Visa and Mastercard publish the thresholds. Most processors in this category summarise them as "advanced chargeback protection". Below are the actual figures, the dates they changed, our own portfolio ratio measured the same way, and the controls we use to stay under them.
Monitoring thresholds and where we sit
Thresholds are set by the card networks and are subject to change without notice; figures shown are current as at 1 August 2026. Visa VAMP merchant excessive moved from 2.20% to 1.50% on 1 April 2026 and now combines TC40 fraud with TC15 non-fraud disputes into a single ratio with no early-warning tier. Our portfolio figure is a rolling 90-day calculation across every live MID using the same formula, restated on the first business day of each month.
Five mechanisms, each of which removes disputes from a specific stage of the lifecycle. None of them is "bank-level security".
Ethoca and Verifi CDRN enrolment across every MID. An alert can trigger an automatic refund inside the 24-hour window, which stops the item ever entering your TC15 count. You set the value above which a human decides instead.
EMV 3DS 2.3 with challenges triggered by ticket value, BIN country, cardholder velocity or first-time card. Liability shifts on a successful challenge. PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication is applied automatically for EEA and UK cardholders.
The 25 characters the cardholder reads on their statement, set per MID, carrying a recognisable trading name and your support number, and test-charged before launch. Unrecognised descriptors generate more TC15 disputes in dropshipping than any other single cause.
Tracking pushed from your store at dispatch is stored against the transaction record. When a dispute arrives, the delivery evidence, the terms accepted at checkout and the disclosed delivery window are already in the package.
Compelling-evidence packages assembled and submitted inside the network deadline, with outcomes reported back weekly so you can see which dispute reason codes you are actually losing and change the operational cause.
Published, not disclosed after application. If your catalogue includes any of the below, we will decline and tell you why on the same day rather than waste a week of yours.
Replica branded goods, unauthorised reproductions and any listing that trades on a mark you do not hold a licence for. Non-negotiable across every sponsor on our panel.
Prescription medicines without a verified pharmacy licence, research chemicals, nootropic grey-market imports and anything requiring a prescription in the destination market.
Investment schemes, forex or binary signals, unlicensed money transmission, and any product promising a financial return without the registration the destination regulator requires.
Any entity, owner or destination captured by OFAC, UN, EU or UK sanctions. Screening runs at application and continuously thereafter, and a hit ends the relationship immediately.
Forced continuity, undisclosed trial-to-paid conversions, fake countdown scarcity and claims that cannot be substantiated. These generate disputes faster than any control can absorb them.
Age-restricted categories are outside our dropshipping programme. Some are boardable on specialist panels; we will refer you rather than string the application along.
Answer these to your acquirer with our documentation attached rather than in your own words.
Attestation of Compliance, DPA, sub-processor list and incident policy, sent within one business day.
compliance@meridianrails.comMeridian Rails Payments, LLC is a registered ISO/MSP of Harbor Point Bank, N.A., Wilmington, Delaware. Merchant accounts are issued by the sponsoring bank, not by Meridian Rails. We are not a bank, we do not take deposits and we do not hold merchant funds. Settlement is made by the sponsoring bank to the account named on your application, and any rolling reserve is withheld and held by that bank.
Approvals, discount rates, reserve percentages, hold periods, step-down terms and settlement schedules are determined at underwriting and disclosed in the merchant agreement before signature. Figures quoted anywhere on this site are portfolio-level or illustrative and are not an offer, a quotation or a prediction of the terms you will be offered.
Card-scheme monitoring thresholds are set by Visa and Mastercard and are subject to change without notice. As at 1 August 2026, the Visa VAMP merchant excessive threshold is 1.50% effective from 1 April 2026 combining TC40 fraud with TC15 non-fraud disputes with no early-warning tier, and Mastercard ECM is 1.50% with 100 or more disputes in a calendar month. Verify current values with the schemes before relying on them.
All applicants are subject to KYB, KYC, AML and OFAC sanctions screening at application and continuously thereafter. We do not board any business on our published prohibited and restricted list. Data is processed under a GDPR and UK GDPR compliant Data Processing Addendum with EEA and UK cardholder data held in EU data centres.
No approval is guaranteed and no processing rate is guaranteed. We make no claim to accept merchants listed on MATCH; a listing is removable only by the acquirer that made it.
Reserve terms
Where a rolling reserve applies it typically runs 5–10% held for 180 days with a step-down review at month six. The applicable figures are set by the sponsoring bank at underwriting and are stated in your merchant agreement. This is a description of typical terms, not a promise of terms.
How underwriting worksMATCH listings
A MATCH listing is entered by the terminating acquirer under a reason code and persists for five years. Only that acquirer can remove it, and only where it was made in error or the condition is cured. We will help you draft the removal request; we do not sell MATCH acceptance.
Read the detailComplaints and escalation
complaints@meridianrails.com or +1 (302) 555-0148. Acknowledged in writing within two business days and answered substantively within fifteen. Unresolved matters escalate to the compliance officer of the sponsoring bank.
Contact the desk