Chargeback Ratio Speedometer

The Chargeback Ratio Speedometer is the headline chargeback widget on the TrustLens Dashboard. It shows your store’s blended monthly chargeback ratio against the lowest applicable card-network monitoring threshold, with a three-state status indicator: healthy, approaching, or action-needed. This page explains exactly what the ratio is, how it’s computed, and what the three states mean for your store.

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What the Speedometer Shows #

A dial-style widget showing:

• Current ratio — disputes / orders for the current calendar month, as a percentage
• Warn threshold line — the configured percentage of the lowest brand monitoring threshold (default 70%)
• Brand threshold line — the actual card-network monitoring threshold
• Status color — green / yellow / red based on which thresholds the ratio has crossed

The speedometer is read-only — it’s an at-a-glance status indicator. For per-brand breakdowns, trend charts, and dispute management, see the Pro Chargeback Monitor page.

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How the Ratio Is Computed #

For the current calendar month (resets on the 1st):

blended_ratio = total_disputes / total_orders

Where:

• total_disputes: dispute count from all sources — Stripe / WooPayments auto-ingested + manually entered, regardless of dispute status (pending, lost, won all count toward the ratio)
• total_orders: count of orders placed during the calendar month, in any status (completed, processing, refunded, etc.)

The denominator is orders placed, not orders completed, which matches how card networks define dispute ratios in their monitoring programs.

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The Three Status States #

State	Color	Condition
Healthy	Green	Ratio < warn threshold (e.g. < 70% of brand threshold)
Approaching	Yellow	Ratio ≥ warn threshold but < brand threshold
Action needed	Red	Ratio ≥ brand threshold — you may be in a monitoring program

The states are designed to give you lead time. By the time you’re red, you’re likely already in (or about to be in) a card-network monitoring program. Yellow is the warning that you have weeks, not days, to bring the ratio down.

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The Brand Thresholds #

Each card network has its own monitoring threshold:

Network	Program	Trigger
Visa	VDMP	0.90% with ≥ 100 disputes
Visa	VFMP	0.90% + ≥ $75k fraud
Mastercard	ECP	1.50% with ≥ 100 disputes
Amex	Excessive Disputes	≥ 1.0%
Discover	Dispute Monitoring	~ 1.0%

The Free speedometer uses the lowest of these as its reference threshold — typically Visa’s 0.90%. This is the conservative choice: if your blended ratio is below Visa’s threshold, you’re below all of them.

Pro’s Chargeback Monitor page replaces this single-threshold view with a per-brand breakdown showing each network’s threshold individually.

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What the Speedometer Doesn’t Show #

Important caveats:

• Per-brand ratios. The blended view obscures brand-specific issues. You can be under Visa’s threshold while over Amex’s. Use Pro’s Chargeback Monitor for per-brand visibility.
• Trailing windows. The speedometer is calendar-month only. Card networks often look at trailing-30-day windows too. Pro adds this view.
• Trend. The speedometer is a point-in-time number; it doesn’t show whether the ratio is improving or worsening. Pro adds a 12-month trend chart.
• Volume context. Some programs require a minimum dispute count (e.g. 100 disputes) to trigger. A store doing 50 orders/month with 2 disputes has a 4% ratio but isn’t in any monitoring program — the count is too low. The speedometer doesn’t show this; it just reports the raw ratio.

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Configuration #

Settings: TrustLens → Settings → Chargebacks.

Setting	Default	Description
Warn threshold percent	70%	Percentage of brand threshold at which yellow state triggers
Reference brand	Auto (lowest)	Pro lets you override the reference brand

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What to Do When Yellow #

1. Open the Recent Disputes feed (Pro) or the disputes list under Settings → Chargebacks (Free)
2. Identify which customers are producing disputes
3. Review the trust scores and signals for those customers — were there warning signs?
4. Tighten checkout enforcement: enable blocking for Risk/Critical customers, enable Pro auto-block-after-N-lost-disputes
5. Audit recent dispute reasons — pattern-match on shipping issues, product issues, friendly fraud, or chargeback attacks
6. Address upstream causes — slow shipping, ambiguous product descriptions, unclear refund policy

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What to Do When Red #

Red means you’re at or near a card-network monitoring program. You likely have ≤ 30 days to bring the ratio back into compliance before the network notifies your processor.

1. Immediately review every recent dispute for reason patterns
2. Aggressive moderation: hold orders for any non-Trusted customer until investigated
3. Pro: enable auto-block-after-N-lost-disputes and set it low (e.g. 1)
4. Pro: use the Dispute Evidence Report for every active dispute to maximize win rate
5. Contact your processor proactively — be upfront about the situation; they’d rather see you trying than be surprised
6. Address upstream causes urgently — product quality, shipping reliability, refund-policy clarity

Bringing a ratio down takes time. The denominator (orders) builds throughout the month, so the ratio drops as new clean orders come in even if you can’t undo past disputes.

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End-of-Month Reset #

The ratio resets on the 1st of each calendar month. The 12-month trend chart (Pro) preserves the historical record. The Free speedometer simply starts over.

This means: if you’ve had a bad month, the new month gives you a clean slate on the speedometer, but the historical pattern still matters to card networks and your processor. Don’t read the reset as “problem solved.”