3d secure/ chargeback / seminar registration

[tatstartup]

Hey forum,

I am trying to launch a seminar/book/e-book business in Turkiye, and it seems most banks around here are not very willing to give merchant accounts to companies with no previous credit card payment history. So I talked to a few other international merchant account providers, such as Worldpay and Chronopay (feel free to suggest others for my particular business) and might choose to launch my business with them. With enough payment history, I could switch to a Turkish bank with a lower credit card fee.

I am still not at ease, however, with the probability that someone could use stolen credit card information to take registrations to the seminar on my website. Not would I have to pay chargeback fees, but also lose costumers who wanted to register for that specific day.

So I've started to read about how I should aprroach reducing my chargeback risk and read about 3d secure system, which is not very common here in Turkiye, but nevertheless the major banks are supporting the feature, so I could ask my clients to enroll into 3d before accepting payments from their CC.

So my understanding is if I only accept payments from credit cards which are 3d secure authenticated, I am limiting my chargeback risk against customers who claim that their credit card was used against their will. Am I getting the 3d secure chargeback protection right? Or is there anything else I should be careful?

What about the Visa, Mastercards and the 3d secure chargeback protection in relative to both of them?

What about internetional orders from cardholders living in EU? Does the geographic location of the customer matter in assessing my chargeback risk?

Any knowledgable answer is welcome :-/

tatstartup

[Jack_Hughes]

In the UK/Europe only around 20-25% of our customers are enrolled in 3d secure so relying on it for protection probably won't help that much.

As people have to turn up in person for your seminars I would say that that would be a good deterrent.

[tatstartup]

Thank you Jack. I can do ID check at the seminar, and have photo proof if they claim chargeback, and only let people inside whose ID matches the name on the credit card.

I also plan on offering moneyback guarantee within the first 20-30 minutes of the 4-5 hour seminar, so if client is unhappy, he can walk off and he will receive a refund.

I'll talk to Worldpay and the Turkish banks how this prodecures will affect the chargeback risk.

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May I make it mandatory for credit card purchases to use the 3d secure system? You said only 20-25% of your customers use 3D secure, so my feeling is I could lose credit card sales if I make it mandatory..

I've read alot within the last few days about making 3d secure mandatory on the website. It seems it might be not marketing effective to do so.

[Jack_Hughes]

I doubt making 3d secure compulsory would work at all. I'm afraid, however you try to mitigate risk you can't eliminate it. That's why entrepreneurs need solid brass balls. Run the course the first time not knowing whether people will charge back. I doubt many will but you won't know until you give it a go.