SpectrumPayment Solutions
All terms
Chargebacks & Risk

Chargeback Alert

A near-real-time notification that a cardholder has disputed or is about to dispute a transaction, giving the merchant a chance to refund before it becomes a formal chargeback. Alerts help keep the chargeback ratio under network thresholds.

Alerts are a prevention tool: resolving an issue at the alert stage avoids the fee and the ratio impact of a full chargeback, though it still means refunding the sale.

Go deeper

Related terms

Chargebacks & Risk

Chargeback

A forced reversal of a card payment initiated by the cardholder's bank, usually after a dispute over fraud, a product issue, or a billing complaint. Chargebacks return funds to the customer and often add a fee for the merchant.

Read
Chargebacks & Risk

Chargeback Ratio

The percentage of a merchant's transactions that become chargebacks, typically measured monthly. Card networks set thresholds — commonly around 1% — above which a merchant faces monitoring programs, higher costs, or termination.

Read
Chargebacks & Risk

Friendly Fraud

A chargeback filed by a legitimate customer who actually received the product or service — sometimes from confusion over a billing descriptor, sometimes deliberately. It is one of the most common and preventable chargeback types.

Read

Ready to get approved?

Tell us about your business. A high-risk specialist will map the fastest path to live payments.

Start my applicationapply@spectrumepay.com