17 Chargeback Protection Tools for Merchants

Chargebacks are a reversal of funds from a merchant to a customer, with banks returning money to a customer’s credit card, payment service like PayPal, or automated clearing house (ACH) account. Banks issue chargebacks when a purchase is fraudulently made or when customers forget or don’t recognize a charge on their statement, feel the product was substandard, were incorrectly billed, or failed to resolve an issue with the merchant themselves.

Best Standalone Chargeback Protection for Small Businesses

The best way to protect yourself from chargebacks is to prevent them. Nonetheless, even the best businesses experience some chargebacks, and having the right tools to deal with them can save you time and money. If you’re just starting out accepting payments, choosing the right merchant account can be really helpful in preventing chargebacks.

So, we also look at some popular processors that come with built-in chargeback programs:

• PayPal: Popular for online transactions
• Square: Merchant services for small brick and mortar and/or online businesses
• Stripe: Top payment processor for online startups
• Shopify: Popular ecommerce platform with built-in payments
• BlueSnap: Global payment processor for online B2B transactions
• Bolt: One-click checkout for online businesses

ClearSale: Best Overall Chargeback Protection

ClearSale is a chargeback protection system for online shopping carts and apps that prevents chargebacks by blocking fraudulent orders. Similar to Chargebacks911, it uses a blend of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) technology and manual review to identify fraudulent transactions. ClearSale AI scans each transaction, assigning a fraud score based on factors like order information, device, behavioral data, and more. If a transaction fails the fraud score, it’s then checked manually by ClearSale’s fraud experts. Blocking fraudulent transactions helps prevent chargebacks.

It offers a guarantee plan where it reimburses you for any missed frauds that result in chargebacks, or you can purchase the key performance indicator (KPI) plan, where you and ClearSale set KPIs, and you get a discount if ClearSale doesn’t meet them. The only other standalone chargeback tool on this list offering something similar is Signifyd which offers reimbursements for Item-Not-Received chargebacks.

ClearSale Integrations

ClearSale integrates with about a dozen ecommerce platforms, including Magento, Shopify, Oracle, and BigCommerce. It also offers an application programming interface (API) for custom integrations and a mobile software development kit (SDK) for Android and iOS app integrations.

ClearSale Customer Support

ClearSale has one of the most readily available customer support teams on this list, with 24/7 team members standing by to help solve technical issues. You can also reach support via phone, email, or contact form. User reviews on Trustpilot praise customer service. If you don’t need to reach out, you can also browse the knowledge base with tutorials, articles, podcasts, and webinars.

Verifi: Best for Total Dispute Management

Verifi (owned by Visa) works with both sellers and banks or payment processors that issue chargeback notifications. As such, it’s in a unique position to stave off chargebacks before they’re issued.

If you have Verifi, the issuing authority can access transaction details to validate sales—a common cause of chargebacks. Even more, it can give customers direct access to the details through the bank’s online or mobile applications.

Verifi also helps prevent chargebacks by sending fraud notifications as soon as they are confirmed by the bank or card authority. It can also send notices of stop payments so you can cancel orders or subscriptions accordingly. It reports lost or stolen Visa cards, so you can block these cards. Overall, Verifi claims businesses will experience up to a 42% reduction in dispute rates.

Verifi also offers managed representation. With this program, you get a reporting dashboard with KPIs and performance and business summaries to uncover weaknesses leading to chargebacks and track Verifi’s success in disputing chargebacks for you.

While all the companies on this list offer tools for helping to detect and prevent chargebacks, only a few, including Verifi, Chargeback Expertz, and Chargebacks911 offer full management and representation when chargebacks occur. Verifi’s comprehensive tools from initial transaction verification through managed representation make it ideal for merchants needing a total dispute management solution.

Verifi Integrations

In addition to working with Visa, Verifi integrates with payment processing services like Bank of America, Chase, BlueSnap, Vantiv, and Merchant Solutions. You’ll also note that other chargeback protection services integrate with it as well. However, other chargeback protection tools have more extensive integration lists, like Chargebacks911 for example.

Verifi Customer Support

Verifi offers customers support over the phone Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Pacific time, as well as online channels via live chat and a contact form. There’s also a library of online troubleshooting resources to help you get through straightforward issues.

