Preventing Credit Card Chargebacks in Your Business

A credit card chargeback occurs when a merchant charges a credit card for a transaction, and the cardholder later disputes the charge. This might happen because the cardholder is truly a victim of fraud. In other cases, merchants are the ones who fall victim. Sometimes consumers file for a chargeback with their credit card company even if the purchase was legit. Chargebacks are unfortunately on the rise. Below, we’ll dive into ways you can fight credit card chargebacks to protect your business, and how to prevent them in the first place.

Credit card chargebacks are detrimental for small businesses for obvious financial reasons: You lose the money from the transaction. But there’s more to it than that. It is estimated that for every dollar of nominal loss, merchants lose a total of $2.40 due to chargebacks, fees and stock replacement. It’s a balancing act of what works for your business and what works for your customers. On one hand, businesses want to please their customers and address their return issues, but at the same time handling large amounts of chargebacks becomes a timely and costly process.

In the unfortunate circumstance that you do find yourself facing an invalid credit card chargeback, there are a few steps you can take to increase your odds of winning. Let’s look at ways to increase your odds at winning the chargeback case — and keeping your money:

• Contact the customer directly: Contact the customer to see if there’s simply confusion on the charge, or another issue, like a defect, that you can resolve outside of the dispute
• Act quickly: Time is of the essence when it comes to credit card chargeback disputes, and you’ll want to act in a timely manner to have the best chances of winning.
• Be thorough in your documentation: Provide the documentation that banks need to confirm or resolve the discrepancies within the transaction. It never hurts to send more information than you think you need to.

While there’s not much you can do to prevent a chargeback after the fact, you can take steps to prevent future instances.

• Update your merchant account: Sometimes, a credit card chargeback happens because a shopper doesn’t recognize the name of the business on their statement. You might have a parent company name or a former business name that doesn’t resemble your brand now.
• Verify cardholder identity: Stolen credit cards are the main cause for chargebacks, accounting for 30% of instances. Verify cardholder identity for every purchase with a photo ID – and don’t forget to make sure the signatures match.
• Analyze your chargeback incidents: When you do have chargebacks, it’s important to conduct a post-mortem to help understand what went wrong and why. This can also give you further insights into how to best prevent chargebacks in your business.
• Get your employees in on it: Your staff are the first line of defense against fraud. Include loss prevention in your employee onboarding so that they start the job with a fresh review. Consistently and frequently train employees on operational compliance, specifically as it pertains to points of purchase, returns and exchanges, and managing customer service issues.

You can’t eliminate chargebacks completely, but you can reduce the chance of them. If you’re looking to cut your credit card processing fees, Get in touch with Midwest Merchant Services. We’ll review your statement and recommend ways to help you save.

As one of the top-rated credit card processors in the market, we’re able to save merchants $450+ a month in payment processing.