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Alert is Rapid’s solution for early dispute notification. (Former name: Chargeback Alert. The API path is still /chargeback-alert/....) When a cardholder opens a dispute with the issuing bank, the network (Mastercard or Visa) signals the event to providers before it becomes a formal chargeback. Rapid receives these signals and delivers the alert to you in time to take action.

In API payloads and responses, providers are identified by the slugs ethoca_alerts (Mastercard) and verifi_rdr (Visa).

What you need to do depends on the card network:

  • Mastercard (via Ethoca): you have up to 24 hours to confirm whether you will refund, state that the transaction was already resolved, or that you did not find the transaction. Your answer goes back to Ethoca and can prevent the dispute from becoming a chargeback.
  • Visa (via Verifi RDR): the refund was already made automatically by the acquirer when the alert arrived. There is no response deadline; the status is used only for internal organization.
  1. The cardholder opens a dispute with the issuing bank
  2. The card network signals the dispute to the provider (Ethoca for Mastercard, Verifi RDR for Visa)
  3. The provider delivers the alert to Rapid
  4. Rapid associates the alert with your company by descriptor (Ethoca) or BIN+CAID (Verifi)
  5. Rapid delivers the alert to your application by webhook
  6. Your application processes the alert and (for Ethoca) returns a status through the callback API

To receive alerts, your company needs:

  • An active webhook configured in the dashboard (see Webhook channel)
  • At least one registered descriptor (Ethoca) or BIN+CAID (Verifi) associated with your company

Alerts are associated with your company by the descriptor, the name that appears on the cardholder’s statement. When the alert’s descriptor matches one of yours, the alert is delivered.

Alerts are associated by BIN + CAID.

The deadline and what to respond for each card network are at the top of this page; the full detail is in Rules and deadlines.