Payments, fraud and chargebacks, explained without the sales pitch.

Nothing is sold here. No vendor pays to be listed. Where something does not work, this site says so.

Search 296 free guides. Try a code you are looking at, like 4853 or 10.4.

What just happened?

A chargeback landed and I have days to respondWhat it costs, your actual deadline, and what to do in the next 30 minutes My chargeback rate is climbing and my processor emailed meWhat 0.9% actually triggers, and the things that move the number fastest Card payments started failing and I do not know whyAn hour-by-hour diagnostic: what to check, in order My processor is holding my moneyReserves, rolling holds, and how to get a decision reversed I want to fight a chargeback and win itThe evidence that actually works, and the cases not worth fighting Someone is running stolen cards through my checkout right nowStop the bleeding: what to switch on in the first hour I am being charged more than I expectedRead your statement, find the padding, know what is negotiable I need to choose a payment processorWho to pick at your size, the real cost, and what to avoid signing I am launching soon and setting payments up from scratchWeek-one setup, step by step, for Stripe, Square or Shopify Customers say they do not recognise my chargeFix your billing descriptor before it becomes twenty chargebacks I am starting to sell to other countriesWhat changes: decline rates, fees, and the rules that follow you I need to switch processors without breaking anythingThe migration order of operations

Look something up

The fastest way to use this site. Most people arrive here holding a notice with a code on it.

Chargeback reason codesVisa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover. What each code means and what evidence beats it Decline codesWhat "do not honor" and the rest actually mean, and whether to retry BenchmarksWhat a normal approval rate, fraud rate and chargeback ratio look like Response deadlinesHow many days you get, by network and by stage Business category codes (MCC)Your merchant category code, and why it affects your rates GlossaryPlain-English definitions for every term on this site

Browse everything

Accepting paymentsHow money moves, processor choice, fees, approval rates Chargebacks and disputesReason codes, deadlines, fighting them, preventing them Fraud preventionDetection, tools, what to buy and when not to buy Rules and complianceNetwork rules, PCI, consumer protection law Day-to-day operationsReconciliation, payouts, holds, running a risk team Step-by-step playbooksFor the day it is already going wrong Reference tablesCodes, thresholds, deadlines, definitions

Learn it properly

Not in a crisis, and just want to understand how payments work? The Guide is 15 short lessons, about 105 minutes in total, in order. Most people should start at pathway 1, because processor choice and fees drive everything else.

Start The Guide See all 5 pathways

Who wrote this

Written by someone who has managed fraud for SMBs, card issuers, digital marketplaces and high-risk subscription businesses. It is the resource I wanted when I started.

Nothing is sold here, so these pages can be honest about what works and what does not. Where a vendor will not publish a price, this site says so instead of guessing.

Found an error? Email matt at paymentsandrisk.com with the page URL and what needs fixing. Corrections, suggestions and "you got this wrong" emails are all welcome.