Elavon • Article • U.S. Payment Smart (January 2025)
3 min. Read

Unchallenged chargebacks can cost your business money in lost sales and added fees. But with the right strategy, fighting invalid chargebacks can be worth the effort. Here are some guidelines:

• Speed matters because chargebacks have specific time limits for filing a dispute.
• Check in with your Customer Account Manager because Elavon may already be pushing back on the chargeback as presented.
• Know the facts by gathering accurate, compelling evidence for your chargeback rebuttal response. By including all transaction details, signed receipts, delivery information and evidence up front, you have the best chance of getting your response considered.
• Study reason codes, which provide details on each chargeback and requirements for responding. Codes differ among the four major credit card networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover), but you can easily look them up using the Chargeback Gurus search resource.*
• Refer to rules set by the card brand networks because each network has detailed requirements regarding representment and timing. The Chargeback Gurus search resource also provides many of these details, including what evidence to provide to support your case.
• Prioritize which chargebacks to fight based on Return on Investment (ROI) and the likelihood of winning the case. Card networks issue chargeback dispute fees and fines issued to a merchant that loses a case can be steep: Mastercard, for example, will assess an Arbitration or Compliance fee that ranges from $150 up to $1,000 or more.

Representment simplified with Payments Insider

When preparing for the representment process, which is your opportunity to submit evidence demonstrating transaction compliance with the involved card brand rules, use Payments Insider’s Chargeback Summary Report tool to simplify the process.

You can view a report that will display all of the disputed transactions you currently have on file. This report will also provide you with a way to respond to these disputes and provide any documents that we have requested. Read our knowledge article on this feature.

If you are dealing with unusual chargebacks, contact us. We have dedicated professionals who can help and we’ll introduce you to the team later in this newsletter.

* By selecting the included links, you will leave Elavon content and enter a third-party website. Elavon is not responsible for the content of, or products and services provided by these third parties, nor does it assure the system availability or accuracy of information contained in the sites. These websites are not controlled by Elavon. Please note that the third-party websites may have privacy and information security policies that differ from those of Elavon. These materials are general in nature and may not address all situations or card processing circumstances. All programs or offers may be discontinued, altered, or amended without notice. We accept relay calls.

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