Absorb the loss, build a team, bolt on a representment vendor, subscribe to alerts, or build the evidence at the sale. What each one does, what it costs, and what it cannot do. No vendor is named; the categories are what matter.
| Absorb the loss | In-house dispute team | Representment vendor | Network alert service | ChargeSecured | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| When it acts | Never | After the dispute lands | After the dispute lands | Hours after the cardholder calls the bank, before the chargeback posts | At the sale, then again when a dispute lands |
| Evidence at dispute time | Whatever your systems kept | Whatever your systems kept, gathered by hand across POS, delivery, and support tools | Whatever your systems kept, gathered by the vendor from your exports | None needed; you refund | The record built at the sale: cardholder, purchase, understanding, fulfillment, recipient |
| Who does the work | Nobody | Your staff: deadlines, retrieval, packaging, filing | The vendor, on a per-case basis | You, by refunding inside the alert window | ChargeSecured assembles and files; your staff reviews and approves |
| What it costs | $128 in combined cost per chargeback, plus the reversed sale and the goods | $82 in internal labor per case, plus tools and the $46 in fees | Per-case fees or a share of recoveries, plus the $46 in third-party fees; varies by vendor | A fee per alert, plus the refunded sale | 3¢ per transaction, or 0.2 to 0.4% or 0.6 to 0.8% of the sale by band; processing at cost |
| Effect on your dispute ratio | Rises unchecked | Unchanged: a won representment is still a chargeback in the ratio | Unchanged, for the same reason | Lowered, at the cost of the sale | Lowered at the source: disclosure, acknowledgement, and verification deter the claims that would have been filed |
| What it cannot do | Anything | Change what happened at the sale | Change what happened at the sale | Keep the sale | Decide the outcome. Issuers and networks decide; no win rate is guaranteed |
Cost figures: $128 combined and $46 third-party fees per chargeback (Mastercard, 2025); $82 internal cost per case (Mastercard and Javelin, 2026). See Data for sources. Vendor and alert pricing varies and is described generically.
A representment vendor or an in-house team can only work with the evidence your systems happened to keep. If the receipt is a card slip and the delivery record is a text message, that is the case. Winning also does not remove the chargeback from your ratio.
An alert lets you refund before the chargeback is filed, so the ratio stays clean. The cardholder keeps the goods and the money. For a merchant with many small first-party claims, that is a subsidy paid to the people making them.
Disclosure and acknowledgement close off the easy claims. Verification above your threshold deters the rest. The record is built while the sale happens, and the response is filed from it. What it does not do is decide: issuers do.
How it works →Charge Secured LLC is not a bank, payment processor, insurer, or law firm. Chargeback outcomes are determined by card issuers and networks. No win rate or recovery is guaranteed.