# How Much Are Chargebacks Costing You?

When a customer successfully disputes a charge you’ve made against their credit or debit card, the card issuer will rescind the sale from you – and adds feed on top of it. **This process is called a chargeback, and it costs businesses a fortune every year.**

Short of physically swiping every subscriber’s card, every month, it can be very difficult to prove that a charge is legitimate. That puts the word of your credit card issuer’s customer against yours, and the customer usually wins.

It’s not just the money that’s at stake, either. In a higher risk business, it’s already hard enough to get new merchant accounts with reasonable rates and terms. **Accrue too many chargebacks, and you can find yourself with a termination notice, leaving you without a merchant account altogether.**

## Let’s look at the full cost of chargebacks for subscription businesses

![cost of chargebacks diagram](/assets/full_cost_chargebacks.3fcb2a42977c0e3a1c18a66e82d926b2d17b09263c2f817162f6560bf2c6054b.978384e4.png)

*Sources: [1](http://solutions.lexisnexis.com/fraud.tcof.lp-65303.t-92611), [2](http://blog.clear.sale/protecting-your-online-business-chargeback-fee-statistics-by-industry), [3](https://chargebacks911.com/chargeback-stats-2017/)*

If you’re looking for more tips to keep your chargebacks under control, head to [this post](/blog/how-to-reduce-chargebacks/). **Or, you can download our Reducing Chargebacks Guide, with our four top actionable tips on how to minimize your losses:**