The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) tracks fraud and disputes on card-not-present sales. Since April 1, 2026, the Visa VAMP threshold for US merchants is a 1.5 percent ratio, down from 2.2 percent, once you reach 1,500 combined fraud reports and disputes in a month. Cross it and your acquirer faces Visa fees, which often reach you as fees, reserves or a closed account.
VAMP is Visa's monitoring program for fraud and disputes on card-not-present transactions. In 2025, Visa folded its separate fraud and dispute monitoring programs into VAMP, creating one combined measure. The new rules took effect April 1, 2025, with an advisory period through September 30, 2025, and enforcement starting October 1, 2025.
Visa monitors acquirers, the banks that sponsor merchant accounts. Acquirers, in turn, watch every merchant in their portfolio. That chain explains why your processor reacts long before you reach Visa's line: your ratio affects their standing with Visa.
The VAMP ratio is your monthly count of fraud reports plus disputes, divided by your count of settled card-not-present transactions. In Visa's terms, add your fraud reports (TC40s, filed by issuers when a cardholder reports fraud) to your disputes (TC15s), then divide by your settled transactions (TC05s) for the month.
Here is an example. You settle 100,000 card-not-present transactions in a month. Issuers file 900 fraud reports and cardholders open 700 disputes. Your VAMP count is 1,600, which is above the 1,500 minimum, and your VAMP ratio is 1,600 divided by 100,000, or 1.6 percent. You are over the line.
Two details matter:
Refunds and dispute wins do not remove items from the count. Visa measures how well you prevent fraud and disputes, not whether you win them.
| Level | Ratio | Minimum monthly count | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant: Excessive | 1.5 percent from April 1, 2026 (was 2.2 percent) | 1,500 fraud reports and disputes | US, Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific |
| Merchant: Excessive | 1.5 percent (unchanged since launch) | 1,500 fraud reports and disputes | Latin America and the Caribbean |
| Merchant: Excessive | 2.2 percent | 150 fraud reports and disputes, plus USD 75,000 in fraud and dispute volume | Central Europe, Middle East and Africa |
| Acquirer: Above Standard | 0.5 percent or more across the portfolio | Varies by region | Acquirers |
| Acquirer: Excessive | 0.7 percent or more across the portfolio | Varies by region | Acquirers |
The 1,500 minimum counts fraud reports and disputes, not sales. A merchant with a high ratio but a low count is below Visa's Excessive line, though the acquirer still sees it.
Look at the acquirer levels closely. An acquirer gets flagged at 0.7 percent across its whole portfolio, less than half the merchant line. That gap is why many acquirers set their own internal limits well below 1.5 percent, and why you should ask yours what its limit is.
An acquirer gets flagged at 0.7 percent across its whole portfolio, less than half the merchant line.
VAMP also monitors card testing separately. Visa flags enumeration at a 20 percent enumeration ratio with at least 300,000 enumerated authorization attempts in a month, counting both approved and declined attempts.
Visa assesses fees on acquirers with Excessive merchants. Visa's public fact sheet does not list the amounts, but processors and industry trackers report a fee of $8 per counted fraud report or dispute for merchants at the Excessive level. Acquirers pass those costs on, add reserves to your payouts, or end your account.
A closure for excessive disputes or fraud also puts your business at risk of a MATCH list entry, which follows you to the next processor for five years.
Track your ratio weekly, not monthly. A ratio climbing from 0.6 to 1.1 percent tells you to act while you still have room.
Resolve disputes before they count. Pre-dispute tools such as RDR let you refund a disputed charge before it becomes a dispute, which keeps it out of your dispute count. Any fraud report the issuer already filed can still count, so pre-dispute tools reduce your ratio but do not clear it.
Use Compelling Evidence 3.0. It lets you answer fraud claims from repeat customers who have a clean purchase history with you, and qualifying fraud reports leave your count.
Fix the causes behind your disputes. A billing descriptor customers don't recognize, slow shipping and unclear refund terms all create avoidable disputes.
Stop card testing fast. Approved test charges on stolen cards can turn into fraud reports, and heavy testing can trigger VAMP's enumeration monitoring on its own. Our guide to card testing attack detection covers the warning signs.
pmtbox sees your full transaction lifecycle: shopping cart, payments, fraud attempts, disputes and chargebacks. You see your ratio move as it moves, with chargeback causes sorted by category: delivery issues, product issues, and others. Each category points to a fix.
With Chargeback Automation, we represent your disputes automatically, and your team collects no documents. We catch card testing before it turns into a wave of fraud reports. With Fraud Ownership, we cover the full cost of every fraudulent transaction our system approves.
Talk to the pmtbox team about where your VAMP ratio stands today.
For US merchants, Visa labels a merchant Excessive at a 1.5 percent VAMP ratio with at least 1,500 fraud reports and disputes in a month. The 1.5 percent line took effect April 1, 2026, down from 2.2 percent. The same line applies in Canada, Europe and Asia-Pacific, while Central Europe, Middle East and Africa stays at 2.2 percent.
Add fraud reports (TC40) and disputes (TC15) for the month, then divide by settled card-not-present transactions (TC05). A fraudulent transaction that appears as both a fraud report and a dispute counts twice.
No. VAMP's fraud and dispute ratio measures card-not-present transactions, such as online and phone orders, both domestic and cross-border.
No. A refund before the cardholder disputes can prevent the dispute, but it does not remove a fraud report the issuer already filed. Issuers report fraud on captured payments even when they are refunded.
No. Visa counts disputes when they are filed, whatever the outcome. Representment recovers revenue, but only prevention and qualifying pre-dispute resolutions keep items out of the count.
Yes. Mastercard runs separate programs, including the Excessive Chargeback Program and the Excessive Fraud Merchant program, with their own thresholds and fines. Your ratio under one network does not carry over to the other.