76
Visa Reason Code 76: What Merchants Need to Know
Reason code 76 covered wrong currency or transaction codes. Here is what it meant and why it no longer exists.
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- Old Visa codes
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What is Visa reason code 76?
Visa reason code 76 had a long name. It was Incorrect Currency or Transaction Code or Domestic Transaction Processing Violation. It was one of Visa's older dispute codes, and it is no longer active today.
The code covered processing mistakes made by the merchant or its payment system. It was not about fraud. It was about a sale that went through VisaNet with the wrong details attached.
If you pulled up an old notice and saw 76 on it, the code tells you what the cardholder's bank claimed went wrong. Here is how to read a chargeback notice if any part of it is unclear: how to read a chargeback notice.
What reason code 76 covered
The code applied to a few related problems.
The first was a wrong transaction code. Every sale sent through VisaNet carries a code that says what kind of transaction it is. If the wrong one was used, the sale could be disputed under reason code 76.
The second was a currency mismatch. The cardholder was billed in one currency. The sale was processed in a different one. A store might show prices in the local currency. Then it might run the card in a different one. It would do this without telling the customer.
The third involved choice. The code also covered two more cases. One was a cardholder who was not told about currency conversion. The other was a cardholder who asked to pay in the local currency and was told no.
How a merchant could respond
A merchant could fight a reason code 76 chargeback. The proof was a receipt or other record showing the currency was right. The cardholder may have agreed to the currency used. If you had proof of that, the dispute could be reversed.
Good proof was a receipt, a signed order, or a terminal record. It had to show the currency the cardholder saw and agreed to. Send anything that shows the cardholder knew the currency before paying.
The reply had to fit the claim. Proof that the item was delivered does not help in a currency dispute. Send proof about the currency, not proof about the order.
Timing mattered too. Each step of a Visa dispute had a set time limit, so a late answer could lose the case even when the proof was strong. If you want to know what happens after you send your reply, see what happens after you answer a chargeback.
Why reason code 76 is no longer active
As part of the VCR Initiative, Visa consolidated its 22 legacy reason codes into four dispute categories. The old numbered codes, including 76, were retired in that process.
Today a Visa dispute falls into one of four groups. They are 10 Fraud, 11 Authorization, 12 Processing Errors, and 13 Consumer Disputes. A currency or transaction code problem would now be handled under the processing errors group.
If a current notice shows a code like 12.2 or 12.3, that is the new system at work. Those codes deal with the same kind of processing mistakes that reason code 76 once covered.
Related chargeback reason codes
If you are working with the current rules, these pages cover the codes that replaced the kind of dispute reason code 76 described:
- 12.2 incorrect transaction code covers a sale sent with the wrong transaction code.
- 12.3 incorrect currency covers a sale run in the wrong currency.
- 12.7 invalid data covers a sale sent with data that broke Visa's rules.
If your notice shows a code you do not recognize, match it against the current list before you build your reply. The old codes and the new ones do not match up. So work from the code printed on your notice.