Visa VAMP & Mastercard Monitoring Checker for Merchants
This one is for sellers and merchants, not cardholders. A ratio alone never tells you which program catches you — Visa VAMP, Mastercard ECM/HECM, or the signal-based SMMP that ignores ratios entirely — and each one does something different to you next. Enter one month's figures and this checker names the program(s) that trip, the ones that do not, and the next step in each. If you only want the ratio itself, use the Chargeback Ratio Calculator — this tool answers a different question.
Framework checked October 27, 2026 — every threshold below is taken from the sources named on this page. Visa VAMP and Mastercard ECM/HECM figures match this site's own ratio pages and independent program guides; SMMP figures are signal rules, not ratios; GMAP figures come only from acquirer/provider summaries of an acquirer-only bulletin and are labelled "confirm with your acquirer" wherever they appear. Network rulebooks are not public, and your processor's limits may be stricter than any network line.
Which monitoring program trips?
Everything is counted in your browser and never sent anywhere. This checker asks for no card numbers, account numbers or merchant IDs — never enter those into any checker.
Visa counts these in the VAMP numerator alongside disputes — including reports that never became chargebacks.
For Mastercard, the tool uses fraud reports + non-fraud disputes as its chargeback count — an upper-bound check, because Mastercard counts first-presentment chargebacks and some fraud reports may never have become chargebacks. Confirm with your acquirer's own count.
Visa's denominator is the same month's settled card-not-present transactions. Mastercard's official denominator is last month's transactions — enter it below if you have it.
Leave blank and the Mastercard ratio is a same-month estimate, labelled as such. Enter it and the Mastercard ratio uses Mastercard's official method.
Refunds AND chargebacks added together — a harder number than a chargeback ratio alone. Leave blank if you do not track it; the SMMP 5% signal then cannot be checked and the result says so.
The SMMP 5% signal needs at least 500 transactions in the window. Without this count, a rate above 5% is reported as unconfirmed, never as a trip.
Example: approval falling from 90% to 35% is a 55-point drop. The SMMP collapse test is a drop of 50 points or more, or a rate falling below 30%.
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The programs, in one view
Ratio programs trip on two conditions; SMMP trips on signals
The mistake that costs merchants the most is treating all four programs as one kind of thing. They are not. VAMP and ECM/HECM are ratio programs: a ratio line plus a count gate, both in the same month, with fines that start later and escalate, and a remediation plan. SMMP is an investigation program: a signal starts a 72-hour clock, and a confirmed case ends processing immediately, with no fines and no plan. GMAP is the future shape of Mastercard's ratio programs from April 2027. This checker keeps the three shapes apart on purpose.
Program
Trips when
What happens next
Visa VAMP — Excessive (since Apr 1, 2026)
Ratio (TC40 + TC15) / settled transactions at 1.5% or more AND 1,500+ fraud reports + disputes in the month
Acquirer remediation plan; per-dispute assessments for excessive merchants; monthly review. Confirm the schedule with your acquirer.
Mastercard ECM
100+ chargebacks AND ratio 1.5% or more in the same month (ratio: this month's chargebacks / last month's transactions)
Assessments generally start in the second month and escalate; exit generally takes three consecutive months under the thresholds.
Mastercard HECM
300+ chargebacks AND ratio 3.0% or more in the same month
The severe ECM tier, with a heavier assessment pattern plus issuer recovery on chargebacks above 300. Confirm the schedule with your acquirer.
Mastercard SMMP (enforced since Jul 24, 2026)
Signals, not ratios: new merchants (6 months or less) with refunds + chargebacks above 5% over 30 days and 500+ transactions; any merchant with an authorization collapse (50+ points, or below 30%, over 72 hours with 25+ transactions); a GRIP letter; an approved monitoring-provider alert
Acquirer investigates within 72 hours. Confirmed scam activity ends Mastercard/Maestro processing immediately — no fines, no remediation window.
Mastercard GMAP (from Apr 1, 2027 — confirm with your acquirer)
ECM floor tightens: 1.5% in 2027–2028, 1.3% in 2029, 1.1% in 2030, 0.9% in 2031; 100-chargeback minimum unchanged; HECM stays at 300 and 3.0%
From acquirer/provider summaries of bulletin GLB 14127.1 (Jul 28, 2026, acquirer-only, not public). Confirm with your acquirer before planning around any GMAP figure.
