The short answer
The VAMP ratio is the number Visa uses to watch merchants for fraud and disputes. Under the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program, it adds up fraud reports and disputes on card-not-present Visa sales and divides them by settled card-not-present Visa sales. Visa lowered the merchant 'excessive' threshold from 2.2% to 1.5% on April 1, 2026, and a merchant is generally only flagged once it also has at least 1,500 fraud and dispute events in a month. Once flagged, per-transaction fees can apply. Keeping the ratio low starts with clear billing descriptors, clean checkout flows and quick answers to customers.
What the VAMP ratio counts
Visa launched the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program, or VAMP, to replace its older separate programs for fraud and for disputes. Instead of two numbers, there is one. Industry guides, including the Merchant Risk Council, describe it as the sum of reported fraudulent transactions and disputes, divided by settled transactions, counting card-not-present sales only. A fraud report is filed by the card issuer when a cardholder says a charge was not theirs. A dispute is a formal chargeback. Because both feed the same ratio, one bad order can count twice: once as a fraud report and once as a dispute. That is why fraud prevention and dispute prevention now have to be managed together.
The April 2026 change: 2.2% to 1.5%
When VAMP started, the merchant 'excessive' threshold was 2.2%. On April 1, 2026, Visa lowered it to 1.5% for merchants in regions including the US and Canada. A merchant with a 1.5% ratio has 15 fraud reports or disputes for every 1,000 card-not-present sales. Industry sources say the threshold generally applies only when a merchant also has at least 1,500 fraud and dispute events in a month, which is why most small businesses will never reach it. Merchants that do cross it can face per-transaction fees, which industry sources report at $8 per fraud or dispute event in the US. Your acquirer decides how those fees and any remediation plan are passed on to you, so read your merchant agreement and ask your processor.
Related: How to reduce chargebacks · Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0
Why a small merchant should still care
If you will never reach 1,500 events a month, the threshold is not your problem, but your ratio still is. Acquirers watch their own portfolios against Visa's acquirer thresholds, and many set internal limits well below Visa's. A rising dispute rate can bring a reserve on your deposits, a higher price at renewal, or a closed account. Every dispute also costs you the sale, the goods and usually a chargeback fee. The habits that keep a large merchant under 1,500 events are the same ones that keep a small merchant's account in good standing.
Where disputes usually start
Many disputes are not fraud. They are confusion. A customer sees a name on the card statement they do not recognize, forgets a free trial that turned into a charge, or cannot find a way to ask for a refund. Four fixes cover most of it. Use a billing descriptor that matches the name on your sign or website, and add a phone number or web address where your processor allows it. Send a clear receipt or order confirmation every time. Make refunds and cancellations easy to find. Answer customer emails fast, because a customer who gets a reply rarely calls the bank. Your processing statement shows your dispute count and chargeback fees month by month, which is the simplest place to see whether the trend is going the right way.
Check your statement: Free Statement Analysis · Billing descriptor best practice
What changes for multi-location and enterprise merchants
Larger businesses are the ones that can reach 1,500 events, so the numbers matter more. Know how your acquirer groups your merchant IDs, because the ratio is measured per merchant and a portfolio of stores, websites and brands may be counted in ways you do not expect. Ask your processor for your VAMP ratio and event count every month, broken out by merchant ID and channel, rather than waiting for a notice. Give one team ownership of both fraud screening and dispute handling, since the two now share one number. Track subscription, trial and recurring billing separately, as they are a common source of 'I did not authorize this' claims. And write the response plan before you need it: who talks to the acquirer, what changes first, and how fast.
Get a second pair of eyes on your disputes
CELER Merchants is an independent merchant services agent, not a processor or a card network. Send us a recent processing statement, all pages, and we will show you where your dispute and chargeback fees appear, what your processor charges per dispute, and which questions to ask about your monitoring status. The review is free. This page is general information based on published industry sources as of November 9, 2026; Visa's program rules are set by Visa and applied by your acquirer, so confirm the current rules that apply to your account with your processor.
Key takeaways
- VAMP combines Visa fraud reports and disputes into one ratio
- It counts card-not-present sales: online, phone and keyed orders
- The merchant threshold dropped from 2.2% to 1.5% on April 1, 2026
- The threshold generally applies once a merchant has 1,500 or more events in a month
- Most disputes start with confusion that a clear descriptor and receipt can prevent
Related guides
Sources
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