Best Practices to Avoid Chargebacks The best way to avoid chargebacks is prevention—preferably at the time of the transaction. Here are some tips: > If a card is declined, ask for another form of payment—do not re-swipe or override > Avoid accepting keyed transactions and Request ID/verify the signature While it’s rare, cards can be inactive. Your processor can check with the issuer to determine if a card has been closed. Your processor also should be validating if disputes are, in fact, fraud. Here is a deeper dive into more ways you can avoid card disputes. EMV Liability Shift— merchants without an EMV-compatible terminal or POS system are responsible for chargebacks and fraudulent card acceptance. It’s important to note this only applies when an EMV card is presented at the POS. The main reason for the liability shift or how fraud is still occurring if EMV is so secure. It’s nearly impossible for a fraudster to copy the EMV chip, but easy for them to copy the information from the magnetic stripe that still exists on all cards—new and old. The problem? If a merchant doesn’t have an EMV terminal, there’s no way to detect if they’re accepting what should be an EMV card. EMV-enabled terminals will signal that the card should be dipped instead of swiped. At that point, if the card doesn’t have a chip, it’s considered fraudulent. This is an important side note because smart criminals will avoid businesses with upgraded equipment.