Chargeback management

Find all the information about chargebacks, how to prevent them, and how to manage them via API.

A chargeback is created when a customer disputes a credit or debit card charge with the card issuer bank and requests a money refund.

When that happens, we can withhold the collected money until the problem is solved and manage the case with the card issuer entity. 10 days are allowed to submit the transaction vouchers, and the validation process may take up to 140 days.

If the claim is accepted by the issuer entity, the buyer will have the money refunded. But don't worry, if you meet the Seller Protection Program requirements we will cover the chargeback and will not discount the sales money.

You cannot avoid all chargebacks but you can reduce the likelihood of having a payment charged back.

If the buyer doesn't recognize a charge in their credit card statement, a chargeback can be made. To avoid these cases, fill out your business data to define how you want to appear in your card statements and payment confirmation SMS.

We help you detect any customer unusual behavior with our security code against fraud.

It’s very simple. Add the script, set up your site section where it is in and, ready! You only need to replace the view value for the name of the page you want to add it on.

<script src="https://www.mercadopago.com/v2/security.js" view="home"></script>

Send the payment voucher by e-mail or sms so that your customer remembers what the payment was about.

For an enhanced validation of payment security, send us as much information as possible when creating the payment. For example, if you send us information about the buyer, we can detect if that buyer made any suspicious payments before and prevent it. Find more information about each attribute in API References.

We will notify you via IPN notifications when we detect irregular behavior or receive a notification that the card used was stolen. In addition, we will contact you via e-mail to notify you. In this situation, you must cancel the purchase and return the money to the buyer to avoid the chargeback. To start receiving notifications, you must fill in your information and choose the option "Fraud alerts"

Ask your buyers for an ID when they make a payment and check that the data and signature match those on the card.

We will advise you via IPN notifications every time you receive a chargeback. To start receiving notifications, fill out your data and choose Chargebacks.

The IPN notification will have a chargeback ID. Use that ID to get information about the payment.

curl -X GET \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://api.mercadopago.com/v1/chargebacks/ID

You will get the following information:

{
  "id": "43589345903450",
  "payments": [
    345345345
  ],
  "currency": "BRL",
  "amount": 100.20,
  "reason": "fraud",
  "coverage_applied": false,
  "coverage_elegible": true,
  "documentation_required": true,
  "documentation_status": "valid",
  "documentation": [
    {
      "type": "image/png",
      "url": "https://api.mercadopago.com/v1/chargebacks/documentation/op/op-4ccf4f39-b6f7-4c7b-a5ce-e8941a2a2b5f",
      "description": "File: img.png, Size: 3324"
    }
  ],
  "date_documentation_deadline": "2018-12-08T09:50:37.000-04:00",
  "date_created": "2018-09-14T16:20:54.000-04:00",
  "date_last_updated": "2018-11-28T10:48:48.000-04:00",
  "live_mode": true
}

Mercado Pago coverage policy may change on a case by case basis. The coverage_elegible field defines that a chargeback can be covered and documentation_required shows whether documentation is required. For more information, you can see the Seller Protection Program.

You can send supporting information validating the sale by API.

curl -X POST  \
-F 'files[]=@/path/to/file/file1.png' \
-F 'files[]=@/path/to/file/file2.pdf' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://api.mercadopago.com/v1/chargebacks/ID/documentation

If the documentation has been successfully uploaded, the API will answer with 200 OK state, and the documentation_status value will go to review_pending.

Once the documentation has been sent, a Mercado Pago representative will review it. Eventually, the chargeback may have two types of possible resolutions in the coverage_applied field:

Upon resolution, a new IPN notification will be sent so that you can verify the case.