Two cautions sit under every row. First, winning disputes does not lower a monitoring ratio: networks count disputes as filed, and Mastercard counts first-presentment chargebacks regardless of representment outcomes. Prevention — descriptors, pre-chargeback alerts, painless cancellation — is what moves the ratio; fighting cases recovers revenue. Second, these are the networks' lines. Your acquirer or processor can set stricter limits in your merchant agreement and act on your account before any network tier trips.
Want the full story, with the sources?
The companion article works through VAMP, ECM/HECM, SMMP and GMAP program by program — what each counts, what trips it, what happens inside it, and how a merchant gets out — each claim tied to its source, with every GMAP figure labelled as an acquirer-summary figure to confirm. Read it here: Merchant monitoring programs explained: VAMP, ECM, SMMP and GMAP.
Since April 1, 2026, a merchant in the US, EU, Asia-Pacific or Latin America group trips Visa VAMP Excessive when its ratio of TC40 fraud reports plus TC15 non-fraud disputes to settled card-not-present transactions reaches 1.5% and the merchant has at least 1,500 fraud reports and disputes in the month. Both conditions must hold in the same month.
ECM trips at 100 or more chargebacks in a month with a chargeback-to-transaction ratio of 1.5% or more; HECM, the severe tier, at 300 or more chargebacks and 3.0% or more. Mastercard's ratio divides this month's first-presentment chargebacks by last month's transactions, so a sales dip raises the official ratio a month later.
Yes. SMMP, enforced since July 24, 2026, is signal-based, not ratio-based. It investigates scam signals — for merchants in their first 6 months, a combined refund-and-chargeback rate above 5% over a rolling 30 days with at least 500 transactions, and for all merchants, an authorization approval collapse — and a confirmed case ends in immediate termination, with no fines and no remediation window. A GRIP letter or an approved monitoring-provider alert starts the same 72-hour investigation.
The Global Merchant Audit Program replaces the Acquirer Chargeback Monitoring Program on April 1, 2027. Its bulletin (GLB 14127.1, July 28, 2026) is acquirer-only and not public, so the figures on this page — ECM floors of 1.5% in 2027–2028, 1.3% in 2029, 1.1% in 2030 and 0.9% in 2031, with the 100-chargeback minimum unchanged — come from acquirer and provider summaries and must be confirmed with your acquirer.
Sources (checked October 27, 2026): This site's chargeback-ratio-calculator.html and guides/chargeback-ratio-explained.html (VAMP 1.5% / 1,500, ECM 1.5% / 100+, HECM 3% / 300+, same-month vs lagged measurement months); Chargeflow — Visa VAMP rules guide (1.5% from Apr 1, 2026, 1,500 events, TC40 + TC15, acquirer tiers 0.5% / 0.7%) and Mastercard Excessive Chargeback Program guide (ECM / HECM, EFM four criteria, SMMP enforced Jul 24, 2026, GMAP from Apr 1, 2027 with the ECM floor steps); Chargeback.io — Mastercard Chargeback Monitoring Program guide (ECM 100+ / 1.5%, HECM 300+ / 3%, $5 issuer recovery above 300, fines from month two, three-month exit) and Mastercard Chargeback Guide (EFM criteria); Dodo Payments — Visa VAMP Explained (1.5% from Apr 1, 2026, 1,500 events, US / Canada / Europe / Asia-Pacific / Latin America); Chargebacks911 — Mastercard Scam Merchant Monitoring Program guide (5% signal limited to merchants under 6 months with 500+ transactions, 72-hour investigation, immediate termination on confirmation, no fines); The Payments Edge — Mastercard SMMP guide (authorization collapse: 25+ transactions in 72 hours, 50+ point drop or below 30%, GRIP and MMSP signals, new-merchant triggers); Slyce360 — Mastercard GMAP Explained (bulletin GLB 14127.1, Jul 28, 2026, on Mastercard Connect, acquirer-only; ECM floor steps; HECM unchanged). Network rulebooks are not public; figures are as published by program guides, processors and acquirer summaries, and can change.
General information only — not legal or financial advice. Whether a program trips depends on your acquirer's own counts and your merchant agreement, which no checker can see. This checker applies the published rules to the figures you entered. Never enter a card number, account number or merchant ID into any checker — no genuine program check needs them.
Chargeback Clock