Chargeback App: Best for Friendly Fraud and Transparent Pricing

Chargeback App automates disputes by populating a detailed response with the needed data from your transaction history. It uses an extensive rules and regulations database to determine the information and formatting that meets requirements and puts forth the best argument. It then submits the response automatically. This automated evidence compilation and chargeback response make Chargeback App a great option for combating friendly fraud with little effort.

In addition, Chargeback App can spot issues that are leading to chargeback requests, allowing you to prevent future issues. For example, if many customers don’t recognize charges from your business on their credit cards, you may want to change the description with your payment processor. It also provides real-time overviews and advanced reports for deeper examination.

However, Chargeback App is also notable for disclosing specific pricing information on its website – all the other standalone chargeback tools on this list offer custom or quote-based pricing. While it’s possible you’ll find a lower rate with another company, Chargeback App’s flat-rate model is great for small businesses that want transparent, predictable expenses.

Chargeback App Integrations

Chargeback App integrates with most payment technologies, including PayPal, Stripe, Vantiv, Authorize.Net, and Worldpay. It works with Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop, and offers an API for integrating into other software solutions.

Chargeback App Customer support

Chargeback App has a variety of self-serve support options, including FAQs, response templates, a knowledge base, e-books, guides, and reason codes. If you need further assistance, you can reach out via contact form.

Chargehound: Best for Automated Chargeback Response

Chargehound does not actively prevent fraudulent transactions. By securely accessing your transaction date and using its comprehensive set of templates, it sends automated responses to the bank as soon as a chargeback complaint is filed—before the fee gets charged.

Chargehound was recently acquired by PayPal, which sets it apart from other platforms on our list. While Chargehound will continue to support some other payment gateways, the support from PayPal allows it to offer more robust fraud solutions for the platform.

Chargehound’s dashboard lets you manage and analyze chargebacks. It offers fraud scoring and manual review options for more complex disputes. That way, you can craft a more appropriate response.

Chargehound Integrations

Currently works with Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, and Vantiv. Chargehound has plans to add Chase Paymentech, Adyen, Worldpay, Square, Authorize.Net as partners. It also offers API integration.

Chargehound Customer Support

While Chargehound doesn’t offer phone assistance, it has a designated email for support, as well as a FAQ page and online knowledge base.

Signifyd: Best for Ecommerce with Physical Products

Signifyd provides comprehensive fraud protection for ecommerce. It can identify anomalies like account takeovers, unauthorized resellers, and promotions abuse. You can create your own custom logic and automated responses to these attacks. Insights reporting analyzes your chargebacks to uncover trends and help you prevent friendly chargebacks. It handles shipping and offers a 100% reimbursement for Item-Not-Received chargebacks.

Signifyd is available in over 100 countries, which is much higher than most other chargeback protection companies. For reference, Visa’s Verifi works with just over 40. Users say it’s easy to use, flexible, and that the company is quick to refund for chargebacks based on fraud. However, it does not guarantee delivery of digital items.

Signifyd Integrations

Signifyd integrates with ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Shopify. You can also use a custom API.

Signifyd Customer Support

There are two troubleshooting options with Signifyd: contact form or their support portal. These are limited options compared to ClearSale’s 24/7 phone support.

ChargebackHelp: Best Chargeback Protection With Proprietary Gateway

Like Chargehound, ChargebackHelp is about resolving rather than preventing chargebacks. It provides you with the means to fight chargebacks easily and often before the bank issues the chargeback fee. It can provide information to customers who may have forgotten a purchase or send evidence to the bank to put the burden of proof on the customer. Finally, it can automatically refund customer money to resolve legitimate disputes, which it says cuts chargebacks by 40%.

You can resolve disputes yourself, have ChargebackHelp manage them, or automate the process. In addition, it provides a free chargeback analysis and helps high-risk merchants with getting accounts. It’s created its own gateway to reduce costs while providing fraud protection and built-in data capture.

ChargebackHelp Integrations

ChargebackHelp integrates with CRMs, payment gateways, and major card networks. It also has partnerships with Verifi, CDRN, and Ethoca.

ChargebackHelp Customer Support

ChargebackHelp customer support is more readily available than some other platforms. You can reach it via phone or email. There’s also a knowledge base and code guide.

