Chargebacks & Refunds 2009
 

Mostly for owners, but also for affiliates who see this in their stats.

Maybe it's the credit crunch & the economy causing people to do these things... but I had a grand total 8 chargeback/refunds for all of 2008. Less than 0.10% [and 5 of those came near the end of 2008]

It's only Feb of this year and I'm already at 9! And all were fraud in the sense they continued to access the member’s area and download updates right up to the day they cancelled! I totally understand if somebody forgot to cancel... but this is outright fraud.

Has anyone else seen this trend? Or is this just an unusual blip on my radar? Any & all thoughts welcomed.

JJ

chargebacks are up here too. :(

Up here as well. :(

I had 22 CBs last year, also mostly at the end of the year, and in 2009 I'm at 10 now, 8 of those are in the past week, and it really started to bother me.

people start to count their money, checking bills ets..

Chargebacks are up for me as well, miraculously last year i didn't have a single chargeback. This year im up to 5.

I've had an increase in chargebacks, but it's not from the people. It's from the issuing banks.

Since Feb. I've been contacted by no less than 10 people that were wondering why their accounts where disabled. When we told them it was due to chargebacks they were surprised and had to contact their credit card companies.

Banks are having trouble and are trying to cover their ass.

Stats Remote tells me for 2008 I had 20 credits (0.92%) and 10 chargebacks (0.46%). For 2009 I have 3 (0.67%) credits and 0 chargebacks so far.

I guess I should put my chargebacks in percentage terms as well.

I've done over 180000 transactions since Feb. 1st. .006%

It's still an increase though.

They are going to get worse this year as is CC declines as people max out their cards.

Its getting really frustrating :(

Two articles caught my eye this morning:
Banks' Future Woes: Plastic which contains this snippet:
and Credit card delinquencies hit index high which has this snippet:

This has been a thorn in my side since November of last year. We have also seen a very large spike in CB's from MC.

Rick Latona Speaks His Mind About Domain Auction

Domainer Rick Latona comments on the weakness in the adult industry after disappointing domain auction at The Phoenix Forum.

A year from now, you'll all be punching a clock somewhere.

Put a fork in it -- it's done.

Yeah If you can find job! |banghead|

Has anyone else considered the more-than-likely scenario that banks will begin to simply block/filter any non-tangible online transaction similar to what they are doing with gaming? Almost like reverse scrubbing I suppose.

I doubt it's that coordinated or nefarious. All you need to do is look at the news the past year and see the names that are in trouble: Citibank, Bank of America, Chase, American Express ... you get the picture ... all the major credit card issuing banks.

Over the past 6 months I have been hearing anecdotal evidence that these credit card issuers are resorting to more and more desperate tactics as delinquency and default rates rise: reducing credit limits (sometimes to *below* the account balance!) and offering cardholders a discount to pay off their balances and close accounts.

The companies that issue and hold these credit card accounts are in dire financial straits, and have been since at least September when the credit markets seized up and unemployment began to spike.

A few posts up, I posted links to articles about credit card delinquency and default rates hitting record highs for the month of February. Soon the numbers for March will be released, and I am expecting the trend to continue with yet new record rates.

If pending legislation in the US congress gets passed and signed into law, look for even more troubles for the credit card issuing banks, as several of their nasty tricks are on the chopping block:
* universal default
* rate jacking
* double-cycle billing
* marketing to minors

Source article at CNNmoney

Even if the legislation fails again, universal default and double-cycle billing will be against Federal regulation in 2010.

Anecdotal was just recently confirmed:
Don't have a link for it (yet) but was quoted in John Maudlin's weekly e-letter, and he is a very meticulous economic analyst.

Shit continues to get worse. :(
I just had the worst period since fall of 2005

Sales are still good but credit card rebill declines and chargebacks are higher than ever before by quite a significant margin.

Not seeing an increase in chargebacks - but declines are up and returned check (ach) are way up. Many of these are from European (can you say German) debit cards.