Chargeback protection services help companies of all sizes spot potential credit card fraud and prevent chargeback losses. We looked at the most popular options and rising stars and decided to review Signifyd, Square, and Chargeback Gurus. These companies covered the range of options for small businesses in terms of cost, ease of use and effectiveness.
Best Chargeback Protection Service for Ecommerce Businesses: Signifyd
We recommend Signifyd as the best chargeback protection service for small businesses because they’re the only service that offers ecommerce sellers a 100 percent chargeback guarantee without limits. If you get a chargeback on an approved order, large or small, US or international, Signifyd covers it 100 percent. Period. They’re also the only service with a low-cost on-demand coverage plan geared for small ecommerce sellers and startups.
Signifyd vs. Square vs. Chargeback Gurus Summary Table
| Who it’s Best For | |||
Pricing Learn More | |||
Ease of Setup/Use Learn More | |||
Features Learn More | |||
Integrations Learn More | |||
Customer Support Learn More | |||
| Website |
Square
Chargeback GurusBest Chargeback Protection Service for Ecommerce Businesses: Signifyd
We recommend Signifyd as the best chargeback protection service for small businesses because it backs every approved order with a 100% chargeback guarantee, without limits. If you receive a fraud-related chargeback on any approved order, large or small, US or international, Signifyd covers the value 100%. Plus, the payout is made within 2 business days. Unlike Square, which has a $250 limit on order value and total coverage per month, Signifyd has no value or monthly restrictions. And unlike Chargeback Gurus, any ecommerce business can protect themselves using Signifyd’s services from day one, instead of waiting until they face chargeback losses.
Signifyd’s focus is solely online. If you need chargeback protection for transactions like invoice payments or in-store sales, Square and Chargeback Guru are better suited to those needs. But if you’re an online business, Signifyd has you covered with a PCI-compliant system that integrates with your ecommerce platform. Within minutes, it can be set up to run every transaction you receive through a proprietary verification system that’s far more intensive than standard credit card authorization.
After verifying key data points, Signifyd places a fraud score on every transaction you process. If they give it the green light, it’s guaranteed 100% and you’re covered. Square’s chargeback protection has a similar guarantee, but it limits coverage to $250 per month and doesn’t cover transactions over $250 at all. Signifyd tops this with no monthly or transaction value limits. Chargeback Guru is a different solution entirely. It helps you minimize chargebacks and fights both fraud and non-fraud chargebacks on your behalf to recover funds, but offers no guarantee.
Of course, Signifyd’s service comes at a price, but it offers 2 simple, percentage-based pricing options that are accessible to sellers of any size. Complete Coverage assesses a 1% fee to every approved transaction, but you don’t pay the fee on declined transactions. But over time, 1% of every order adds up. So, you can select On-demand Coverage which charges a higher 4% fee, but only on transactions that you want verified and guaranteed. This is a good option for small sellers who just want coverage on international orders or sales over a certain value.
In contrast, Square’s chargeback protection is totally free, but remember that Square has a $250 limit. Chargeback Gurus, being mainly a prevention and recovery service, bases its fees off your overall chargeback volume. If you don’t have a problem yet, you don’t need their chargeback recovery service. If you want to prevent ecommerce chargeback problems before they start, or insure against fraud as you expand into international or large-ticket sales, Signifyd, quite literally, has you covered 100%.
Best Chargeback Protection for Small In-Store & Online Sellers: Square
Square’s free chargeback protection is one of the many reasons we recommend Square payments as a top small business payments solution. With Square, you get free chargeback protection up to $250 per month, and $250 per transaction on sales made using any of Square’s payment options. This means in-store, mobile, and online sales, plus payments for invoices, recurring charges, and more are all covered. As long as you follow their payment best practices, you’re covered on a full range of eligible payments with no added costs.
For most small businesses, Square’s $250 limit more than covers the occasional chargeback, but it’s important to note that transactions over $250 aren’t covered, period. Because of Square’s $250 limit, Signifyd can be the better choice for online sellers needing protection on volume sales, high-value goods, or international sales. Though, Signifyd’s service comes with added costs and is for online sales only. Like Square, Chargeback Gurus’ service covers online, in-store, and service payments. But, it’s really geared toward larger sellers already dealing with chargebacks in some volume.
One nice feature of Square’s free chargeback protection their convenient in-dashboard chargeback management portal. If a customer opens up a dispute, you’re notified within your Square dashboard, not via regular mail. Then, you simply submit your response and all supporting documentation using Square’s convenient online dispute screen. This is a big time-saver compared to handling and tracking chargebacks manually via fax and email.
Square’s online system ensures that your claim is submitted properly, but once submitted, it’s really out of your hands. Here, Chargeback Gurus’ service excels by comparison since they actively fight both fraud and non-fraud disputes on your behalf. But, for fraud transactions under $250 and as long as you haven’t maxed out your monthly $250 limit, Square has you covered for free.
