Most MVNO operators can rattle off their subscriber count, ARPU, and churn rate without hesitating. But ask about their payment approval rate or chargeback ratio and you might get a blank stare.

Not knowing these stats off the top of one’s head isn’t unusual. But it can be expensive.

Your payment data tells you where you’re losing money, where you’re leaving revenue on the table, and where your processor might not be working as hard for you as they should be. Here are 3 metrics every MVNO should track monthly—and what they actually mean for your business.

1. Approval rate: The revenue you’re capturing

What it is: The percentage of transaction attempts that successfully process.

Where to find it: Your monthly processor statement, or it can be calculated as total transactions – fraud declines – bank declines.

Why it matters: Your approval rate is the single biggest lever in payment performance. If you’re running at an 85% approval rate, that means 15% of transaction attempts are failing. Some of those are legitimate fraud catches, but many are false declines—real customers trying to give you money who get turned away.

Industry benchmarks vary, but telecom-focused processors can deliver approval rates in the 90-95% range. Anything less than 90% is definitely worth looking at.

Red flags to watch for:

• Consistently low approval rates
• Sudden drops in approval rate (could indicate routing issues, acquirer problems, or fraud model changes)
• Your processor can’t or won’t tell you your approval rate

What to do with this data: Calculate the revenue impact. For every percentage point improvement in approval rate, estimate the additional monthly revenue captured. Use this to evaluate whether your current processor is really delivering value, even if their rates seem competitive.

If you have 100,000 customers × 20% declined × $25/month, that’s $6M lost annually. In the same scenario, a moving from a 80% to a 95% approval rate equals a +$4.47M net gain.

2. Decline reason distribution: why you’re losing transactions

What it is: A breakdown of why transactions are being declined—insufficient funds, suspected fraud, issuer decline, do not honor, etc.

Where to find it: Most processors provide this in reporting dashboards or monthly statements. Request a detailed decline reason report if you’re not seeing it.

Why it matters: Not all declines are equal. “Insufficient funds” declines are legitimate—your customer doesn’t have money available. And in that case there are steps you can take to offer retries or accept partial payments. But “suspected fraud” or “do not honor” declines might be your processor’s fraud model being overly conservative and rejecting good customers.

Red flags to watch for:

• High percentage of “suspected fraud” declines (suggests overly conservative fraud models)
• Large number of “generic decline” or “processor error” codes (indicates technical issues)
• Decline reasons that don’t make sense for telecom (e.g., high rates of “card not present” fraud flags for your online activation flow)

What to do with this data: If you’re seeing high rates of fraud-related declines, dig deeper. Are these concentrated in specific customer segments? Times of day? Transaction types? This tells you whether your processor understands telecom patterns or is applying generic e-commerce fraud rules that don’t fit your business.

3. Processing cost per successful transaction: your real rate

What it is: Your total payment processing costs divided by the number of successful transactions. This includes processing fees, chargeback fees, fraud losses, and any other payment-related costs.

Where to find it: You’ll need to calculate this yourself: (Total processing fees + chargeback fees + fraud losses + payment-related support costs) ÷ number of successful transactions

Why it matters: The advertised rate (2.9%, 2.5%, etc.) is only part of your actual cost. A processor with a 2.5% rate but a high false decline rate and no fraud protection might cost you significantly more than a processor charging 3% who delivers higher approval rates and covers fraud losses.

Red flags to watch for:

• Effective rate significantly higher than advertised rate
• Increasing cost per successful transaction over time
• Inability to calculate this because your processor won’t provide clear data

What to do with this data: Use this to evaluate processor performance holistically. A slightly higher advertised rate with better approval performance and fraud protection can deliver a much lower total cost of ownership.

Putting it all together: the monthly payments health check

Once a month, pull these three metrics and look for trends:

Quick health check questions:

1. Is my approval rate above 90%? If not, why?
2. What’s driving my declines? Are they legitimate?
3. What’s my real cost per successful transaction?

Your payment processor should be working in partnership with you to help track and optimize these metrics. They should share data freely and help you understand what’s driving performance. And they should work with you to improve your approval rates while managing fraud risk. When you track these three metrics, you might be surprised what you learn about where your revenue is actually going—and where you can focus on growth.