Pre-chargeback interception programs allow you to resolve disputes automatically before they become chargebacks. Chargebacks prevented through these programs do not count against your chargeback ratio.
RDR is a Visa program that allows merchants to configure rules for auto-resolving disputes before they escalate to a chargeback. When a dispute is filed that matches your RDR rules, Visa automatically refunds the cardholder on your behalf and closes the dispute.
Key points:
Rules can filter by dispute amount, currency, BIN ranges, and Industry Code (sometimes called MCC) — see Identifiers and Codes - A Reference for definitions
Auto-refunds funded by your balance account
Disputes resolved via RDR are excluded from chargeback ratio calculations
Enrollment and rule management requires coordination with your account manager
Ethoca is Mastercard's pre-chargeback alert network. When a Mastercard cardholder disputes a transaction, Ethoca alerts you before the chargeback is formally filed, giving you a window to issue a refund.
Key points:
You receive an alert with a limited resolution window
If you issue a refund within the window, the chargeback is prevented
The alert counts as a prevented chargeback and does not impact your ratio
Ethoca alerts require enrollment — contact your account manager
NOF alerts are not a pre-chargeback program you enroll in — they are informational notifications that appear automatically in your disputes view when an issuer flags a transaction as fraud. Unlike RDR and Ethoca, NOF alerts require no merchant action and do not produce a financial event on their own.
What you'll see:
A row appears at /transactions/disputes with a gray NOF badge in the Dispute Type column
The detail page displays a purple banner: "This is a Notification of Fraud (NOF). It is informational only and requires no merchant action."
The reason code field is often empty — issuers do not always include one with an NOF event
The Defend Dispute and Accept Dispute buttons are hidden
What it means:
The issuer has notified the card network of suspected fraud on the transaction
This does not automatically become a chargeback — if a chargeback follows, you will see a separate dispute row for it
NOF events do not affect your chargeback ratio and do not create a ledger entry against your balance
Mastercard NOF vs. Visa NOF: There is no functional difference between an NOF from Mastercard and an NOF from Visa in your dashboard. Both render identically with the same gray badge and the same "no action required" banner. The only difference is the card brand icon in the payment method column.
These programs are most valuable for merchants with:
High dispute volumes in the fraud or "did not recognize" categories
Low to moderate average transaction values (where auto-refunding is cost-effective)
Chargeback rates approaching network thresholds
Contact your account manager to discuss enrollment in RDR and/or Ethoca.
