Visa’s VAMP Program: What It Means for Merchants in 2025

The way processors and Visa measure fraud and disputes is changing — and how you used to calculate chargebacks no longer matters.

Starting April 1, 2025, Visa launched the enhanced Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), fundamentally changing how chargebacks and fraud are monitored.

Instead of looking at fraud and dispute data separately, Visa now combines both fraud alerts (TC40s) and non-fraud disputes (TC15) into a single metric for card-not-present transactions. This shift means merchants will need to rethink how they monitor and manage risk.

Table of Contents

• What’s Changing in the VAMP Program?
• Why This Matters for Merchants
• What Is the VAMP Ratio?
• How to Protect Your Business
• What’s Next?
• Bottom Line

What’s Changing?

Visa is consolidating and enhancing its risk monitoring framework:

• Program Consolidation: The Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP) and Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP) were discontinued as of March 31, 2025, and incorporated into VAMP.
• Updated Fraud & Dispute Metrics: Visa introduced a transaction count-based metric for card-not-present (CNP) transactions, which now includes:
  • Fraud Alerts (TC40)
  • Non-fraud Disputes (TC15) with Dispute Condition Codes 11, 12, and 13
• Enhanced Enumeration Monitoring: Visa’s Account Attack Intelligence (VAAI) model will introduce new criteria to detect and address enumeration attacks. Risk-based enforcement will replace non-compliance assessments.

Important: RDR (Rapid Dispute Resolution) disputes will not count toward the VAMP Ratio.

Why This Matters for Merchants

This update is part of Visa’s broader effort to tighten risk controls. Visa plans to lower the acquirer risk threshold from 1% to 0.3% by 2026.

If you’re in a high-risk industry — like e-commerce, coaching, supplements, or digital products — this change could significantly impact your business. Acquirers may apply stricter fraud and dispute thresholds to merchants, even lower than Visa’s published limits, to protect their overall portfolio.

What Is the VAMP Ratio?

The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) is Visa’s tool to monitor and manage fraud and disputes across the payments ecosystem. It consolidates three previous programs:

• Visa Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP)
• Visa Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP)
• Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP)

Under the enhanced program, Visa will track two key metrics:

VAMP Ratio

The new VAMP Ratio is calculated as:

VAMP Ratio = (Number of CNP fraud alerts [TC40] + Number of CNP non-fraud disputes [TC15, Dispute Condition Codes 11, 12, 13]) ÷ Number of settled CNP transactions [TC05]

RDR disputes will be excluded from the VAMP Ratio.

VAMP Enumeration Ratio

This ratio will track enumeration (card testing) activity:

VAMP Enumeration Ratio = Number of CNP enumerated authorization transactions (approved + declined) ÷ Number of CNP authorization transactions (approved + declined)

If you exceed Visa’s thresholds, you could face a three-month grace period to fix the issue without penalties. After that, penalties per dispute or fraudulent activity will apply until your ratio drops back below the limit.

Visa’s updated thresholds for the EU and North America:

How to Protect Your Business

Here’s how you can stay compliant and avoid fees:

1. Monitor Your VAMP Ratio: Stay on top of your fraud and dispute metrics regularly. Don’t wait until Visa or your processor flags you — be proactive.
2. Strengthen Your Fraud Prevention Tools: Easy Pay Direct clients have access to advanced fraud management solutions, including:
   • RDR: Still excludes non-fraud disputes from VAMP calculations.
   • CDRN/Ethoca Alerts: Helps prevent disputes before they escalate.
   • Easy Pay Direct Fraud Protection: Reduces enumeration attacks and provides visibility into risk metrics without hurting sales.
3. Improve Your Product & Customer Experience: Make sure customers clearly understand what they’re buying, your policies, and how to contact you before disputing a charge.
4. For Subscription Merchants — Follow Visa’s Rules: Ensure clear refund, cancellation, and subscription policies; make your Terms of Service accessible; and send detailed transaction receipts after every payment.

What’s Next?

Visa’s changes will roll out in two phases:

• April 1, 2025: VAMP launches, consolidating VDMP and VFMP into a single program. The new VAMP Ratio will apply, combining TC40 fraud alerts and TC15 non-fraud disputes for CNP transactions. RDR disputes will be excluded.
• January 1, 2026: Visa will lower merchant risk thresholds to 0.9%.

If you exceed Visa’s limits, you’ll have a three-month grace period to bring your ratios back in line. If not, enforcement fees will apply until the issue is resolved.

Bottom Line

Visa’s new rules raise the bar for fraud prevention — and failing to adapt could cost you. At Easy Pay Direct, we’re committed to helping our merchants navigate these changes and stay ahead of risk.

If you’re unsure how these changes could affect your business, contact our team today. We’ll help you review your current fraud metrics and put the right tools in place to protect your business.