Resources
Articles & Bytes
Practical guidance on chargebacks, fraud, card-brand compliance and subscription billing, from a team that has run high-risk CNP merchants for more than 30 years.
Guides & insights
Articles
In-depth guides for merchants, acquirers and ISOs on chargebacks, fraud, card-brand compliance, subscription billing and the economics of acquiring.
Mastercard GMAP Explained: What Acquirers Need to Know Before April 2027
Mastercard is retiring the Acquirer Chargeback Monitoring Program and replacing it with a single framework: the Global Merchant Audit Program, or GMAP. It takes effect April 1, 2027, and…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Sep 30, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
Mastercard SMMP: Scam Merchant Monitoring Program
For years, Mastercard's merchant monitoring followed a familiar rhythm. A merchant crossed a chargeback or fraud ratio, the acquirer received a notice, fines were assessed, and everyone got…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Sep 5, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 5, 2026
Rewrite Your Soft and Hard Decline Strategy
A declined payment can mean more than a lost sale. Changes in decline patterns may reveal outdated payment details, processing problems, or a shift in transaction risk. Understanding those…
- Author
- Brady Murray
- Published
- Apr 21, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 3, 2026
10 Strategies for Managing Declines
A declined payment can interrupt a purchase or a long-standing subscription in seconds. For card-not-present (CNP) merchants, the challenge is to understand why it happened and choose a…
- Author
- Brady Murray
- Published
- Apr 21, 2026
- Updated
- Apr 21, 2026
BINs: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How They Impact Payment Performance
Every card transaction contains information that can help Merchants understand how a payment is likely to perform. One of the most important pieces of that information is the Bank…
- Author
- Christian Hunley
- Published
- Feb 17, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
Is Continuous Underwriting Possible?
Every acquirer and ISO knows the drill. A Merchant application arrives, your underwriting team works it over, the account is approved and boarded… and then, for most portfolios, the file…
- Author
- George Richards
- Published
- Jan 30, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 30, 2026
How Payment Service Providers Can Optimize Payments
Payment service providers (PSPs) help merchants simplify complex payment operations. Through integrations and embedded functionality, they make it easier to manage disputes, reduce risk,…
- Author
- Nic Wacker
- Published
- Jan 6, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 6, 2026
Why TC40 Data Matters Under Visa’s VAMP Program
For years, Visa measured fraud and disputes in separate lanes. The Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP) watched fraud, the Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP) watched chargebacks, and…
- Author
- George Richards
- Published
- Jan 28, 2025
- Updated
- Jul 1, 2026
Data Mining: Trends in Payment Data for CNP and Subscription Billing
Card-not-present (CNP) and subscription businesses generate a steady flow of payment data. Mining it for patterns starts with gathering reliable information from the right sources. Those…
- Author
- Brady Murray
- Published
- Jan 17, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
A Merchant’s Perspective on Fraud Chargebacks: True Fraud vs. Friendly Fraud
Long gone are the days of bartering for goods and services, and cash continues to lose ground to cards, digital wallets and one-click checkout. Consumers expect buying to be fast and…
- Author
- George Richards
- Published
- May 17, 2024
- Updated
- Mar 7, 2026
Why Don’t All Merchants Accept Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is accepted by more than 85% of U.S. retailers because it can make checkout faster, easier, and more secure. Shoppers can carry fewer physical cards and complete purchases with a…
- Author
- Nic Wacker
- Published
- Mar 27, 2024
- Updated
- Jul 7, 2026
11 Things Every Merchant Needs to Know Before Taking Payments
Accepting cards looks simple: sign up, add a card reader or checkout button, and start selling. In reality, every payment runs through a chain of banks, processors, card networks, and…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Mar 13, 2024
- Updated
- Dec 18, 2025
What are the five risk vectors for acquirers?
Acquirers, ISOs, and their sponsor banks make money by moving Merchant transactions. The higher the Merchant’s risk, the higher the margin, and that is exactly why medium- and high-risk…
- Author
- George Richards
- Published
- Feb 28, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 8, 2026
Who Ultimately Pays for a Chargeback?
Related reading: A Merchant’s Perspective on Chargebacks explores common chargeback causes and practical ways merchants can reduce them.
