VAMP Ratio Reduction

The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) is Visa's unified framework for monitoring fraud and dispute levels across merchants. If your VAMP ratio exceeds Visa's thresholds, you risk fines, restrictions, or removal from the network.

Systematic Dispute Deflection is the only tool available that can prevent first-party misuse disputes and remove the associated fraud notices (TC40s) from your VAMP ratio. Chargeback alerts and other prevention tools resolve disputes reactively, but the TC40 has already been filed and still counts against you. Systematic Dispute Deflection blocks the dispute before it's created, and the TC40 is excluded from your VAMP calculation entirely.

The short version: Systematic Dispute Deflection is the single most effective way to reduce your VAMP ratio from first-party misuse. No other tool prevents the dispute and removes the TC40 at the same time.

What is VAMP?

Visa introduced VAMP in 2024/25 to replace its previous fragmented monitoring programs with a single framework. It monitors your fraud and dispute activity relative to your transaction volume. If your ratio crosses Visa's thresholds, your acquirer is notified and you may face escalating consequences.

What changed

Visa updated the VAMP formula to include all disputes, both fraudulent and non-fraud, rather than fraud-only. This makes first-party misuse (friendly fraud, subscription confusion, unrecognised charges) significantly more important to your ratio than before, and harder to address without the right tooling.

See here for a full breakdown of the ratios and threadholds for merchants and acquirers

How Systematic Dispute Deflection reduces your ratio

When a cardholder attempts to dispute a transaction, our system checks their purchase history against qualifying identifiers you've provided through Digital Receipts, IP address, email, device fingerprint, and billing address. If the evidence proves prior legitimate activity, the dispute is blocked at the network level.

When a dispute is successfully deflected:

• The dispute never reaches you

• The TC40 is excluded from your VAMP ratio

• You retain the funds from the original transaction

The richer your Digital Receipts integration, the more transaction data and qualifying identifiers are available, and the more disputes become eligible for deflection. This is why we recommend implementing Digital Receipts and Systematic Dispute Deflection together, the same data powers both products.

Why other tools can't do this

Chargeback Alerts let you refund a transaction and prevent the chargeback from landing, but by the time an alert is raised, the TC40 has already been filed with Visa. The dispute is resolved, but your VAMP ratio still takes the hit.

Systematic Dispute Deflection intervenes earlier. It blocks the dispute before it's created, which is the only way to prevent the TC40 from being filed in the first place. This makes it the only product in the ecosystem that both prevents first-party misuse disputes and reduces your VAMP exposure.

What you should do

If you're already using Systematic Dispute Deflection, your deflections are automatically benefiting your VAMP ratio, no additional setup is required.

If you're not yet enrolled, see the introduction for how it works, or the integration guide to begin.

Want to understand your current VAMP exposure? Contact our support team. We can help you assess your ratio and estimate the impact of Systematic Dispute Deflection on your standing.