Hi,

I dont quite understand some stuff about chargebacks. can someone please explain.

Ive searched the forum but cant seem to find an answer for this question

Can someone issue a chargeback for more than they paid you?

Thanks

Alec

The answer is NO, they can only charge back the exact amount.

Ok thanks thats made me a little more confident

...Can someone issue a chargeback for more than they paid you?


They chargeback what they paid, usually. However (gotta love 'em!), sometimes you will receive a nice chargeback fee on your account. But it really just depends on your merchant, type of card and all that good stuff. There are many factors that can affect this. I hope that helps a bit.

They chargeback what they paid, usually. However (gotta love 'em!), sometimes you will receive a nice chargeback fee on your account. But it really just depends on your merchant, type of card and all that good stuff. There are many factors that can affect this. I hope that helps a bit.
Yes Tyler is correct some merchant providers will charge you a fee for each charge back.

Also sometimes the transaction fee gets charged twice and discount rate.

On a positive note, it is also important to keep in mind that you as a merchant have the ability to provide a rebuttal to an incoming chargeback to state your case.

This can result in a successful "representment" whereby the initial chargeback is reverse and funds from the sale are returned back to you. Your chances of success dramatically increase with the more documentation you have supporting your case... especially if you have a matching CVV & AVS result as well as proof of delivery and/or service activation.

If you utilize Cardholder Authentication technologies like Verified by Visa & MasterCard SecureCode that can also substantially increase the protection afforded to your business and reduce your exposure to approximatel 60% of the chargeback reason codes that exist.

If you file a rebuttal, don't most aquiring banks charge research fees? I've heard stories about merchants who've won back monies, only to find out they ran up a couple hundred dollars in fees.

I think what you may be referring to is a "retrieval request" fee. That is assessed in the event that a cardholder inquires as to the nature of a charge and the acquiring bank then requests that you research it and provide them with the information to forward over to the issuing bank.

However, there is no such fee that applies in the case of a chargeback rebuttal. You follow the instructions or advice of your acquiring bank or ISO/MSP and submit back the documentation to them and they then review and forward it back over to the issuing bank as per Visa & MasterCard representment procedures.

The only time that there can be additional fees assessed on an actual chargeback is if it goes all the way to arbitration. At that point, if there is - in essence - a second dispute on the same sale, you need to make a decision whether you want to keep pursuing it and risk having to pay filing fees if you lose or just drop the issue and pursue it outside of the credit card networks.

However, again - since it doesn't cost anything to perform a rebuttal - I recommend doing so aggressively on your chargebacks to increase the amount of money that you recover when there is an unfair chargeback that comes through.