Chargeback Reversals

As a business owner, your first priority should be keeping as much profit as you can, and that includes minimizing the number of chargebacks you experience. Chargebacks can not only eat into your profits, they can also throw suspicion onto your reputation with your payment processor. A chargeback reversal is what happens if you win the second presentment (sometimes called “re-presentment”) part of the chargeback dispute process.

Chargeback reversals will help your business, but it can be hard to prove your case. Further, many merchants choose not to dispute chargebacks at all after considering the amount of time and cost associated with going through the dispute process. You can learn more about chargeback arbitration here. If you do choose to dispute a chargeback, here are some tips for achieving a chargeback reversal:

  1. Keep documentation! Receipts, invoices, or any physical or digital documents that prove that the charge was valid. Even email or text message correspondence can prove to be useful. Keep documentation for at least six months.
  2. Respond in a timely fashion: After you are made aware of a chargeback, you must respond to the card network or customer within the allotted timeframe, otherwise you accept the chargeback. Some timeframes can be as short as 30 days, so be sure to stay on top of it.
  3. Know your reason codes: Chargebacks are always given a reason code, so you can look up why the chargeback occurred. You can find our articles on Visa’s reason codes here and MasterCard’s reason codes here. Once you understand the reason for the chargeback, you can better argue against it and win a reversal for your business.

You can learn more about Visa’s Chargeback Resolutions process here, MasterCard’s here, Discover’s here, and American Express’s here. Once you understand the resolutions process for the card network you are dealing with, it will be easier to understand exactly what you need to win a reversal.