VAMP ratio calculator

See your VAMP ratio and what it could cost

Enter four numbers to see your VAMP ratio, how close you are to Visa's 1.5% line, and whether the fee reaches you.

How we calculate this

Your numbers

Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Visa counts transactions, not dollars, so we turn your GMV into a monthly transaction count.

Assumption

Your VAMP ratio

0.90%

Below threshold
Under 1.2%, comfortably below Visa's 1.5% line.
Settled transactions a month
6,944
Counted events a month
63

Estimated Visa fee

Visa's direct fee doesn't apply at this volume.

Your acquirer may set lower limits, pass through fees, or require reserves. Check your agreement.

You can take 41 more counted events a month before you reach 1.5%.

The 1,500-event minimum applies. You'd reach it at a rate of 21.60%. Past both lines, the fee starts at about $12,000 a month (1,500 events × $8).

Estimate only. This is not a determination by Visa or your acquirer. Rules and fees may change. Last reviewed October 19, 2026.

Disputes arrive weeks after the sale and count in the month they're reported. A busy November's disputes can land in a quiet February. This keeps your monthly events and divides them by the lower volume.

Why your Black Friday fraud bill arrives in February

How we calculate this

  1. Monthly transactions

    Annual GMV ÷ 12 × your Visa card-not-present share ÷ average order value.

  2. Counted events

    Monthly transactions × your fraud-plus-dispute rate, less any excluded share.

  3. VAMP ratio

    Counted events ÷ settled transactions. Visa counts transactions, not dollars.

  4. Status

    Excessive needs both a ratio of 1.5% or more and 1,500 or more counted events in the same month.

  5. Fee

    Fee per event × counted events, for each Excessive month. The annual figure is the monthly fee × 12.

VAMP
The Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program. Since June 2025 it replaces Visa's separate fraud and dispute programs with one monthly ratio.
TC40
A fraud report the card issuer sends to Visa. It counts even if the cardholder never files a dispute.
TC15
A dispute (chargeback) record.

Why the fee rarely reaches mid-market merchants

At 1.5%, reaching 1,500 events takes about 100,000 settled Visa card-not-present transactions a month. At typical order values, a $5M to $20M merchant doesn't get there.

Highest average order value that still reaches the 1,500-event minimum at a 1.5% ratio, with all GMV on Visa card-not-present
Annual GMVHighest AOV that reaches 1,500 events
$5,000,000$4.17
$10,000,000$8.33
$20,000,000$16.67

At a 1.5% ratio with all GMV on Visa card-not-present.

The direct fee mostly reaches low order-value models: subscriptions, digital goods, and marketplaces. For everyone else, the risk sits with your acquirer: its own limits, pass-through fees, reserves, or ending the account.

What's verified and what's assumed

Last reviewed October 19, 2026. Rules and fees change, so check them with your acquirer before you act on a number.

From Visa's fact sheet

  • The ratio counts fraud reports (TC40) plus disputes (TC15), divided by settled transactions (TC05). It covers card-not-present Visa transactions, domestic and cross-border, effective June 1, 2025.
  • A merchant is Excessive at a ratio of 1.5% (150 basis points) or more in the U.S., Canada, the EU, and Asia Pacific. The line moved down from 2.2% on April 1, 2026.
  • A merchant also needs 1,500 or more counted fraud reports and disputes in the month. Both conditions must be met.
  • Disputes resolved through pre-dispute programs, and fraud reports that qualify for Compelling Evidence 3.0, are excluded, depending on when Visa pulls the data.
  • Acquirers are measured too: Above Standard at 0.5% and Excessive at 0.7%. Visa's merchant thresholds apply when the acquirer is under those limits. The document doesn't say which merchant rules apply otherwise.

Assumptions, not in Visa's document

  • $8 per counted event. Braintree and NMI report this fee at the Excessive level, as cited by Chargeflow. Visa doesn't publish fee amounts, and your acquirer decides what it passes on.
  • The fee applies to every counted event. Solidgate's Visa guide and Chargeflow's worked example both apply it to all counted events. You can switch to “only events above 1.5%” under fee assumptions.
  • No grace period by default. Solidgate describes no fee for the first three months; other sources don't mention one. Turn it on under fee assumptions to see year one without those months.
  • Events count in the month Visa receives them. This comes from processor guides, not Visa's fact sheet. It's why the seasonal stress test divides this month's events by a quieter month's volume.
  • 50% of GMV on Visa card-not-present. A placeholder. Your processor's card-brand report has the real share.
  • U.S. rules only. Other regions use different thresholds and minimums.

Sources

See your real ratio.

This page runs on estimates. In a demo, we'll walk through your actual fraud and dispute data and show where your ratio stands, month by month.

Keep reading: VAMP for Dummies · Why your Black Friday fraud bill arrives in February