Most merchants don’t want to learn about payment risk from the payment processor. By the time the payment processor issues a risk warning or imposes a reserve or funding hold, the issue has been building for weeks or months.
That is why merchants should calculate their own VAMP score prior to being told by Visa, the acquiring bank or payment processor about the risk of their business. Although the official term for this calculation is the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) ratio, the industry often refers to it as the VAMP score, or simply the score that merchants should calculate themselves each month to monitor their risk exposure.
Why Merchants Should Monitor VAMP Exposure Early
The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) looks at both fraud and dispute activity for merchants. VAMP doesn’t just look at chargebacks for merchants but analyzes other aspects of fraud and dispute activity.
Merchants need to be able to react to VAMP exposure. High fraud activity exposes merchants to fraud filters, bots, and 3DS. High dispute activity exposes merchants to issues with billing descriptors, returns, cancellations, shipping, and product policies. The higher the VAMP ratio, the more merchants should focus on addressing each of these exposure areas.
What a VAMP Score Really Means
While “VAMP score” is a common term used by merchants, the official term for this metric is the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) ratio. The VAMP ratio measures the number of fraud and non-fraud disputes your business receives relative to the total number of transactions that settle on your Visa account.
There is also another program by Visa called Visa Account Attack Intelligence, or VAAI. This program helps Visa detect enumeration attacks on merchant accounts. However, this is not the same as your monthly VAMP ratio. You may track both metrics on your internal VAMP scorecard, but they should not be confused with one another.
Who Should Track a Monthly VAMP Score
This VAMP ratio calculation is most relevant to businesses where Visa card-not-present sales can have an impact upon approval, funding, or otherwise.
Specifically, this tool and calculation will be of most use to the following types of merchants:
- high-risk ecommerce merchants
- subscription and recurring billing merchants
- CBD, vape, nutraceutical, adult, travel, dating and digital product businesses
- merchants with high chargeback and fraud rates
- NMI, Authorize.Net or other custom gateway merchants
- merchants receiving questions from the processor regarding chargebacks or fraud
- businesses comparing VAMP scoring between their products
- any merchant interested in calculating their potential risk before a review is scheduled from the processing company
If Visa transactions are a significant portion of a company’s sales, it is beneficial for the payment department to be aware of the estimated VAMP ratio of those Visa sales before the reporting of that ratio is provided at the end of the month.
VAMP Calculation Inputs Explained
You do not need a complicated model to start. You need the right inputs and a consistent monthly process.
| Input | What It Means | Where To Look | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Settled Visa Transactions | Completed Visa transactions that settled during the period | Processor reports, acquirer reports or gateway settlement exports | This is the denominator in the VAMP ratio |
| TC40 Fraud Reports | Visa fraud report records | Acquirer, processor or fraud-reporting tools | These count toward the numerator |
| TC15 Disputes | Visa dispute or chargeback records | Chargeback dashboard, processor portal or acquirer reporting | These also count toward the numerator |
| VAMP Ratio | Fraud reports plus disputes divided by settled Visa transactions | Internal calculation based on the inputs above | This shows estimated Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) exposure |
| Enumeration Attempts | Suspected bot-driven card-testing attempts | Gateway declines, processor alerts, fraud tools or VAAI-related reporting | These may create monitoring risk even without many completed sales |
| Refund And Alert Activity | Refunds, RDR, CDRN, Ethoca or other alert outcomes | Chargeback tools, support logs and payment reports | These help explain whether prevention workflows are working |
The key is consistency. Use the same time period, same data sources and same transaction definitions each month so trends are meaningful.
Best Tools and Providers for VAMP Score Monitoring
The right support depends on whether the merchant needs processor guidance, chargeback alerts, fraud controls, gateway reporting or a full payment-risk review.