- Author
- Nic Wacker
- Published
- Feb 1, 2024
- Updated
- Apr 19, 2026
Why Processors, Acquirers and ISOs Care About Dispute Thresholds
Every card transaction an acquirer or ISO processes carries a promise: if the merchant can’t cover a chargeback, refund, or fine, the acquirer will. That liability is why dispute thresholds…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Jan 8, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
How Acquirers Make Money, and Why Knowing Your Merchant Protects Every Dollar
Every card transaction needs a bank willing to stand behind the merchant. That bank is the acquirer, sometimes called the sponsor bank or sponsor FI. It holds the direct relationship with…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Jan 2, 2024
- Updated
- Jun 12, 2026
Account Updater: What You Need to Know
Account Updater is a service provided through major card networks that helps merchants keep stored payment card information up to date. It is particularly useful for businesses that process…
- Author
- Christian Hunley
- Published
- Jan 16, 2023
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
True Fraud vs. Friendly Fraud: A Merchant’s Playbook for Stopping Both
Every chargeback costs you the sale, the product, a fee, and a mark against your dispute ratio. But fraud chargebacks don’t all start the same way. Some come from criminals using stolen…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Jan 2, 2023
- Updated
- Jul 15, 2026
Chargeback Representment: Protecting Revenue With the Right Evidence
For merchants, a chargeback is not simply a reversed transaction. It can mean lost revenue, lost merchandise, added fees, and hours of operational work. The representment process gives…
- Author
- Nic Wacker
- Published
- Jan 23, 2022
- Updated
- Feb 17, 2026
SaaS CRM Platforms for Subscription Billing: How to Choose, and Whether to Build or Buy
Moving to a subscription or installment model can change the economics of your business. Recurring revenue is more predictable, and customer lifetime value goes up. It also changes how you…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Jan 21, 2022
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
Moving from Single-Pay to Subscription Billing: What It Means for Your Payment Stack
Shifting from a single-pay to a subscription billing model may make good business sense. High-profile success stories like Netflix and Amazon Prime can make the recurring model seem easy.…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Jan 19, 2022
- Updated
- Nov 8, 2025
Chargeback Mitigation Services: A Strategic Guide for Merchants, ISOs & Acquirers
How Verifi, Ethoca and other pre-dispute tools can reduce losses, improve portfolio health and strengthen the customer experience
- Author
- Nic Wacker
- Published
- Jan 7, 2022
- Updated
- Jun 15, 2026
Why Consumers Initiate Chargebacks & 7 Merchant Prevention Strategies
Chargebacks protect cardholders when a transaction goes wrong, but they can also create lost revenue, added fees, operational expense, and compliance risk for merchants and their payments…
- Author
- Nic Wacker
- Published
- Jan 5, 2022
- Updated
- Nov 13, 2025
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Quick reads
Bytes
Short explainers on decline codes, Visa’s VAMP program, dispute mitigation leakage and the basics of getting paid.
How Can I Manage Leakage?
Leakage, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is when a Merchant refunds an Ethoca or Verifi alert and still receives a chargeback after the refund.
- Author
- Christian Hunley
- Published
- Dec 5, 2025
- Updated
- Dec 5, 2025
What We Know About VAMP: Enforcement and Fines Have Arrived
Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) 2025: Enforcement and Fines Have Arrived.
- Author
- George Richards
- Published
- Oct 2, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 2, 2025
The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program is Coming for Your Profits: What Acquirers Need to Know to Fight Back
With Visa’s updated Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) in effect since April 1, 2025, and enforcement under way since October 1, 2025, acquirers face substantial changes in managing fraud…
- Author
- George Richards
- Published
- Dec 5, 2024
- Updated
- Dec 5, 2024
What New Challenges Does VAMP Pose for Acquirers?
Since April 2025, acquirers have been on a new journey with Visa’s updated Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP). But this shift doesn’t just affect acquirers; payment service providers…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Nov 13, 2024
- Updated
- Nov 13, 2024
How Can Merchants Prepare for VAMP
VAMP is here, and merchants can’t avoid the impact of this Visa monitoring program. The new monitoring window opened on April 1, 2025, and enforcement began on October 1, 2025, so your…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Nov 4, 2024
- Updated
- Nov 4, 2024
What are the VAMP Challenges for Merchants?
