Glossary – Chargebacks

Acquirer:

A merchant acquirer is a bank or financial institution that processes credit and debit card payments for businesses. They’re tasked with acquiring payment on the merchant’s behalf.

Address Verification Response (AVS – Ecom only):

A fraud prevention service that matches the billing address provided on the transaction to the address that the card issuer has on file, ensuring that the person making purchase with the credit card is indeed the valid cardholder.

Allocation Dispute:

A process for Visa disputes that attempts to limit illegitimate chargebacks and shorten the time affected disputes take to resolve. Visa uses internal data and processes to automatically block disputes that don’t meet Visa’s requirements for validity. If a merchant wishes to dispute an Allocation, they would be proceeding into a pre-arbitration instead of a reversal, as is usual for other case types.

Amount Card Currency:

If the card used on the purchase was in a currency which differs from your merchant account currency, this amount shows the native amount which hit the card. A 10.00 CAD transaction would appear on a USD card as $7.63. Please note, when a charge is disputed, the amount on the card is reported, therefore you must always look for the card number in your records to find the transaction, if the amount doesn’t match. You should always provide details on any transaction with a specific card.

Arbitration:

Occurs when a cardholder has exhausted their chargeback rights but the issuer believes the acquirer’s second presentment is invalid or if the issuer did not receive documentation in a timely manner following the second presentment.

ARN :

This is the Acquirer Reference Number which is a unique value assigned to a batched transaction by the acquirer

Card Association:

also known as Card Brands. These entities, owned by financial institutions, license bank credit card programs. The most popular ones are Visa and Mastercard.

Cardholder:

The owner of the card involved in a transaction. This is not always the merchant’s client in certain situations such as fraud.

Case number:

The unique identification value assigned to each chargeback case.

CB Code:

Chargeback Error Code. This code is the response code assigned to each case depending on the reason of the chargeback. You can use this code to get more help on response guidelines in the Visa and Mastercard guides.

CB Type :

This is the Chargeback case type, CB1 – 1st presentment, CB2 – 2nd presentment, RR1 – Retrieval request

Chargeback:

Reversal of a transaction initiated by the cardholder. This is usually due to fraud, a processing error or customer dissatisfaction.

Chargeback Amount:

The amount in your merchant account currency. This can either be the full or the partial transaction amount.

Collaboration Dispute:

Similar to the other case types but this encourages the cardholder’s bank and the merchant to share information in an effort to resolve the dispute. If neither party agrees on a resolution, the case is escalated to an arbitration with the card brand (Visa or Mastercard)

CVV:

CVV is a 3- or 4-digit code on credit cards that acts as an anti-fraud security feature. It verifies that the customer in a card-not-present purchase is in possession of the credit card.

Dispute:

When it’s coming from a cardholder, a dispute occurs when a charge is reversed by the issuing bank, to a cardholder from a merchant. There are several parties involved, since a return transaction goes through the customer’s bank, the credit card association (such as Visa or MasterCard) and the merchant’s bank. Consumers can sometimes initiate a chargeback when they dispute a purchase made from a merchant. When it’s coming from a merchant, it is the same as Presentment.

First Chargeback (1st CB):

Reversal of a transaction initiated by the cardholder. This is usually due to fraud, a processing error or customer dissatisfaction.

Issuer:

The Issuer is known as the credit or debit card company. They’re tasked with issuing cards to consumers on behalf of the card associations.

Pre-Arbitration:

The case when a cardholder disputes a transaction for a second time with new evidence after the chargeback is reversed.

Processor:

Is a platform intermediary that facilitates communication between the issuing bank and the acquirer. The processor’s job is to verify and authorize payment.

Retrieval request:

The process through which a cardholder requests more information about a charge they don’t recognize on their account. It starts when a cardholder contacts their issuing bank to ask about a charge they don’t recognize on their account. In these cases, the issuing bank is usually asking for a receipt to be provided. If a merchant response is not timely or valid, the issuer might go ahead with opening a chargeback.

Reversal:

Following the chargeback or allocation, a reversal case is opened if the merchant decides to dispute the chargeback or allocation. This is when the issuing bank will decide on the outcome based on the documentation provided by the merchant. If the merchant wins the reversal case, the transaction funds will then be returned to them.

Second Chargeback (2nd CB):

(Usually occurs with Mastercard) When a transaction is contested or disputed a 2nd time by a cardholder.