A Brief Guide to 3D Secure Authentication

What is 3D Secure Authentication and Why Do I Need it?

If you are a company providing an online shopping or transaction service there’s nothing more important than ensuring the customer has the safest and most secure payment experience.   With more and more fraudsters looking to get your money it’s worth considering using a system to protect these payments and 3D secure is one that is widely used by all major credit and debit card issuers.

First introduced in 2001 by Visa, 3D secure is an additional step you can enable for every transaction that asks the customer to validate the transaction. 3D stands for ‘three domains’ as this process involves talking to the card issuer, the retailer receiving payment, and the secure infrastructure in place as a go-between. In 2015, the system was updated to 3D Secure 2.0 and is a less intrusive version of this technology.

How does it Work?

For the end user or customer this process is completely invisible and will authenticate the payment unless there is a flag for suspicious or illegitimate transactions.  “No more do you need to deal with having to be redirected to your banks authentication page which takes you away from the shopping experience and has its own issues when it comes to overall response times,” tech blogger Robert Correa, https://phdkingdom.com/dissertation-writing-service, proclaims.  Merchants now send any authentication alongside the payment information to verify the transaction with customers able to be contacted via text or in their banks app to verify any suspicious payments.  This may require the customer to enter an authentication code on your site that the bank has sent to them.

What Happens if There’s an Error?

If there is an error for some reason, the cardholder should be prompted to check they’ve entered the card details correctly.  Most of the time the customer will have forgotten to update an existing card saved on the site that has expired or mistyped the card number and the situation can be quickly rectified.  If the error persists however, the customer should be prompted to contact their bank or card issuer immediately for further assistance and the transaction should not be allowed to reach completion.

Benefits of Using 3D Secure

The main benefit of using as system like 3D secure is the fact that it provides peace of mind for both you and the customer.  Customers feel like their payments are secure and protected while retailers can be assured they can actually receive the money for the product or service they have delivered.  It is also a mandatory system in some countries like Australia and the European Union. “If you are not in these countries but wish to do business with them it is vital you set up this service and get it right,” cautions Patrick Hanson, a business writer at Next Coursework.

Some other benefits to consider other than these is the fact it actually protects against unauthorised chargebacks and passes any liability for the payment onto the card payment provider helping insure you don’t end up out of pocket.  By shifting the liability away from the merchant, you can feel more secure from illegitimate customers and customers have a clear direction of where to turn in order to deal with any payments that have been made. 

How to Set Up 3D Secure?

Setting up 3D Secure is something that has become much easier for retailers to do on their site with numerous sites offering to update your shopping cart automatically with 3D secure.   If you want to do this in-house, you need to start by linking a 3D secure API to your existing shopping cart and need to set up a merchant account to accept payments with 3D secure authentication.

An added benefit if you choose to buy off the shelf is that they tend to include as a standard feature numerous payment gateways, IP addresses and CV2 checks keeping you feeling extra secure.

Before going forward, you also want to check that you are meeting PCI (Payment Card Industry) Compliance regulations to ensure you are keeping all customer data secure when storing, processing and transmitting it.   No matter what industry you work in, protecting your customer’s data should be as important as ensuring a secure transaction.

To Summaries

If you are a retailer looking to go online and have a shopping experience it is vital you at least consider using 3D Secure Authentication before you take any payments.  Not only will it put you and your customer’s minds at ease, but it also allows you to do business globally and keeps the liability off your shoulders should the worst occur.  Look at what services are available to automatically update your shopping cart and make sure that you are meeting all other necessary compliance regulations.

Business development manager George J. Newton, Write my coursework, has spent a decade of marriage trying to perfect the art of the apology.