ProviderStripe Radar (fraud tools included)
1.5% + 20p
per transaction
£15
chargeback fee
Fraud tools: Radar, 3DS2 included
Dispute portal: Built into dashboard
Free, quick comparison
Chargebacks and disputed card payments
What a chargeback actually is, how to fight one, and which UK payment providers give you the strongest tools to prevent them in the first place.
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Trusted choice
Rated 4.9 out of 5
Provider
ProviderWorldpay Simplicity
0.75%
per transaction
£15–£25
chargeback fee
Fraud tools: FraudSight add-on
Dispute portal: Account-managed support
ProviderDojo custom acquiring
From 0.55%
per transaction
£15–£25
chargeback fee
Fraud tools: Included monitoring
Dispute portal: UK-based account team
ProviderAdyen RevenueProtect
From 0.6% + 10p
per transaction
£15–£25
chargeback fee
Fraud tools: RevenueProtect included
Dispute portal: Unified dashboard
Deal tables sorted by headline rate (low to high)
Rates shown are indicative and depend on your turnover, average transaction value and business type. Final pricing is confirmed by the provider after your quote.
What is a chargeback?
A chargeback is a forced reversal of a card payment, raised by the customer's bank rather than the customer contacting you directly — common reasons include 'goods not received', 'not as described', or the cardholder not recognising the transaction.
The scheme (Visa or Mastercard) sets strict evidence deadlines, usually a matter of days, so a slow response often loses a winnable dispute by default rather than on the merits of the case.
Why compare chargeback protection providers?
Prevention beats disputing
3D Secure, address verification and clear billing descriptors stop a large share of chargebacks before they're ever raised.
Faster evidence submission
Providers with a built-in dispute portal make it far easier to hit the scheme's short evidence deadlines than emailing documents back and forth.
Fewer chargebacks protects your account
Providers monitor your chargeback ratio, and consistently high rates can trigger higher fees or account review.
What to look for in a chargeback protection deal
Reason codes
Each chargeback carries a reason code — check what it actually means before responding, since the right evidence varies by reason.
Headline pricing
The percentage or flat fee taken from each payment. Compare on your real volumes, not the marketing rate.
Monthly and hidden fees
Check minimum monthly charges, PCI fees, gateway fees, refund charges and chargeback costs.
Settlement speed
How quickly funds reach your business account — next day makes a real difference to cashflow.
Security and compliance
PCI DSS scope, 3D Secure, tokenisation and fraud screening should be included, not bolted on.
Reporting and integrations
Links to your accounting software, EPOS or online store so takings reconcile automatically.
How does comparing chargeback protection work?
When a chargeback is raised, your provider notifies you with the reason code and a deadline to submit evidence.
Gather proof relevant to the reason — proof of delivery, a signed agreement, or correspondence showing the customer used the service.
Submit through the provider's dispute portal before the deadline; late evidence is very rarely considered.
The card scheme rules on the evidence, typically within a few weeks, and funds are returned to you if you win.
Do I need chargeback protection?
Any business taking card payments, especially online or over the phone, will face chargebacks eventually — it's a normal part of accepting cards, not a sign something's wrong.
Businesses with a higher share of card-not-present transactions (phone, online, subscriptions) see meaningfully more chargebacks than card-present retail.
If you're seeing repeated chargebacks for the same reason, it usually points to a fixable process issue — unclear billing descriptors or slow delivery are common causes.
How do I choose the best chargeback protection deal?
Look for a provider with 3D Secure 2 enabled by default, clear reason-code guidance when a dispute lands, and a dispute portal rather than manual email submission. Built-in fraud screening reduces the number of disputes you have to fight in the first place, which matters more than winning individual cases after the fact.
How much could I save on chargeback protection?
Reducing your chargeback rate from an elevated level back to the card schemes' typical acceptable threshold (well under 1% of transactions) avoids potential monitoring fees and protects your standing with the acquirer, on top of recovering the disputed funds themselves.
Payment guides
These guides might help.
How payment processing fees work
Interchange, scheme and acquirer fees explained — and which ones you can negotiate away…
Choosing a payment provider
What UK providers check, how long onboarding takes and when a specialist beats your bank…
PCI DSS made simple for small firms
The compliance basics every business handling payments has to meet…
FAQs
Typically within a set number of days set by the card scheme once the provider notifies you — often as little as a week, so acting quickly matters more than building a perfect case.
Proof of delivery, a signed contract or terms acceptance, and clear communication showing the customer received what they paid for are usually the strongest evidence.
No, but 3D Secure, clear billing descriptors and prompt customer service resolve most disputes before they escalate to a formal chargeback.
A high chargeback ratio can trigger extra monitoring, a rolling reserve, or in serious cases account review by your provider.
Our services are provided at no cost to you. We may receive a commission from the companies we refer you to, but this does not affect what you will pay for the product you choose.
Written by the Grow Your Business payments team · Updated 25 July 2026