Best Chargeback Protection Service for Volume & High-Risk Businesses: Chargeback Gurus
Chargeback Gurus’ chargeback prevention service differs greatly from the chargeback protection that Square and Signifyd offer. Chargeback Guru provides clients hands-on chargeback representation and works to both recover funds and minimize a business’s exposure to disputes of all kinds. In comparison, our Signifyd and Square cover your losses on fraudulent chargebacks, but that’s about it.
Chargeback Gurus is more than fraud insurance. Like our other top picks, they handle fraud disputes, but also fight the many non-fraud causes of chargebacks. They fight disputes where customers don’t recall a sale, can’t locate a package, or don’t want to bother with a return. Plus they deal with disputes based on delivery dates not clearly communicated, contract agreements not fully defined, and products or services that don’t meet expectations.
Unlike Signifyd and Square, Chargeback Gurus works hand-in-hand with clients to pinpoint the many factors that can lead to both fraud and non-fraud chargebacks. Compared to Signifyd and Square, which connect and work through online means, Chargeback Gurus has a full suite of personal services tailored to solve chargeback issues however and wherever you sell. Using their full suite of services, they win on average 65% of client chargebacks, plus lower chargeback occurrence by an average of 50%.
Chargeback Gurus’ service costs are needs-based and not published, so a direct cost comparison to Signifyd can’t be made. They’re obviously more expensive than Square’s free coverage, though. Chargeback Gurus’ fees usually are based on overall chargeback volume because they take a percentage of what you recover. But for a fee, they also help small sellers define best practices and remedy workflow and system problems in the early stages, before they start causing chargebacks.
In-Depth Review: Signifyd vs. Square vs. Chargeback Gurus
Pricing
Pricing for chargeback protection and prevention services varies based on the type of service needed. Some, like Signifyd, charge a percentage of each transaction. Others, like Chargeback Gurus are needs-based per account. Then there are the free options, like the limited coverage that’s included at no cost with each Square account. The best option really depends on the type of service your business needs.
Ease of Setup & Use
Chargeback protection services work in different ways, so setup needs vary. We looked at what is required to initiate the service and how easy it is to respond to or report disputes when they occur. Again, the best option for you really depends on the type of chargeback protection and prevention service your business needs.
Features
Chargeback protection and prevention solutions come in two different types of services. Signifyd and Square essentially insure sellers against outright fraud. These are cases where the buyer is not who they say they are, and credit card data usually is stolen. These services employ added verification to each transaction and cover you financially when a fraudulent order slips through.
In contrast, Chargeback Gurus helps you recover losses on all types of chargebacks, both for fraudulent and non-fraud reasons. They don’t provide the blanket insurance on transactions like Signifyd and Square, but have a far larger set of services that help businesses recover disputed funds, plus tools to help minimize all types of chargebacks.
Integrations
Signifyd focuses on ecommerce sellers and its plug-and-play apps for top carts and API for others takes just minutes to install. Square’s chargeback protection needs no integration since it’s included in every account. Chargeback Gurus has a team of experts to handle any needed integrations.
Customer Support
All three of our top picks offer phone, email, and online service. But, of the three, only Chargeback Gurus has a published phone number that you can call an instantly reach their service.
All Chargeback Protection Service Options
| Software/Service Name | Best For | Description |
|---|---|---|
| All ecommerce | Best for ecommerce sellers of all sizes | |
| Small Retailers, Ecommerce & Service Business | Free protection $250 per month/transaction | |
| Midsize Retailers, Ecommerce & Service Business | Fights and helps prevent chargebacks | |
| All ecommerce | Service similar to Signifyd, but pricing not published | |
| Small & Midsized Sellers | Fights chargebacks, $250/mo. chargeback value minimum | |
| Midsized Sellers | Fights chargebacks, $500/mo. average chargeback value minimum | |
| Midsized Sellers | Monitors all types of fraud, $500/mo. minimum | |
| Midsized Sellers | Fights chargebacks, $500/mo. average chargeback value minimum |
Bottom Line: Best Chargeback Protection Services
Chargebacks are the bane of every business that accepts credit cards and ecommerce sellers are especially vulnerable to serious losses from fraudulent sales. We found Signifyd’s versatile pricing system to be the best solution to help ecommerce sellers or all sizes ensure that every order shipped is profitable, even high-value and international orders. Square offers built-in protection with every account, but with a $250 limit, it’s not right for volume sellers or larger retailers. Chargeback Gurus is the solution for any business or service provider that deals with a number of chargebacks and wants to fight and reduce them overall.
To learn more about protecting your business from chargeback losses, read our chargeback prevention guide. And if you have any experience with or questions about the services covered above, please share in the comments below.
Don
While I applaud your efforts to apply your niche knowledge combined with feedback collected from “as many providers of this service as possible” during a single conference, you have done yourself a disfavor in selecting a click-bait headline and then following it up with a limited variety of providers. I Have worked in the fraud space for years as a small business owner and consultant. I can assure you that, in your haste you have overlooked many options which are not only competitive with these companies but in many cases superior. A journalists responsibility goes far beyond limited personal experience and a single event. Why not simply use the headline, “Best chargeback vendors attending IRCE”? OR “Best chargeback vendors I’ve experienced”? I suppose you wouldn’t get the clicks without sensationalizing your efforts as you have.