| Provider Or Tool | Best Fit For | Key Strength | Main Tradeoff |
| Payment Nerds | High-risk and card-not-present merchants that need Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) guidance, processor-fit review and account-stability support | Connects VAMP score monitoring to merchant accounts, gateways, chargebacks, fraud tools and underwriting strategy | More consultative than a standalone dashboard |
| Verifi | Merchants that need Visa pre-dispute and dispute-prevention workflows | RDR and CDRN can help reduce formal disputes when configured properly | Requires careful refund rules and monitoring |
| Ethoca | Merchants that want issuer-to-merchant fraud and dispute alerts | Alerts can help stop fulfillment, refund quickly and prevent escalation | Coverage varies by issuer, geography and setup |
| Chargeback Gurus | Merchants needing chargeback prevention and VAMP education | Strong dispute strategy and Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) content | Does not replace merchant-account support |
| Midigator | Merchants that need analytics and representment workflows | Reporting, prevention and dispute-response tools | Works best when payment data is clean and complete |
| Signifyd | Ecommerce merchants focused on fraud decisioning and chargeback protection | Fraud screening and chargeback protection options | Fit depends on product category, traffic source and risk type |
| Gateway Fraud Tools | Merchants using NMI, Authorize.Net or similar gateways | AVS, CVV, velocity controls, 3DS and rule-based filtering | Requires tuning to avoid blocking good orders |
Payment Nerds is usually the strongest fit when the merchant wants help interpreting the VAMP score in the context of processor expectations, chargeback exposure and merchant-account stability. Software tools can help collect and act on data, but processor communication still matters when risk rises.
How to Calculate Your VAMP Score
Choose a month for your calculation. Gather Visa transactions, fraud reports and disputes for that same month. Divide the number of fraud reports and disputes by the total number of Visa transactions for that month.
Multiply that result to calculate the percentage and basis points for your VAMP score. For example, a ratio of 0.75% is 75 basis points. A ratio of 1.5% is 150 basis points. This representation makes it easier to compare your VAMP score to the conversations you have with your payment processor and Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) thresholds.
How Visa VAMP Impacts Chargeback Workflows
Visa VAMP will change the chargeback workflow because chargeback teams should not fight the fight after the fact. The fraud team works to prevent fraudulent transactions, but the customer service team may work to provide better customer experiences that do not result in chargebackable transactions.
The best way to fight chargebacks is to combine the efforts of the fraud, customer service, chargeback, descriptor, VAMP campaign and fulfillment teams. By working together with the same scorecard as the merchant, the chargeback team can battle the high ratio of chargeable transactions before the processor does.
VAMP Monitoring Costs Explained
VAMP score monitoring costs can include pay for chargeback alerts, fraud tools, gateway upgrades, bot protection, representment software, 3DS, reporting dashboards and staff time and processor support. If the chargeback ratio is already headed in the wrong direction, some merchants pay for consultants or chargeback-management vendors.
Compare that cost to the cost of reacting too late to VAMP score monitoring. Waiting for the processor to warn of a declining VAMP score may result in reserves, delayed funding, imposed fees or volume limits, and even processor termination. Monitoring VAMP exposure early is usually far less expensive than reacting after processor intervention begins.
Common VAMP Score Mistakes
The biggest mistake is only calculating the chargebacks within the formula. The VAMP ratio also includes fraud reports and disputes, which means tracking TC40 and TC15 ratios as well.
Another mistake is treating the VAMP score as a single metric for review within the finance department. The VAMP ratio incorporates various metrics related to the marketing, fraud, product, fulfillment, and customer support departments, billing descriptors, refund policy, and payment gateway settings. If the VAMP score is going up, it does not necessarily mean the payments department is the cause.
Key Features of a VAMP Score Calculation
Settled Visa Transaction Count
Begin with the count of settled Visa transactions for the month. This figure represents the number of transactions that actually settled, not the number of transactions that were authorized but declined. These declined transactions may show up within the total transaction count for the merchant’s payment processor, but they do not indicate a settled transaction. Merchants should ask their Visa payment processor how they are to report the settled transaction count. The number that appears in the merchant’s gateway and processor statement may not match the settled transaction count reported by the acquirer.
TC40 Fraud Report Count
TC40 reports track fraud activity on the Visa network. However, these reports might not show up in the same place as chargebacks reports. As a result, merchants that do not review their fraud reports might underestimate the chargebacks that appear on their Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) reports. Merchants should request access to the monthly reports that track fraud activity on the Visa network from their processor, acquirer or chargeback report software.
TC15 Dispute Count
TC15 reports indicate the number of Visa chargebacks that a merchant receives. These reports may show up within the chargeback and dispute report software tools that merchants use to monitor the chargebacks that come into their accounts. Merchants should review the reason for the chargebacks, the products that were charged, the campaigns, billing descriptors and subscription plans that were linked to the chargebacks. The goal is to understand the causes of the chargebacks.
