At a glance
The percentage of Authorize.Net transactions that resulted in a chargeback. Buyer-initiated reversal through the issuing bank. The most expensive type of payment loss: scheme fees plus the funds plus the time-cost of dispute response.
| What it counts | COUNT(chargebacks) / COUNT(settled transactions) * 100, in the same window. |
| API source | Chargeback events arrive on the FDS (Fraud Detection Suite) chargeback feed and the getUnsettledTransactionListRequest endpoint with chargeback filter. |
| Currency | Currency-neutral (rate). |
| Visa / Mastercard threshold | The networks levy fines on merchants exceeding 0.9% chargeback ratio (Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program; Mastercard Excessive Chargeback Merchant). Above 1.0%, merchant accounts are at risk of termination. |
| Refunds | Counted separately in aut_refund_rate. Refund-then-chargeback is unusual but possible. |
| Failed payments | Excluded (post-success only). |
| Healthy baseline | <0.5% chargeback rate is healthy. 0.5 to 0.9% is warning. >0.9% is critical (acquirer monitoring kicks in). |
| eCheck.Net (ACH) returns | Tracked separately as ACH returns (NACHA codes), not chargebacks. |
| Time window | 30D vsP. |
| Alert trigger | >0.9% absolute. |
| Sentiment key | gauge_inverse: good<=0.5, warn>0.9 |
| Roles | owner, finance, operations |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Authorize.net data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
“Heartland Hardware Co.”, 30 days ending 02 May 26.| Channel | Settled | Chargebacks | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web | 1,840 | 5 | 0.27% |
| B2B portal | 620 | 0 | 0.00% |
| ARB | 184 | 1 | 0.54% |
| MOTO | 320 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Blended | 2,964 | 6 | 0.20% |
| Reason | Count | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4837 | 2 | No cardholder authorisation | Likely friendly fraud or stolen card; submit signed proof-of-delivery + AVS match. |
| 4853 | 2 | Cardholder dispute / not as described | Customer claims item not received or wrong; submit shipping records + photos. |
| 4855 | 1 | Goods not received | Submit tracking + delivery confirmation. |
| 4863 | 1 | Cardholder does not recognise | Submit transaction details + email correspondence. |
- Blended 0.20% is healthy. Below 0.5% threshold. B2B portal at 0.00% is structural (procurement-managed, no consumer-dispute pathway).
- ARB at 0.54% is the alert. Subscription chargebacks usually mean the customer cancelled but kept getting billed; the customer dispute the unrecognised charge. Operational fix: aggressive ARB-cancellation UX, clear billing-descriptor (the line on the bank statement).
- Reason 4837 (no authorisation) at 2 is normal. This is the “friendly fraud” pattern: customer denies a real purchase. Defend with signed proof-of-delivery, AVS match, IP and device fingerprint.
- Win rate matters. Authorize.Net with strong Cardinal Cardinal Commerce 3DS data and AVS match has a 35 to 50% win rate on disputes. Heartland should always defend; cost is low (USD 25 to 50 in time) vs USD 4,200 in lost funds.
- Visa CE 3.0 / Mastercard Compelling Evidence 3.0 allow merchants to push back on “card-not-recognised” reason 4837 with proof of prior similar transactions. Authorize.Net supports this via the dispute-management interface.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Chargeback Rate |
|---|---|
aut_dispute_rate | Disputes-in-flight, the precursor (some get withdrawn before becoming chargebacks). |
aut_refund_rate | Merchant-initiated cousin. High refund rate prevents chargebacks. |
aut_top_payment_methods | Network-specific patterns; Amex chargeback rules differ from Visa/MC. |
aut_threedsecure_abandon_rate | 3DS-passed transactions are liability-shifted to the issuer. |
Stripe stripe_dispute_rate / PayPal pp_chargeback_rate | Cross-PSP comparison. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Authorize.Net Dashboard: account.authorize.net → Reports → Chargebacks, with date filter. The acquirer’s monthly statement also shows chargeback count and fees. Why our number may differ:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Boundary days off | Pacific batch cut-off vs UTC. |
| Chargeback receipt timing | Theirs may show later | Networks deliver chargeback notifications on a delay (1 to 5 days post-dispute). |
| Won-vs-lost flag | Either | A chargeback initially counted may flip to “won” later; we use original-case-issued count. |
| Comparison | Expected | Why |
|---|---|---|
aut_chargeback_rate ↔ acquirer statement chargeback count | Equal | Same source data. |
aut_chargeback_rate ↔ stripe.stripe_dispute_rate | Differ by traffic mix | Different merchant exposure per PSP. |