Krista Fabregas
Hello Don,
I appreciate your reading and commenting. We’re comparing 3 top-rated services and stating the types of companies that can benefit from each service. Nowhere do we say these are all of the options in the market. In fact, we list many more providers at the end of the article so our readers have a good list of services to check out.
In this piece, we explain what these services do for clients, and compare how these 3 different companies service various chargeback protection needs. We chose these services based on a combination of my 15+ years in international ecommerce sales, interviews, online reviews from users, and other in-depth research.
I hope this clarifies how we choose the companies that we covered here. I’d love to hear the companies that you recommend to your clients in your work as a fraud space consultant and specialist. Any favorites I should review for our next update? Always on the lookout for a good service that our readers might find useful.
Cheers,
Krista
Don
You would make a great diplomat Krista.
I’m simply stating that your headline is doing your journalism a disservice.
“In-depth research”?
If you had researched the current path card brands are on to help reduce both alerts and chargebacks beginning in Q2 with VISA and Q4 with MC, your audience would be benefiting tremendously. Unfortunately you make no mention of that in your article. That’s unfortunate because these changes are designed to shorten a tedious process in favor of merchants. To suggest most of these companies whom, quite frankly are ill prepared for the coming change, as places for your readership to migrate their business toward without considering that fact, is unfortunate.
What chargeback company do VISA, MC….etc feel are best prepared for the future?
What chargeback company do Ethoca and Verifi recommend for your audience?
Those answers would provide you with far grater forward looking insight than the 15+ years of your individual past experience, a single trade show visit or your research (unmentioned until now). If you researched and spoke to these CB companies and they didn’t mention those pending changes, that’s a red flag.
You are recommending FUTURE partners for your readership not those that have had success in the past. The near FUTURE of alerts and chargebacks already looks very different than the landscape of today and it will require innovation to keep up.
Which company is innovative enough to command a full utilization of these new strategies by the card brands in order to help their clients reduce fraud? Most will resist this change because it WILL reduce fraud and thus, their revenue which they hold more dear than their relationships.
It’s 2018, the days of having low income workers in cubicles domestically or off shore, manually processing your chargebacks are a thing of the past. These new card brand strategies will push the chargeback management market into a new future.
Which company will reward its clients in that future?
The “companies I recommend to my clients” wouldn’t ever let you go without informing you of the above information Krista. I’m not here to hand over my years of research to you, I make a living from it.
Perhaps look into that and do a follow up piece.
Krista Fabregas
Hi Don,
Whew! I think you’re missing the point in your focus to prove that you know more than I do – which I would expect since you are a pro in this field, and I a mere founder and day-to-day manager of a $1M+ niche ecommerce company. My goal here is to distill the services available to small business owners so they don’t have to devote hours to becoming experts in this arena. That’s what you and these companies are for — and why you’re in business.
This article covers a range of different chargeback solutions that small businesses can turn to. Remember, we focus on solutions for small businesses and startups which are generally those trying to operate with few staffers and relying on outsourcing for specific expertise, like chargebacks. We’re not delving into the murky depths of how processors work in the arena, that’s what you and these companies do for clients.
Sounds like your hands-on consultancy services are in-line with what Chargeback Guru offers to small businesses. Like you, they offer consultancy services along with their total account oversight to help business owners minimize exposure and protect themselves from chargeback losses. If you want to interview and discuss the services you offer small businesses within this sphere, I’d be happy to consider your company among the contenders for our next update to this article.
Now if you’d like an interview, I can email you to set one up. Just let me know.
Cheers!
Krista
Someone who calls out your bs
Nice piece comparing the best the market has to offer.
Wonder if these companies realized how priceless was this marketing stunt. Or maybe they have invoices for it?
Krista Fabregas
Sorry, Charlie, no BS here! I ran an ecommerce company for 16+ years and dealt with many chargebacks over the years. I personally know what a pain they can be and instituted several ways to prevent them. Early on it was via time-consuming manual follow up and our own judgment. In later years via service providers like the ones I covered above (plus, I used Square myself for mobile sales for my t-shirt company and even benefitted from their chargeback protection).
So, when I was invited to attend the IRCE (major internet retailer conference) as a member of the press last summer, I made it a point to talk to as many providers of this service as possible. Because I know in my own business, selectively guaranteeing high-risk purchases (over $500, and $250+ Canadian, USVI, PR buys) with a chargeback service saved me quite a bit since it helped flag some fraudulent transactions. Too many small businesses don’t know enough about the chargeback problem until it’s too late, or even know there is help available.
So, while I agree that too many content sites rely solely on paid mentions (I see from your email/web domain that is your focus), rest assured that I have editorial control here (wouldn’t work here otherwise). I include the systems that I find offer the best deals for small businesses, based on my many years as a small business owner.
Cheers!
Krista