Chargeback Gurus: Best for Chargeback Analysis and Money-Back Guarantee

Chargeback Gurus is another chargeback manager, similar to Verif that offers protection from transaction to dispute management. While it does not have an independent AI system to evaluate transactions, it does use 3D Secure 2.0 technology, which is the industry standard. Further, it does offer an in-depth analysis of chargebacks, provides alerts, and offers representation.

Chargeback Gurus claims a 50% prevention and a 70% win against chargebacks. It is the only chargeback manager with a 100% money-back guarantee. If you do not see your chargebacks declining and your income increasing, you can quit and get your money back.

Chargeback Gurus Integrations

Chargeback Gurus offers 66 integrations for payment processors, gateways, CRM, ecommerce, and more. Zendesk, Wells Fargo, Paysafe, HelloSign, FlexPay, Ethoca, Authorize.Net, and Converge Pay are just a few.

Chargeback Gurus Customer Support

You can reach Chargeback Gurus support via phone or help yourself with FAQs, e-books, and guides.

Chargebacks911: Best for Working With Affiliates

Chargebacks911 works with all industries, including high-risk merchants, but it’s the only one we found with a specific program for merchants working with affiliates. This chargeback management service combines technology and personalized analysis to evaluate affiliate marketing techniques to identify those that may intend to commit fraud.

As with Verifi, Chargebacks911 offers a number of dispute prevention tools, like providing chargeback alerts before they are officially filed, issuing immediate responses or refunds to prevent chargebacks, and providing representation in fighting a chargeback.

Chargebacks911 works with some two dozen industries and about 90 currencies to provide international coverage. In addition to ecommerce, travel, and digital industries, it has customizable programs for larger businesses, and solutions for financial institutions. It also offers a merchant account cost analysis to determine how you can reduce your credit card processing costs.

Chargebacks911 Integrations

This is another area where Chargebacks911 stands out. It integrates with 40 different CRM platforms. However, if yours is not one of them, it will set up a work-around until they can engineer a complete integration. Many other solutions have APIs, but Chargebacks911 is the only solution on our list that claims to offer this level of hands-on integration support.

Chargebacks911 Customer Support

Chargebacks911 offers support resources through its knowledge base and online guides. You can also reach them by submitting a contact request form online, or by email or phone—though hours of availability aren’t specified.

Chargeback Expertz: Best for B2B Transactions

Chargeback Expertz works with banks to detect fraud, sending you a real-time alert of a fraudulent transaction. It also provides chargeback analysis and representation to fight any chargebacks that get through. It claims a 74% win rate with a 45% reduction in chargebacks overall.

This chargeback management service has offices in the US and UK. It serves ecommerce, travel, retail, medical, and legal industries. It also serves B2B merchants—something not noted by other services on our list.

Chargeback Expertz Integrations

Chargeback Expertz has one of the more limited lists of third-party integrations, especially compared to Chargebacks911. Chargeback Expertz does, however, directly integrate with banks and merchant services.

Chargeback Expertz Customer Support

Chargeback Expertz offers phone support Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m.–6:30 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Eastern time. It’s also available through email or online contact form and has a resource glossary on its website. As with Kount, Chargeback Expertz occasionally holds live events as well.

Midigator: Best for Proactive Resolution

Midigator provides chargeback dispute tools to help you resolve issues before the fees are assessed. It analyzes hundreds of options for compelling evidence that can help you create a dispute package with a better chance of winning. Similar to Chargehound, Midigator has a platform where you can analyze your chargebacks. Here you can respond to alerts with refunds, stop-order fulfillments, subscription cancellations, or disputes. Midigator claims a 65% to 80% win rate on disputes.

Midigator can analyze early-indicator data and order information to identify issues that could cause future chargebacks.

Midigator Integrations

It integrates with Verifi and Ethoca to get alerts in real time and with systems like Stripe, Shopify, Authorize.Net, Worldpay, Paysafe, and others for transaction data.

Midigator Customer Support

Midigator has a help center that addresses common questions and concerns. It also offers an online resource center where you can view reports and tutorials, access a chargeback reason code directory, pull templates and sample documents, and more. You can also reach a support team member via email.

