Chargebacks and Retrievals

No business likes to deal with a chargeback from a customer - if not managed properly, chargebacks can cripple a business.

A chargeback is the reversal of a disputed sales transaction. A chargeback occurs when the cardholder or issuing bank has disputed an item, or when there is a violation of the rules and regulations established by the Visa® and MasterCard® associations. VersaPay and our partners review all chargebacks to determine their validity and alert the merchant immediately. When a valid chargeback occurs, the amount of the chargeback is debited from your merchant account.

Tips for Preventing Chargebacks

At VersaPay, we understand that chargebacks represent lost revenue. Although it's probably not possible to eliminate chargebacks completely, there are some steps you can take to minimize the likelihood that they will occur. We have outlined the following guidelines to assist you:

1. If you process a transaction in a non face-to-face environment, i.e. over the phone, by mail or the internet, please note that if the transaction is disputed, you the Merchant accept full liability, as you do not have an imprint of the card and the cardholder's signature on the imprinted sales draft.
   
   If you are an Internet Merchant, we recommend that you sign up for Verified by Visa. Verified by Visa is an online service that verifies cardholder identity in real time to replicate a "card present" environment. For more information regarding this service please visit www.visa.ca/verified.
   
   
2. Follow proper authorization procedures and always obtain an authorization number before processing a transaction. You may be charged back for a transaction when authorization was requested but declined and the transaction was processed anyway. Please note that an authorization only confirms that funds are available on the card at the time of inquiry. It does not confirm the identity of the cardholder, nor is it a representation that the transaction is valid. And further, it does not guarantee the prevention of a chargeback.
   
   
3. Make sure you respond promptly to all requests for copies of sales drafts. Ensure that the copy is legible and be certain to keep a copy for yourself. If you fail to respond to the copy request by the due date specified, you will be subject to a chargeback.
   
   
4. If you are using a manual imprinter, check to ensure you have a legible imprint of the customer's Visa card on all copies of the sales draft and that you obtain the cardholder's signature on the imprinted sales draft.
   
   
5. Should you need to key a transaction into the terminal because the magnetic stripe is damaged, ensure that you take a manual imprint of the card and have the cardholder sign the manually imprinted sales draft to prove that the card was present during the transaction. Keep copies of both the imprinted sales draft and the slip from the terminal in case of a dispute.
   
   
6. If you have a separate invoice that contains your return policy, please ensure that the cardholder also signs the invoice. This will serve as proof that the cardholder was aware of your return policy should the transaction be disputed.

These are only a few of the things you can do to protect your business from unnecessary losses. For more information on reducing chargebacks, please visit www.visa.ca. We encourage you to visit this website as soon as possible to increase your knowledge and awareness of chargeback prevention.