Basic VAMP Ratio Formula
Add the number of TC40 fraud reports and the number of TC15 chargebacks for the month, and divide that total by the number of settled Visa transactions during that same period. Using the example data for a merchant with 25 fraud reports, 35 chargebacks and 4,000 total settled Visa transactions results in a calculation of (25 + 35) / 4,000 = 1.5%. The merchant should compare this value to the current threshold for their region, payment processor and Visa acquirer.
Enumeration Ratio Review
While not part of the VAMP ratio calculation itself, enumeration ratios should also be reviewed on a monthly basis for merchants. Enumeration ratios calculate the number of bot-driven, test transactions for a merchant’s Visa cards that occurred on the merchant’s checkout pages. Such test transactions will show up in different reports for the merchant, such as authorization attempts, failed transactions reports, failed CVV counts and gateway fraud reports. These reports will not necessarily correlate with the chargebacks that the merchant receives, but they are an indicator of potential risk for the merchant.
Tracking VAMP Risk Trends Over Time
One month of data from the VAMP ratio calculations is helpful. However, three to six months of data helps merchants to understand any trend in their VAMP ratio. If merchants can identify if their ratio is moving toward the danger zone, they can begin to investigate the possible causes of such an increased rate of chargebacks. For example, if a merchant observes that their VAMP ratio has increased in the past three months, the cause might be specific to certain chargeback campaigns, products, shipping delays or changes to the billing information for their customers.
FAQs About Visa VAMP Scores
Q: What is a VAMP score?
A: A VAMP score refers to the estimated exposure that merchants have to the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP). This score is also referred to by merchants as a VAMP ratio. The VAMP ratio compares the number of fraud and chargeback reports against settled Visa transactions on merchants’ statements.
Q: How do I calculate my VAMP score?
A: To calculate a VAMP score, add up the number of fraud and chargeback reports for a given month and divide that by the number of settled Visa transactions for the same period. Convert this score to a percentage or basis points for comparing ease with VAMP thresholds.
Q: What is the Visa VAMP ratio formula?
A: The Visa VAMP ratio formula is the number of fraud and chargeback reports divided by the number of settled Visa transactions. Merchants should keep track of the number of TC40 fraud reports, TC15 chargeback reports and the number of settled Visa transactions.
Q: Is VAAI the same as my VAMP score?
A: No, VAAI is not the same as your VAMP score. VAAI stands for Visa Account Attack Intelligence and helps merchants to identify enumeration attacks on their accounts. Your VAMP score is calculated from fraud, chargeback and settled Visa transactions. Although both values should be monitored by merchants, they are not the same.
Q: How often should merchants calculate their VAMP score?
A: Merchants should calculate their VAMP score at least once per month. However, high-risk merchants such as subscription businesses and ecommerce merchants may want to calculate this value on a weekly or even daily basis during specific high-risk periods.
Q: What if I cannot see my TC40 fraud reports?
A: Visa fraud reports can be accessed by merchants and their processors. If merchants do not have access to these reports, they can request access from their Visa processor or acquirer. Furthermore, if merchants do not track chargebacks, they may not have an accurate figure of their VAMP score.
Q: Can Payment Nerds help calculate my VAMP score?
A: Payment Nerds can assist high-risk and card-not-present merchants with calculating their VAMP score and reviewing their chargebacks. Merchants who work with Payment Nerds can have an accurate idea of their VAMP score and risks before they begin to affect the merchant’s ability to receive funding and avoid termination.
Conclusion
Calculating your own VAMP score helps you to stay ahead of the risks associated with your processor. It is essential for merchants to understand their estimated VAMP ratio and what is driving that ratio before the review process begins.
Payment Nerds can assist merchants in calculating their VAMP ratio, reviewing their TC40 and TC15 activity, reducing chargebacks, and protecting their merchant account from financial risks. By learning how to read and understand your VAMP ratio, merchants can better manage their account and make it a routine part of your merchant business operations.
Sources
- Visa. “Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program Fact Sheet.” Accessed June 2026.
- Visa. “Visa Account Attack Intelligence (VAAI) Score.” Accessed June 2026.
- Visa. “Visa Announces Generative AI-Powered Fraud Solution to Combat Account Attacks.” Accessed June 2026.
- Verifi. “Resolve Disputes with CDRN and RDR.” Accessed June 2026.
- Ethoca. “Secure Ecommerce Fraud & Chargeback Protection.” Accessed June 2026.
- Chargeback Gurus. “Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP).” Accessed June 2026.
- Signifyd. “Complete Chargeback Protection.” Accessed June 2026.
