Chargebacks & Refunds 2009

[Jicky Jack]

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

[Beaver Bob]

Originally Posted by Jicky Jack

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.

[Cleo]

Up here as well.

[Cucumber]

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.

[TGPBro]

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

[balls_deep]

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

[James_HotMovies]

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.

[HowlingWulf]

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.

[James_HotMovies]

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.

[JImmidean]

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

[Beaver Bob]

Its getting really frustrating

[anasporn]

Originally Posted by JImmidean

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

Two articles caught my eye this morning:
Banks' Future Woes: Plastic which contains this snippet:

Facing additional losses, credit card issuers are doing what they can to insulate themselves from further losses, including lowering credit limits for some cardholders, closing accounts or getting out of the business altogether.

and Credit card delinquencies hit index high which has this snippet:

Fitch's Prime Credit Card Delinquency Index measures credit card debt more than 60 days late through January, and it surged to a record 4.04% in the most recent month, trumping the 3.75% record set in the previous month.

During the last three months, the index has climbed 23%, putting the index 30% above historical averages. Fitch started the Prime Credit Card Index in 1991.

[Anthony]

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.

[InfoGuy]

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.

On the audience front, we’ve learned over the weekend that the adult business is in worse shape than we thought. We had already known that they were reeling in pain from so many free tube sights out there but apparently in the last couple of months (I’m told since October) revenue has fallen off a cliff for most of them. The reason, I’m told, is that the IPSPs or Internet Payment Service Providers, whom process credit cards for adult sites, have doubled the amount of credit card transactions they aren’t accepting. I suppose due to bank pressures and non-paying card holders suffering from the economy that charge back ratios are at an all time high.

[Useless]

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

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

[Mike-mijen]

Yeah If you can find job!

[StrokeKing]

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.

[anasporn]

Originally Posted by StrokeKing

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.

[anasporn]

Originally Posted by anasporn

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.

Anecdotal was just recently confirmed:

A new FICO study found that 11% of US consumers -- 22 million people -- have had their credit lines cut or accounts closed even though they have been paying their bills on time and retain a solid rating.

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.

[spacedog]

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

[LB]

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

[papagmp]

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.