Chargeback Prevention for Banks and Credit Unions

Chargeback Intercept is a FIntegrate product that resolves an open card dispute before it becomes a formal chargeback. When a cardholder or member reports a dispute, Chargeback Intercept notifies the participating merchant, giving them a window to issue a refund before a chargeback is filed. If the merchant credits the account, the chargeback is never filed and the case never goes to investigation. In the payments industry this is sometimes called dispute deflection.

No. Chargeback Intercept is available as a standalone product and works alongside the dispute process you already have. If you use FusionDMS, Chargeback Intercept is built into the investigation workflow.

Yes, and that is where it tends to pay back fastest. Every chargeback intercepted is one less transaction sent to your third-party investigator, at $25 to $35 per transaction sent for investigation. We will map out how it fits with your investigator during your consultation.

You pay per intercepted transaction, plus a one-time implementation fee. If the merchant declines, there is no intercept charge. We will walk through pricing for your volume during a free consultation.

Timing depends on how your institution handles card disputes today and which systems are involved. Your FIntegrate project team will set a specific timeline with you during onboarding.

FIntegrate’s 100% U.S.-based support team is available to help with questions, training and updates. Beyond reactive support, we stay in touch with clients to review results and address evolving needs.

After your team confirms a card dispute is a valid claim, sending it to the merchant takes one click. The merchant decides whether to issue a refund. About 40% of merchant alerts come back resolved in under 24 hours. If the merchant credits the account, the case closes with a documented merchant credit. If not, the dispute continues through your normal investigation process.

Eligibility depends on whether the merchant participates in the card networks’ merchant alert programs. Chargeback Intercept checks that when the dispute is sent, so your staff does not have to screen for it.

No. Chargeback Intercept runs through the card networks’ merchant alert programs, so it applies to card disputes only. ACH, check and ATM disputes follow your existing process. If you want those handled in one platform, FusionDMS covers them.

Chargeback Intercept works across the major card networks’ merchant alert programs, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, so coverage is not limited to a single card brand.

Response windows vary by network, generally 24 to 72 hours before the chargeback becomes official. In practice about 40% of merchant alerts come back resolved in under 24 hours, so cases that used to sit with an investigator for weeks can close the same day.

The dispute continues through the investigation process you already have, and nothing is lost. The Reg E clock started when the cardholder or member reported the transaction and kept running, so an unsuccessful intercept attempt leaves you on the same timeline you would have been on anyway. The attempt and its outcome are logged with the case.

Both. The networks’ merchant alert programs carry fraud and non-fraud reason codes, including service disputes such as a cancelled subscription or goods that never arrived. Eligibility is determined by merchant participation, not by how the claim is classified. Your existing rules for handling fraud claims do not change.

No. Reg E timers begin when a cardholder or member reports a dispute, whether or not an intercept is attempted, and your institution keeps tracking those deadlines as it does today. If the merchant refunds, the Reg E case closes with a documented resolution. If not, the investigation continues on the same timeline it would have followed anyway.

An intercepted chargeback is never filed, so it never counts toward your chargeback volume and never goes to investigation. The cardholder or member is still made whole through a documented merchant credit, and the Reg E case closes with that resolution on file.

Each card dispute sent to a third-party investigator typically costs $25 to $35 per transaction sent for investigation. For institutions that auto-credit disputes below a dollar threshold instead of investigating them, that cost is absorbed entirely. Chargeback Intercept avoids the investigation cost on intercepted disputes and recovers value on low-dollar claims that would otherwise be written off.

Dispute deflection means resolving a cardholder’s claim directly with the merchant before it becomes a formal chargeback. The claim and its transaction detail go to the merchant; if the merchant refunds, the case closes without entering the chargeback process at all.

Chargeback Intercept is FIntegrate’s implementation. It runs as the first step of the investigation workflow. Your team sends it with one click, or it goes out automatically, and a 10-minute revoke window lets you pull it back if it goes out in error. We model resolution on about 35% of eligible disputes.

It depends on who does your investigating, and the two cases are different in kind.

If you outsource investigation to your core, a case resolved before investigation is a case you never send, so your core never bills the per-transaction fee. At a modeled 35% rate, an institution with 100 disputes a month that outsources investigation avoids roughly $15,600 a year in core investigation fees.

If you investigate in house, the return is staff capacity rather than cash: about 15 minutes per intercepted case. At 100 disputes a month that is roughly 5.7 hours a month, or 0.03 FTE. Below about 250 disputes a month, this is capacity to absorb dispute growth without adding a person, rather than a saving you can bank.

The two are alternatives. An institution pays the fee or spends the hour, never both for the same case.