A dispute ratio is closely related to, and often used as another name for, the chargeback ratio: the number of disputed card transactions in a period divided by the number of transactions processed. The main entry covers how the ratio is calculated and the thresholds that card schemes apply.
The two terms can differ in scope. "Dispute ratio" is used by some card schemes and payment providers in their monitoring programmes, and it may count all disputes raised by issuers, including some that are resolved before becoming formal chargebacks, or include fraud reports as well as customer disputes. Visa's merchant monitoring, for example, combines dispute and fraud measures. Payment providers such as large online processors often report a dispute rate to their merchants in their dashboards.
Whatever the label, a high ratio can lead to fees, remediation plans or loss of card acceptance. Merchants control it through good dispute management, using tools such as dispute alerts to resolve cases early, and through strong fraud prevention.