Kount: Best for Insurance Agents

While Kount is a great service for all areas of industry, it was the only chargeback management service we saw that specifically addressed the needs of insurance agents. Kount has several programs that attack chargebacks on multiple levels: preventing chargebacks, stopping malicious logins, analyzing chargebacks for patterns, and specialized services.

Kount offers a chargeback guarantee with 100% coverage of eligible fraud-related chargebacks or a KPI-performance guarantee. Users on G2 give it 4.8 out of 5 stars for effectiveness and customer service, although many mention the interface is more complex than they’d like.

Customers also report an average 83% reduction in manual reviews, 70% reduction in false positives, 99% reduction in chargebacks.

Kount Integrations

Kount partners with payment providers such as Chase, Sage, Braintree, and BlueSnap. It also integrates with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. It offers optional third-party subscriptions to data from Chargebacks911, Ekata, LexisNexis, and others.

Kount Customer Support

Kount users have access to a variety of customer support resources, more than many of the other options on this list. Phone support is available Monday through Friday (except holidays), 6 a.m.–6 p.m. Mountain time. It also offers email support and an online help center, as well as other tools like white papers, webinars, videos, and both live and virtual events.

Payment Services That Include Chargeback Protection

Not every business needs a separate chargeback management service. Some may offer too much for small businesses.

However, many merchant accounts, online payment providers, and ecommerce platforms offer some form of protection. It could be a cheaper alternative for getting the chargeback management services you need.

Here are a few examples of popular payment processors with built-in chargeback protection:

PayPal

While most chargeback protection services integrate with PayPal, it offers a simple program of its own, free of charge. PayPal will cover disputes due to unauthorized transactions and items not received. PayPal holds funds until issues are resolved and works with you on the investigation. This guarantee covers customers in 202 countries; however, it does not cover disputes concerning digital items or services not received.

Read our full PayPal review, or Visit PayPal for more information.

Visit PayPal

Square

Square provides free fraud monitoring and has a risk management program for 6 cents per online transaction, with a free 90-day trial. For fraud monitoring, it uses machine learning and payments across the Square system to seek the latest fraud trends and alert you accordingly. Square will work with your customer’s bank on disputed charges. Its risk management program includes alerts with blocking options, card blocking, custom rule creation, and analytics to spot trends leading to chargebacks in your business.

To learn more about Square’s fraud protection and other payment processing features, read our full Square Payments review, or visit Square to start a free account.

Visit Square

Stripe

Stripe offers chargeback protection for an additional 0.4% per transaction. Like Square, it uses machine learning to spot and block fraud. It covers online sales for digital and physical products for purchases around the world. Unlike other chargeback programs, if you get a chargeback, Stripe simply reimburses you the disputed amount and waives the dispute fees.

For more information on Stripe’s features and pricing, read our full Stripe review. Or, visit Stripe to create a free account.

Visit Stripe

Shopify

For US customers accepting online payments through Shopify, the ecommerce software will reimburse you for fraudulent chargebacks. It says it does this “for a small fee,” so talk to your representative for specific rates.

For more information on Shopify’s features and pricing, read our full Shopify review.

Visit Shopify

BlueSnap

BlueSnap is a payment platform with chargeback control. It offers self-service and full-service options. BlueSnap uses Chargebacks911 tools and works with Verifi and other chargeback services to help you automate responses and eliminate merchant issues that lead to chargebacks. Plans start at 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction with a monthly fee if the processing is less than $2,500 per month.

Visit BlueSnap

Bolt

Bolt’s checkout process flags potential fraud but leaves final approval to you. Bolt also helps submit evidence against chargebacks and covers transactions where a cardholder did not give authorization such as with lost or stolen cards. For other transactions, merchants are responsible for the payment amount, plus $15 dispute fees levied by the card network.

Bolt users praise the simple checkout process and say customer service is quick and helpful. They also like that the platform is always improving.

Visit Bolt

Bottom Line

Chargebacks drain your profits, not only through lost products and revenue but in chargeback fees. Chargebacks stem from fraudulent charges, as well as merchant error, charges forgotten by a customer, and lost packages. If this is an issue for you, a good chargeback protection service like ClearSale can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars.