First, check whether the alert is missing or whether you received an alert through Prevent, but can't find its transaction. If the alert is already in your dashboard with Attention status, follow the Attention-status guide instead.
If no alert appears, continue with the checks below:
Make sure your billing descriptor and payment processor haven’t changed.
Confirm your Ethoca Alerts, CDRN, and RDR enrollments under Prevent show as active.
Wait 2–7 days if you recently enabled RDR.
See this guide to make sure they aren’t RDR alerts.
If you plan to contact support, scroll to What to Send Our Support Team for a checklist of details to include.
Reading this guide first will help you fix common issues or give support the information they need to resolve it faster.
Preventing Alert Interruptions
To prevent interruptions in receiving your Prevent chargeback alerts:
Maintain a Valid Payment Method: Always ensure that you have a valid, non-expired card saved within your account.
Automatic Top-Ups: Check that top-ups succeed. Failed top-ups can still lead to deactivation. If you pay for Balance through Shopify, top up manually. See how Balance billing works.
1. Issues You Can Fix Now
These are common setup or payment issues that stop alerts from showing.
You can fix most of them yourself or with help from our team.
Issue | What to Check | What to Do |
RDR Alert Looked Like a Chargeback | Visa dispute shows “lost” and can’t upload evidence. | Confirm whether the case was resolved through RDR. Don’t refund a confirmed RDR resolution again. |
Card Was Tokenized | Payments from Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay, or Link. | Consider turning these off temporarily if alerts drop or chargebacks rise. |
Unsupported Payment Method | Payments from PayPal, Klarna, Cash App, or Affirm; check enrollment for American Express and Discover | Confirm coverage before treating a payment method as unsupported. |
Alerts Not Fully Set Up | Check networks under Alerts → Configure. | Finish setup using processor guides. |
Descriptor Mismatch | Compare your Chargeback.io descriptor with the one on the dispute. | Update your descriptor in Chargeback.io to match what’s in your processor. |
Missed Response Window | You didn’t respond to an alert. | Set or raise auto-refund thresholds. Ask support to add advanced RDR rules. |
Auto-Refund Not Working for Other Currencies | Selling in EUR, GBP, etc. | Ask support to expand auto-refund rules beyond USD. |
Another Provider Handles Some Descriptors | Using Airwallex or multiple alert vendors. | Confirm which platform each descriptor is enrolled with; send the list to support. |
1. “Chargeback” Was Actually an RDR Alert
If you use RDR, you may see resolved Visa disputes marked as lost where you cannot upload evidence. Check whether the case was resolved through RDR before treating it as an RDR alert. A lost status alone does not confirm this.
Confirmed RDR resolutions are not formal chargebacks, but your processor may charge a processing fee. Shopify includes RDR resolutions in its NDRP-inclusive chargeback rate, while its standard chargeback rate excludes them.
Some processors show them as chargebacks for a few days before removing them. This happens because the processor hasn’t updated its system.
What to do:
Wait a few days for the alert to appear on your Chargeback.io dashboard.
Contact Chargeback.io support if the alert has not appeared on the dashboard after 5 business days.
ℹ️ This guide will show you how to tell whether you have an RDR alert.
2. Card Was Tokenized
Cards used with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay, or Stripe Link are tokenized. Because the card number is hidden, Ethoca and Verifi often can’t match them.
What to do:
Check if most missing alerts involve wallet payments.
If you get warnings from your processor or your chargeback rate is rising, consider turning off these wallets temporarily.
Add a note to review after 30 days to see if alert volume improves.
3. Unsupported Payment Method
Ethoca and Verifi mostly cover Visa and Mastercard. For other card brands or wallets, alerts work only for fraud cases.
Card / Method | Covered? |
Discover | UA02 (Card-Not-Present Fraud) only |
American Express (AmEx) | F29 (Card Not Present) only |
JCB | Only if co-branded with Discover |
PayPal, Klarna, Affirm, Cash App Pay | Not covered |
What to do:
Track which payment methods have the most chargebacks.
If most come from unsupported types, pause them until rates drop.
Add a banner or checkout note offering card alternatives.
For additional American Express and Discover coverage through Ethoca and CDRN, you will need to sign up and provide different information.
See this guide for requirements.
4. Alerts Not Fully Set Up
Many accounts miss Prevent alerts because one or more enrollments in RDR, Ethoca Alerts, or CDRN are incomplete:
Click Alerts on the sidebar, Configure on the dropdown.
Make sure all descriptor statuses show Active.
If descriptors are missing and/or not connected to RDR, click + Enroll More Descriptors.
If you don’t have ARNs, see this guide for alternatives.
If you want automatic refunds for CDRN alerts and Ethoca Alerts in Prevent, connect a supported integration.
Wait for activation:
CDRN/Ethoca Alerts: up to 12 hours
RDR: up to 7 business days (14 or more if backlogged)
If it takes longer, contact support.
ℹ️ Watch your inbox. Verifi may ask for more details like your old billing name.
5. Billing Name (Descriptor) Mismatch
Ethoca and Verifi use your billing descriptor to match transactions.
If it’s different from what appears on your customer’s bank statement, the alert fails.
Dynamic descriptors (used by Airwallex, NMI, PayArc, some Shopify apps) can also cause this.
What to do:
Compare the billing name on your Chargeback.io account with the one on the chargeback record.
If they differ, update your descriptor in Chargeback.io.
Avoid using dynamic descriptors unless required.
Set billing descriptors to "exact match" to avoid alerts being triggered incorrectly when descriptors only partially match.
Use "starts with" match only if necessary, knowing it may cause alerts to appear under other stores.
ℹ️ See these guides for finding descriptors in different processors.
6. Missed Response Window
Each network gives a short time to act on alerts. If you miss it, the alert status changes to Expired (formerly Lost) and the chargeback goes through automatically.
This can happen on weekends or holidays.
What to do:
Adjust auto-refund thresholds to cover days when no one monitors alerts.
Add advanced RDR rules (e.g., dispute category, transaction date).
See this guide for all available RDR rules.
Ask support to apply these changes; they’re not editable in the dashboard.
7. Auto-Refund Rules
By default, RDR refunds only USD transactions automatically. If you sell in other currencies, you must ask support to expand the rule.
Transactions from other currencies will result in a Declined status on the alert, resulting in a chargeback.
What to do:
Contact support to apply auto-refund rules to all currencies you use.
For CDRN and Ethoca Alerts in Prevent, check your limit (for example, $100).
Alerts over this amount will show Attention.
Refund or respond before the deadline shown on each alert.
ℹ️ Adjust automated refund settings by going to Alerts → Configure → Auto-refund → Adjust auto-refund settings.
8. Another Provider Handles Some Descriptors
Some merchants use more than one chargeback alert provider. Others may be automatically enrolled under RDR through payment processors like Airwallex. If that’s the case, there may be interference in how alerts are received.
What to do:
List all providers or platforms that manage your chargebacks.
Check which ones handle Visa transactions.
Contact them to confirm where each descriptor is enrolled.
Send this list to our support team so we can trace coverage correctly.
2. Issues Outside Your Control
Some chargebacks don’t send alerts even when your setup is correct. These limits come from how banks and card networks share data.
1. Lack of Network Coverage
Not all banks or card brands support every Prevent alert program (Ethoca Alerts, CDRN, RDR). If a customer’s bank isn’t part of one, no alert can be sent.
Network | Visa | Mastercard |
RDR (Visa) | 97% | 0% |
Ethoca Alerts | ~50% | ~95% |
CDRN (US only) | 95% | 5% |
What this means:
If the customer’s card or bank isn’t part of these networks, you will not receive the alert. Coverage is improving as more banks join, but it’s not yet complete.
Typical prevention rates (based on real data):
CDRN: 17–41% of chargebacks stopped
Ethoca Alerts: up to 40%
RDR: 50–70%
ℹ️ Actual coverage will also depend on your industry. For instance, physical products have more CDRN coverage than digital products.
2. Formal Dispute Filed Before Alerts Activated
If a customer started a chargeback before your alerts went live, no system can stop or alert it.
Eligibility depends on when the dispute was filed, not the week the chargeback appears in your processor.
What you can do:
Note the chargeback date.
Check when the dispute was filed relative to activation. The transaction date alone does not determine eligibility.
3. Data Leakages from Issuers
Sometimes a bank that should send alerts files a chargeback first instead. This happens when the issuer’s system misroutes data.
ℹ️ Verifi and Ethoca are working with issuers to improve reliability of these tools.
4. Partially Refunded Transactions
Visa’s RDR doesn’t send alerts for transactions that were partially refunded. Only fully refunded payments qualify for alerts.
5. Limited Reason Code Coverage
Some banks only send alerts for certain types of disputes.
For example, a bank might share “Fraudulent” cases but not “Product Not as Described.”
3. What to Send Our Support Team
To help us find out why you didn’t get a chargeback alert, please send the details below for each chargeback:
Card brand (Visa, Mastercard, etc.)
Transaction date
What date the chargeback happened
If we see a clear pattern, we’ll tell you how to fix it right away. If not, we'll investigate further.
How Chargeback.io Finds the Cause
Here’s what we do after you send your details:
Check if any alerts are reaching your account and if RDR is active.
Confirm if your descriptor(s) or payment processor changed.
Check whether descriptor(s) are Exact_match or Starts_with.
Check whether you have filters on your account that prevent you from receiving alerts.
Ask our Enrollment team to check if all alert connections work.
Send your chargeback info to Ethoca and Verifi to find out what happened.
How long it takes:
Responses from Ethoca: 1–3 business days
Verifi responses: About 7 business days or more if they’re busy
Enrollment team response: Typically less than an hour, but it can range up to 8 hours depending on the time zone
Further reading:
💬 Still need help? Contact Chargeback.io support.