Payments
Ethoca alert
Updated
An Ethoca alert is a warning from a participating card issuer, sent through Mastercard's Ethoca, that a customer is disputing a payment, so you can refund first.
Ethoca, a Mastercard service, connects card issuers with merchants. When a cardholder reports a charge as fraud or disputes it with a participating issuer, the merchant gets an alert and can refund the payment or stop the order before it becomes a chargeback.
Stripe describes services like Ethoca and Verifi as third-party solutions that work with certain issuers so an alert is raised when a chargeback is about to be filed, giving the merchant a chance to refund.
Alerts are only as useful as the response speed. A refund issued promptly avoids the chargeback fee and keeps the case off the merchant's dispute count; a refund issued after the chargeback is filed does not.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between Ethoca and RDR?
- Ethoca alerts tell the merchant about a dispute so it can choose to refund. Visa RDR resolves matching Visa disputes automatically using rules the merchant set in advance.
- Do Ethoca alerts cover all banks?
- No. Alerts come only from issuers that take part in the service.
Sources
- Dispute and fraud card monitoring programs — Stripe
- Ethoca Alerts — Mastercard