Historically, most merchants have struggled to access meaningful fraud data through their acquiring partners. Many acquirers either lacked the necessary data themselves or charged merchants…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Oct 24, 2024
- Updated
- Oct 24, 2024
How Did We Get Here? A History of Monitoring Programs
On April 1, 2025, Visa introduced significant updates to its Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), and businesses need to be prepared.
- Author
- George Richards
- Published
- Oct 22, 2024
- Updated
- Oct 22, 2024
What are Authorization Response Codes?
When you, as a merchant, attempt to process a consumer’s credit card, the issuing bank of that consumer’s credit card needs to make a decision regarding that specific request. The issuing…
- Author
- Brady Murray
- Published
- Jun 20, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
How Can I Track Leakage?
Leakage has been historically tracked in 2 different ways—just purely understanding chargebacks and where they came from; or marrying all of your Payments data together to understand which…
- Author
- Christian Hunley
- Published
- May 23, 2024
- Updated
- May 23, 2024
Mitigation Services Can Leak
Leaking margin can be a huge problem for any Merchant. It’s present within plain sight, hiding within services and tools used by most Merchants.
- Author
- Christian Hunley
- Published
- May 16, 2024
- Updated
- May 16, 2024
Are You Leaking?
There is never an occasion when leakage is good. And in Payments, it’s a massive problem that goes unresolved.
- Author
- Christian Hunley
- Published
- May 9, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
What are Merchant Advice Codes (MACs)?
Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of MACs—many Merchants haven’t. They are still relatively new, having been adopted by Mastercard, with Visa following closely behind.
- Author
- Brady Murray
- Published
- May 2, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
What Does a Hard Decline Mean?
It tends to be when the cardholder’s Issuer refuses to release funds for the transaction. Unlike a soft decline though, where the Merchant can (and a lot of the time should) retry the same…
- Author
- Brady Murray
- Published
- Apr 25, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
What are Soft Decline Response Codes?
Soft decline codes are transactions that get declined because of a temporary issue, or transactions that may need clarification on customer information. These types of declines can be…
- Author
- Brady Murray
- Published
- Apr 22, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
What Are Decline Codes?
Every time a customer taps their card or pays on your website, that transaction is either approved or declined. For every declined transaction, there is a 2-digit alpha numeric code that…
- Author
- Brady Murray
- Published
- Apr 15, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
How Can Merchants Stop Friendly Fraud?
That’s because the lines between what’s true fraud or what’s just a child playing with Dad’s phone can be blurry. Friendly fraud can also include cases where the card holder forgets about a…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Mar 25, 2024
- Updated
- Mar 25, 2024
Why Do Merchants Have Compliance Thresholds?
Merchants need to stay compliant with thresholds set by their Processor and Card Associations. When Merchants breach compliance, they run the risk of heavy fines and a potential loss of…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Mar 18, 2024
- Updated
- Mar 18, 2024
Merchants Need to Monitor Affiliates and Distributors
Merchants jump through hoops to get underwritten for a Merchant account. Then once underwritten, Merchants can’t just start coasting. Now they’re shouldering the responsibility of…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Feb 29, 2024
- Updated
- Feb 29, 2024
There's Gold in Authorization Response Codes
Every time a customer swipes their credit card, that card is either approved or declined before funds are transferred. Authorization response codes are a numerical message that’s sent from…
- Author
- George Richards
- Published
- Feb 19, 2024
- Updated
- Feb 19, 2024
Are You Wasting Money on Dispute Mitigation Fees?
As chargebacks begin accumulating, merchants have access to numerous tools and services for dispute management. Some processors mandate specific chargeback services, while others allow…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Feb 16, 2024
- Updated
- Sep 30, 2026
What is Payment Processing?
Ever wonder what happens when your customer taps their credit card on your Point of Sale Terminal? The funds don’t magically transfer from one bank account to another. That single tap of a…
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Feb 16, 2024
- Updated
- Feb 16, 2024
Why is Getting Underwritten a Big Deal?
There are many ways to start taking payments as a Merchant, but regardless, you need a Merchant account.
- Author
- Paul Wallerich
- Published
- Feb 9, 2024
- Updated
- Feb 9, 2024
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