If a dispute is raised against you and you lose the case, you are charged a dispute fee. Reducing the number of disputes raised against you can help to reduce your costs.
We recommend that you take the following key actions to reduce the number of disputes raised against you:
- Make your return, refund and cancelation policies clear – Clearly communicate your return, refund and cancelation policies to customers at the time of the sale.
- Confirm customer orders – Confirm the order with the customer at the time of sale. If you accept orders for goods or services to be delivered later, manage the customer’s expectations. Update them on delivery times and allow them to track their order.
- Provide good customer service – Ensure that the contact details of your customer service team are easy for customers to find. Aim to resolve complaints promptly and thoroughly to avoid potential chargebacks later.
- Use a clear billing descriptor on customer statements – Use a billing descriptor that the customer will easily recognise on their statement. If the registered name of your business is different from your trading name, choose the one that’s likely to be most familiar to customers.
- Delay billing – To prevent disputes raised due to not receiving merchandise, don’t charge cards until goods have been shipped. Similarly, do not submit transactions too late to avoid disputes raised due to late presentment or credits not being processed.
- Obtain proof of customer participation – Maintain detailed records of every transaction. For example, invoices, signed delivery receipts, or the date and time of download for digital services. These can be used as compelling evidence to defend against some disputes.
- Leverage Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) rules – Identify and verify customer identities with 3D Secure (3DS) and the Address Verification Service (AVS). Implement robust security measures to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
- Cancel recurring transactions promptly – Confirm the cancellation to the customer in writing and state the effective date of the cancelation. Remind them of any restrictions in cases where the customer has paid up-front for a subscription or a membership of a pre-agreed duration.
- Update expired cards – Use the Account Updater solution to automatically update card details when a card expires to avoid chargebacks.
- Integrate fraud prevention tools – Use the Fraud Detection solution to identify and stop potentially fraudulent transactions.