Visa Extends Advisory Period for VAMP

Visa has announced a major change to the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), extending the advisory period from three to six months. VAMP is still set to launch on April 1, 2025, but Visa has now pushed formal enforcement from July 1 to October 1, 2025. 

During this period, merchants who exceed the VAMP ratio of 0.9% will not face penalties, allowing businesses additional time to adapt to the new framework.

If you're not yet familiar with this new program, download our VAMP FAQ or check out our complete VAMP overview.

Understanding the Recent Changes to VAMP

On March 11, Visa announced that fraud-related disputes resolved through Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR) or through alerts will count toward a merchant’s VAMP ratio. Previously, Visa said these disputes would be excluded. (Non-fraud disputes resolved through RDR and alerts will still be excluded from the VAMP ratio calculation.)

Many merchants were confused and frustrated by this last-minute change. VAMP ratio's inclusion of fraud reports from TC40 data that don't lead to chargebacks will make it more difficult to stay below 0.9% compared to the existing dispute ratio metric, and this change further added to that difficulty.

In addition, many acquirers had already been giving Visa feedback about the timeline for VAMP's rollout being too short, requesting a postponement of the April 1 launch date. Acquirers face even more changes with VAMP than merchants do, with their ratio limit dropping from the current 1% to 0.5% at launch, then to 0.3% in 2026.

MRC’s Pushback & Visa’s Response

The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) gathered feedback from merchants, acquirers, issuers, and solution providers and presented these concerns to Visa on March 17.

Following further discussions, Visa announced that the advisory period would be extended until October 1, 2025, providing businesses additional time to adapt the the changes. Visa also expressed a willingness to make further adjustments if necessary based on continued industry feedback.

What This Means for Merchants

The extended advisory period offers merchants an opportunity to experiment with fraud prevention strategies and dispute management solutions to maintain a healthy VAMP ratio while minimizing costs. During this time, businesses can assess the effectiveness of various fraud prevention tools, chargeback mitigation tactics, and customer authentication methods to find the best approach for their specific operations.

Chargeback management companies such as Chargeback Gurus can assist in identifying the most effective strategies. These providers offer data-driven insights and tailored recommendations that help merchants refine their risk mitigation efforts and reduce their total cost of prevention. By working with experienced professionals, merchants can better navigate the complexities of VAMP and maintain compliance while optimizing their overall dispute management processes.

How VAMP Will Impact Merchants

With Visa’s acquirer threshold dropping to 0.3% in 2026, many acquirers will impose stricter requirements on merchants to ensure their overall portfolio remains compliant. Merchants who exceed these limits could face additional fees and fines, account reserve requirements, or event account termination in some cases.

Certain industries, such as e-commerce, travel, and digital goods, are at higher risk due to their elevated fraud rates. Merchants in these sectors must proactively enhance fraud prevention and chargeback management strategies.

How Merchants Can Prepare for VAMP

To ensure they're prepared to keep their VAMP ratios below 0.9%, merchants should leverage tools that prevent fraud and disputes, including:

• Order Insight to share additional order details with issuing banks that can prevent customers from disputing charges.

• Smart Prevention Alerts to preempt chargebacks by issuing refunds and prevent non-fraud disputes from counting against VAMP ratio.

• Fraud prevention tools such as AVS, CVV matching, 3D Secure 2.0, and risk scoring to prevent unauthorized transactions and reduce TC40 reports.

Working with Acquirers & Monitoring Ratios

Merchants should collaborate with their acquirers to understand any changes they might make or new requirements they might impose due to VAMP. Acquirers may implement stricter ratio limits or introduce additional compliance measures, making it essential for merchants to stay informed about plans for upcoming changes. Open communication with acquirers can help businesses adjust their fraud prevention strategies to align with evolving expectations.

Merchants can also work with third-party experts to help monitor and manage their VAMP ratio. Chargeback Gurus has already implemented VAMP ratio monitoring, allowing merchants to track their VAMP ratio for each MID and set up alerts when approaching critical thresholds. By leveraging these tools and expert guidance, businesses can take preemptive actions to mitigate risks and maintain compliance under the new program.

Conclusion

VAMP represents a significant shift in how Visa monitors fraud and chargeback activity. The change to how VAMP ratio is calculated has created new challenges, but the extended advisory period provides merchants with additional time to adapt.

As enforcement approaches, merchants must proactively optimize their fraud prevention and chargeback management strategies to maintain compliance. Collaboration with acquirers and expert guidance will be critical in navigating the evolving landscape of payment disputes.