Question 1

What is Visa VAMP?

Accepted Answer

VAMP (Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program) is Visa's enforcement program for merchants with high chargeback ratios. Effective April 2025, VAMP monitors merchants at three thresholds: 0.9% (early warning), 1.5% (standard fines), and 1.8% (excessive penalties and potential MATCH list placement). Merchants have 45 days to submit remediation plans after notification.

Question 2

What are the VAMP chargeback thresholds?

Accepted Answer

Visa VAMP has three tiers: Early Warning at 0.9% chargeback ratio (monitoring begins), Standard at 1.5% (monthly fines start at $25,000+), and Excessive at 1.8% (severe penalties, potential MATCH list placement, and possible account termination). The formula counts both fraud and regular chargebacks.

Question 3

How does the VAMP Coach work?

Accepted Answer

The VAMP Coach is an AI-powered compliance assistant by MerchantGuard. Chat with it about your chargeback situation and it will analyze your ratio against VAMP thresholds, suggest specific remediation steps, recommend tools like Ethoca/Verifi for prevention, and help you draft a 45-day action plan if needed.

Question 4

What happens if I exceed VAMP thresholds?

Accepted Answer

Exceeding VAMP thresholds triggers escalating consequences: at 0.9% you enter monitoring with required reporting. At 1.5% fines begin ($25,000+ monthly). At 1.8% you face severe penalties, potential MATCH list placement (5-year industry blacklist), and possible account termination by your acquirer.

Question 5

How is the VAMP chargeback ratio calculated?

Accepted Answer

The VAMP 2.0 formula is: ((Fraud Chargebacks x 2) + Regular Chargebacks) / Total Transactions x 100. Note that fraud chargebacks count double. This means even a small increase in fraud disputes has an outsized impact on your ratio.

Question 6

What is the MATCH list?

Accepted Answer

The MATCH list (Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants) is an industry blacklist maintained by Mastercard. Once placed on MATCH, a merchant is blocked from obtaining new merchant accounts for 5 years minimum. VAMP violations at the excessive tier can trigger MATCH placement.

Question 7

How can I prevent VAMP violations?

Accepted Answer

Key prevention strategies include: implementing Ethoca and Verifi alerts for early dispute notification, using 3D Secure (3DS) authentication, deploying RDR (Rapid Dispute Resolution) for automatic refunds on qualifying disputes, improving product descriptions and customer service, and monitoring your ratio weekly rather than monthly.

VAMP Compliance

Stay Under VAMP Thresholds.
Avoid $50K-$500K Freezes.

Doubled Rolling Reserves

+150bps Penalty Fees

MATCH List Risk

Guard AI - VAMP Compliance Expert

Stay Under VAMP Thresholds.Avoid $50K-$500K Freezes.

Doubled Rolling Reserves

+150bps Penalty Fees

MATCH List Risk

Guard AI - VAMP Compliance Expert

Stay Under VAMP Thresholds.
Avoid $50K-$500K Freezes.