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Pre-chargeback programs

With pre-chargeback programs, Airwallex is helping you to resolve disputes before they become chargebacks.

Chargebacks can be a headache for many businesses selling goods and services online:

  • Chargebacks incur high fees, which are charged regardless of outcome (i.e. even if you win the dispute, you still have to pay the chargeback fees)
  • Most businesses win very few disputes, the large majority of disputes are ruled in favor of the shopper/ cardholder
  • Responding to disputes ties up manual effort

Pre-chargeback programs can alleviate these pain points, typically by automatically refunding disputed transactions at a much lower cost than a traditional chargeback.

Visa rapid dispute resolution (RDR)

Visa RDR can resolve disputes of Visa card transactions through rule based auto-refunds. When a shopper files a dispute with the issuing bank, Visa will check whether the dispute falls under the threshold rules set for RDR. If it falls below the threshold, the transaction will be refunded automatically before it becomes a chargeback.

Disputes resolved through RDR will be shown in the Airwallex web app as disputes in pre-chargeback stage and be automatically marked as “Accepted”. Disputes resolved through RDR will incur an RDR service fee, which varies according to the merchant category code of your transaction. However, disputes resolved via RDR will avoid the cost of an Airwallex chargeback fee that is typically higher than the RDR service fee.

Airwallex will automatically enroll you for RDR if you fall into certain merchant categories codes. The RDR services are provided by Verifi, a subsidiary of Visa. Airwallex will determine the thresholds for RDR auto-refunds based on your business and risk profile and will notify you of any changes to the thresholds.

How Visa RDR helps to reduce chargeback cost

Consider a business that typically receives 50 Visa disputes per month:

  • 20 disputes around 10 USD each
  • 20 disputes around 30 USD each
  • 10 disputes around 80 USD each

Without RDR

Assuming the business has a high win rate and wins 20% of disputes, it would incur the following monthly cost:

  • 750 USD in chargeback fees (assuming 15 USD chargeback fee)
  • 1280 USD in lost transaction principal (80% loss rate x (20 disputes x 10 USD + 20 disputes x 30 USD + 10 disputes x 80 USD))

Total: 2030 USD

With RDR

Assuming a 60 USD auto-refund threshold, 40 of the disputes would have been resolved through RDR and incur the following cost:

  • 200 USD in RDR case fees (assuming 5 USD RDR case fee)
  • 800 USD in lost transaction principal (20 disputes x 10 USD + 20 disputes x 30 USD)

The remaining 10 disputes above the threshold would still go through the normal chargeback process and incur the following cost:

  • 150 USD in chargeback fees (assuming 15 USD chargeback fee)
  • 640 USD in lost transaction principal (80% loss rate x 10 disputes x 80 USD)

Total: 1790 USD

Mastercard Collaboration

Mastercard Collaboration allows you to resolve disputes of Mastercard transactions before they become chargebacks by refunding the transaction.

Incoming Collaboration cases will be shown in Airwallex web app as disputes in the pre-chargeback stage. If the dispute falls below the threshold set for Collaboration, Airwallex will respond to the case automatically to refund the transaction. You will see it marked as “Accepted”. If the dispute exceeds the threshold, it will be labeled as "Needs response" and will appear in the Response queue for you to take action on.

Notes:
  • Unlike Visa RDR, cases above the threshold do not automatically become chargebacks and you will have 65 hours to decide whether to accept the dispute
  • If you accept the dispute within 65 hours or miss the 65 hours time-window, the transaction will be refunded and the dispute will be marked as accepted in pre-chargeback stage
  • If you don’t want to accept the dispute, the dispute will become a chargeback and be marked as “Needs response” in dispute stage (Please note that this means you will incur the chargeback fee)
  • For now, Mastercard is not able to disclose the reason why the shopper filed the dispute when sending us the Collaboration case, so we mark the dispute reason to be "Unknown" in Webapp

Disputes resolved through Collaboration will incur an Collaboration service fee. However, disputes resolved via Collaboration will avoid the cost of an Airwallex chargeback fee that is typically higher than the Collaboration service fee.

Airwallex will automatically enroll you for Collaboration if you fall into certain merchant categories codes. Airwallex will determine the thresholds for Collaboration auto-responses based on your business and risk profile and will notify you of any changes to the thresholds.

How Mastercard Collaboration helps to reduce chargeback cost

Consider a business that typically receives 50 Mastercard disputes per month:

  • 20 disputes around 10 USD each
  • 20 disputes around 30 USD each
  • 10 disputes around 80 USD each

Without Collaboration

Assuming the business has a high win rate and wins 20% of disputes, it would incur the following monthly cost:

  • 750 USD in chargeback fees (assuming 15 USD chargeback fee)
  • 1280 USD in lost transaction principal (80% loss rate x (20 disputes x 10 USD + 20 disputes x 30 USD + 10 disputes x 80 USD))

Total: 2030 USD

With Collaboration

Assuming a 60 USD auto-respond threshold, 40 of the disputes would have been resolved and incur the following cost:

  • 400 USD in Collaboration case fees (assuming 10 USD Collaboration case fee)
  • 800 USD in lost transaction principal (20 disputes x 10 USD + 20 disputes x 30 USD)

For the remaining 10 disputes above the threshold, assuming that you choose to accept 8 cases through Collaboration and let the other 2 go through the normal chargeback process and you finally win both, it would incur the following cost:

  • 80 USD in Collaboration case fees (assuming 10 USD Collaboration case fee)
  • 640 USD in lost transaction principal (8 disputes x 80 USD)
  • 30 USD in chargeback fees (assuming 15 USD chargeback fee)

Total: 1950 USD

Automated refund on fraud notification

Automated refund on fraud notification is a pre-chargeback program which aims to avoid chargebacks on fraudulent transactions and reduce total chargeback costs.

The service leverages fraud notifications, that Airwallex receives from card schemes, for any card transaction that has been identified as fraudulent. As these notifications are independent of the chargeback process, Airwallex will often receive these notifications before a chargeback has been filed. Airwallex will then automatically decide if there is a risk that a chargeback will be filed later on. If Airwallex determines that there is a risk of a chargeback and the transaction amount is below a threshold set for your account, Airwallex will automatically initiate a refund of the transaction. For this you will be charged the standard refund fees, which are significantly lower than the chargeback fees.

For transactions automatically refunded through this pre-chargeback program, Airwallex will send you an email notification. We recommend you to use this notification to stop the delivery of the goods or services related to this transaction.

Please note that enrolment onto this pre-chargeback program is currently done on a case-by-case basis. Airwallex will inform you if your account is being enrolled onto this program and the thresholds being applied.

Please see below FAQs to further understand this service

FAQs

  1. For which transaction is there a risk of a chargeback being filed later on? A risk of a chargeback being filed later on exists on transactions for which you as the merchant are not protected with liability shift. For transactions with 3DS Authentication or through digital wallets like Apple Pay / Google Pay, typically the issuing bank is liable for transactions identified as fraudulent. Hence these transactions are excluded from automated refunds.
  2. What will happen if a chargeback is received even after an automated refund? Sometimes it is possible that a chargeback is raised at the Issuing bank even before they receive the refund information. Airwallex in such cases will auto respond to the disputes on behalf of the merchant with refund information attached as evidence, this saves the manual effort from the merchant. Unfortunately, merchants will still be liable for the chargeback fee in this case.

Other pre-chargeback programs

Airwallex is developing and integrating with additional pre-chargeback programs. We will notify you once more pre-chargeback programs become available.