Reducing chargebacks below 0.9%: a practical playbook
Concrete tactics — alerts, 3DS2, descriptor work and representment — that move the dispute ratio.
Aquablue8 Risk Team April 2, 2026 10 min read
If your chargeback ratio is above 0.9%, you are one bad month away from program termination. Bringing it down is a system, not a single fix.
Layer one: prevention
3DS2 frictionless authentication, clear billing descriptors, proactive customer service and refund policies stop disputes before they happen.
Layer two: alerts
Ethoca and Verifi alerts intercept disputes before they hit the network. Refund and resolve within the alert SLA to avoid the chargeback entirely.
Layer three: representment
When disputes do post, representment with strong evidence (delivery proof, IP match, prior transactions, signed terms) wins more often than operators assume.