On this page
A dispute is a customer’s bank taking the charge back. A refund is you giving the money back first. An early fraud warning is the issuer saying the cardholder does not recognise the payment, before it becomes a dispute. Stripe can see all three. A review is not a hunt for a single magic percentage. It is a reading of whether the charges should have been made.
What the review is actually reading
- Reason codes in plain language: not received, not as described, unrecognised, or fraudulent.
- Whether those reasons match the product. “Not received” on a twelve-week delivery is a different file from “not received” on a file that should have downloaded instantly.
- Whether the descriptor and the receipt name the thing the customer remembers buying.
- How fast you refund when you are wrong, and how well you evidence a fulfilment when you are right.
- Whether the rate is a spike in one product, one affiliate, or one country. A spike has a cause. “We got unlucky” is not a cause.
Do not manage to a ratio you found online
Operators hunt for the line they must stay under. They then refund, delay capture, or split charges to cosmetically sit under it. That behaviour is visible, and it does not repair the customer problem that created the disputes. If you need a number, use the one in your own notice or dashboard for your own account. Do not import one from a 2021 forum post and call it policy.
No threshold is published here on purpose
The work that actually belongs in the reply
- Group the recent disputes by reason and by product. One page, not a spreadsheet novel.
- For “unrecognised”, look at the descriptor, the receipt, and the site name. Fix the one the customer sees, if you can do it honestly.
- For “not received”, show delivery times you really achieve, not the times you advertise.
- Stop the specific offer that is generating the reasons. Do not pause the whole story and leave the offer running.
- Put this page in the assessment file if you ask for a partnership review. The partner is underwriting these reasons, whether or not anyone says that out loud.
What this briefing is not
Questions on this note
What dispute rate gets a Stripe account frozen?
This site will not publish a number and call it Stripe’s rule. Thresholds move, they differ by programme, and they are not a target to manage toward. A review looks at the disputes you have, why customers raised them, and whether the business can fulfil what it charged. If your notice names a figure, that figure is the one that applies to you. A blog’s figure is not.
Are refunds safer than disputes?
A refund the customer accepts is usually a better outcome than a lost dispute. A flood of refunds is still a signal. It can mean the product, the descriptor, or the delivery promise is wrong. Refunding everyone to hide a dispute count, while still selling the same thing, does not end a review.
Should I fight every dispute?
Fight the ones you can evidence: delivered, as described, to the customer who paid. Concede the ones you cannot. A stack of thin responses is not a lower rate. It is a file that shows you argued with customers who were right.
Can a partnership ignore the merchant’s dispute history?
No. The history is the risk. A partner who cannot see it is not informed. An assessment that is not given it is not an assessment.
Continue in the briefing
Disputes
How Disputes, Refunds and Early Fraud Warnings Feed a Stripe Review
How chargebacks, refund spikes and early fraud warnings push a Stripe account into review, and which records actually answer them.
11 min
Accounts
Stripe Statement Descriptors, Receipts and What the Cardholder Sees
How Stripe statement descriptors, receipts and checkout names cause unrecognised-charge disputes, and why they must name the real seller.
8 min
Reserves
Why Stripe Freezes Payouts and Places Reserves
Why Stripe pauses payouts and holds reserves: fulfilment lag, disputes, thin history and changes in the business. What the hold is for, and who should bear it.
11 min
Disputes
Stripe Negative Balance: Refunds, Disputes, and Who Owes the Shortfall
How a Stripe balance goes negative, why refunds and lost disputes cause it, and why a revenue share does not decide who pays.
14 min