#237 Why Having Low Chargebacks Is No Longer Enough to Keep Your Account Safe

About this episode

Maria Sparagis discusses why low chargebacks are no longer sufficient for account safety in ecommerce and what metrics merchants should monitor.

Your account can get flagged long before you ever hit a 1% chargeback rate. For years, 1% was treated like the magical chargeback threshold. As long as your business stayed under it, most merchants assumed their account was safe. But a lot of ecommerce brands are now finding out that low chargebacks alone won’t protect you from reserves, payout holds, or account reviews anymore. Payment processors are looking at a much broader picture of risk today — including refund rates, dispute activity, customer complaints, sudden spikes in volume, and overall account behavior. Even a small shift in your metrics can increase scrutiny, despite having a “healthy” chargeback ratio on paper. In this episode, Maria breaks down why the old 1% rule no longer tells the full story, what payment processors are actually monitoring behind the scenes, and why some businesses with low chargebacks still get flagged. She also covers the key risk metrics merchants should be tracking every month to reduce the chances of reserves, payment holds, or shutdowns. What metrics processors look at Early warning signs your account is at risk How to minimize chargebacks How to avoid account closures How to protect your…

People in this episode

Host: Maria Sparagis

Topics covered

• chargebacks
• payment processing
• risk management
• ecommerce
• account safety
• merchant accounts

Keywords

• chargeback rate
• payment processors
• risk metrics
• account reviews
• customer complaints
• refund rates
• payout holds

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal

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