How does 3D-Secure work on Qonto?
Updated over a week ago

The 3D-Secure system is an additional fraud prevention scheme for online purchases. As part of our partnership with Mastercard, you can use your Qonto debit cards for online payments on websites supporting 3D-Secure.

Since May 2021, every online transaction is compulsorily subject to a 3D-Secure (3DS) verification, in order to improve online transactions and banking operations security, while protecting your data.

Moreover, following the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), a more advanced version of 3DS was recently deployed : 3DSv2.

It guarantees more security than the previous version, and offers you a smoother experience when purchasing online.

If the choice of the version used (3DS or 3DSv2) depends on the merchant, Qonto has integrated the use of 3DSv2 in order to assure an optimal protection, and is thus supporting both versions.

What is the process?

For each online transaction, you must confirm that you are the cardholder who initiated the online card payment. This can be done thanks to 2-step verification, or thanks to strong authentication, depending on you have set up. This layer of security is designed to ensure that a merchant only accepts card payments from legitimate customers.

In order to validate your purchase, you'll then receive:

  • either an SMS to the phone number you've registered, with a unique code to enter on the merchant website

  • or a notification on the phone you've paired with your account

This system protects you from potential fraud, as your phone is needed to finalize this payment.

This authentication is mandatory, even in the case of multiple payments made within a short period of time. Subscriptions paid with your card online require a one-time approval using 3D-Secure; the next automatic occurrences don't need to be approved again.

☝️ Good to know: this system does not apply to card payments in-store or to approve direct debit.

Merchants are responsible for implementing 3D-Secure. If a merchant is 3D Secure compliant, you will be able to see the Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode logo on the site:

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