Mastercard ECP: Thresholds, Fees & Remediation

Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Program, commonly called ECP, monitors excessive chargeback activity. The two levels are Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM) and High Excessive Chargeback Merchant (HECM). Both chargeback count and ratio matter. Your acquirer should confirm your classification, applicable assessments and remediation requirements.

Use the right month's denominator.

The chargeback-to-transaction ratio compares the current month's Mastercard chargebacks with captured Mastercard payments from the preceding month. It measures counts, not sales dollars. A chargeback belongs to the month it is raised even if the original payment occurred in a different month. Stripe documents the calculation.

Use the acquirer's reporting population and identifiers when reconciling the result. Your general dashboard dispute rate may use a different date window or group transactions differently. A drop in sales can change a later denominator, but that is not a reason to continue a problematic offer merely to preserve volume.

Check both count and ratio.

Processor summary tables sometimes show ECM bands of 100–299 chargebacks and 1.5–2.99%. Do not use those upper bands to conclude that a merchant with more than 299 chargebacks but a lower ratio is outside monitoring. Stripe itself illustrates an ECM assessment using 400 disputes. Confirm cross-band cases with your acquirer. Processor thresholds and examples.

Understand the assessment timeline.

The following USD amounts are published in Stripe's merchant guidance. They are a reference schedule, not a quote for your account. Ask the acquirer to explain the identification month, any prior counter history, regional treatment and charges passed through under your agreement.

From month 4, the guidance also lists an issuer recovery assessment of $5 for each chargeback above 300. In its example, 400 disputes at month 4 of ECM produces $5,000 plus $500 in issuer recovery. Mastercard's public rules identify the ECP framework; confirm the current schedule with your acquirer. Mastercard Security Rules and Procedures.

Mastercard also tracks an Excessive Fraud Merchant program. Stripe explains that EFM takes assessment precedence when both programs apply, while the underlying counters remain relevant. Do not infer that a month assessed under EFM wipes earlier ECP history.

Respond with reconciled data and a specific plan.

1. Confirm the notice: match the merchant identifier, dates, counts and ratio against the acquirer's records.
2. Separate causes: review dispute reason codes, delivery records, refund history, customer communications and affected offers.
3. Fix the affected workflow: clarify descriptors and terms, resolve delivery issues and make cancellation understandable.
4. Evaluate early resolution: ask whether eligible alerts or pre-dispute services fit the cases you receive.
5. Track progress: agree on milestones and reporting with your acquirer, including how a clean month is measured.

Refunding a transaction after a chargeback exists does not erase the chargeback from Mastercard monitoring. Winning representment also does not necessarily remove it. Prevention, refunds and dispute recovery therefore need separate measures.

Stripe describes removal after three consecutive months below the applicable threshold, and movement from HECM to ECM when the higher criteria clear but the lower ones remain. Confirm formal status with the acquirer; one improved month does not by itself establish exit. Monitoring or a fee also does not make termination or MATCH reporting automatic—applicable rules and the circumstances matter.

Use software for visibility, not a guarantee.

Admoji's commerce reporting and DataPunch tools can help investigate transactions and payment performance. Confirm the data feed, calculation and reporting delay before using any dashboard as an ECP estimate. Software cannot promise you will stay below network thresholds. See the prevention-tools guide for the difference between alerts and recovery.

Mastercard ECP questions.