3 chargebacks in one month out of 190 transactions - how close is that to being an actual problem

Question

Small tool, mostly $12 one off purchases with some subscriptions. Last month: 190 transactions, 3 chargebacks. Two are 'I don't recognise this charge' and one…

capsule_cora · Accepted Answer

The monitoring programs have both a ratio and a minimum event count, and the count is what saves you. Visa's excessive threshold moved down to 1.5% for most regions in April, but it only bites once you're above a monthly minimum in the thousands of combined fraud and dispute events. At three events a month you are…

solo_supper · Answer

Price it rather than fear it. In the US the dispute fee is $15 and the initial one isn't returned even if you win, and since mid-2025 there's a separate fee for countering that you only get back if you win the counter. On a $12 product, fighting is a losing move on the fees alone before you count your evening.

Refund pre-emptively, always, the moment anyone sounds annoyed. Three at $12 plus fees is under a hundred dollars.

refresh_rhea · Answer

The two 'don't recognise this charge' ones are the actionable half and nobody's mentioned them. That's almost always a descriptor problem - whatever appears on the statement is probably your legal name or some abbreviation of your domain that doesn't match the brand they bought from.

Set the statement descriptor to something recognisable, put your support email on the receipt, and send the receipt immediately at purchase. I halved these by changing a string in a settings page.

parquet_pile · Answer

Don't refund after a dispute is opened. You can end up paying out twice. Let the process run, or accept it through the dashboard if you were going to give the money back anyway.

probe_to_ground · Answer

One thing that helped me with the subscription ones specifically: an email three days before every renewal saying what's about to be charged, how much, and a one-click cancel link. It feels like handing people an exit. My renewals barely changed and my 'I forgot I had this' disputes went to zero.

I also made cancelling findable in two clicks, because the alternative is that they cancel through their bank and that costs me the fee.

3 chargebacks in one month out of 190 transactions - how close is that to being an actual problem

8 answers