Visa: Dispute Resolution Update
Chargebacks are part of a decades-old process that hasn’t changed much since its inception in the mid-70’s. While adequate for its time, the existing system is not flexible enough to handle the volume and complexity of the contemporary payments industry.
As of April 15, 2018, Visa is attempting to streamline and speed up the overall dispute process. Visa’s new process is called VISA Claims Resolution (VCR). Many of these changes will happen behind the scenes. However, there are a few items that may impact you as a business owner.
Currently, the average dispute takes around 46 days to complete while more contentious disputes take over 100 days. The new process is expected to conclude disputes in under 31 days. This will be done by reducing timelines, touch points and processes from both the card issuing and merchant sides of the industry. The notices that are sent to you will continue to have the deadline date clearly posted, so please respond promptly.
Visa will be consolidating 22 dispute reason codes down to just four categories. The information provided to you in each of these four categories will be just as robust as before, although it may require you to take different actions depending on the category of the dispute. The information provided to you will help you understand the reason for the dispute and how to respond. Pay special attention to the required documentation.
Another benefit to the business owner is that Visa will be blocking invalid disputes from entering the dispute system if they don’t meet new data requirements from the issuing side.
As always, it’s important to pay attention to dispute notices that you receive. Provide all the required documentation noted on your dispute notice for that dispute reason. With the new shortened time-frames, reply no later than the deadline posted on your notice.
If you would like to read more detailed information you can find it here: Visa Claims Resolution (VCR)
