Rules can make "Send to buyer" the next step for every order or for orders above an amount. See buyer approval and automation rules.

Every record has a link the buyer can check. Each file gets a SHA-256 fingerprint and a public verification page that re-hashes the stored file on the spot, with no account needed. That is the link you put in the shipping message. How verification works explains what the check shows.

Returns are recorded by the buyer. When a return opens, the buyer is asked to film or photograph the item and its packaging through a link; Shopify and ShipHero returns trigger the request automatically. Genuine returns can be refunded quickly, and mismatched ones come with proof. See return evidence.

Disputes that still arrive get a ready file. On request, PallasMark builds the evidence dossier PDF with four stills from each recorded video (up to six videos), order details, photos, fingerprints, the buyer's approval and return evidence. Shopify Payments chargebacks open a case in PallasMark and email the team, with reminders 7 days and 48 hours before the deadline. See chargeback evidence.

All of this runs on the phones your team already has, with no per-station fees, and buyers can be reached by email, or by SMS and WhatsApp with notification credit packs. The buyer trust use case shows the flow end to end, and you can start on the free plan with no card; see pricing.

Related reading

This guide is part of our hub on seller dispute evidence by platform. For the disputes that do get filed, see Stripe dispute evidence and Klarna and Afterpay dispute evidence.