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Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

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Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#41

Post by kalleboo »

thomaslangston wrote: post #36
henrikschroder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> charge more for missing or incorrect CVVs. Wait, what? Can transactions still go through without the CVV, except the merchant's transaction fee is a bit higher? They're just not declined outright?

Yes, the CVV is not required. If you think about it, it is obvious CCV isn't since many self-serve card swipe machines (gas stations, grocery stores, fast food restaurants) don't ask you for it.

There are two CVVs: one printed on the card, one on the magstripe. So for swipe transactions they're still getting a CVV.

Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#42

Post by jonnathanson »

It's certainly not necessary, but my guess is that it follows from the "Don't Make Me Think" school of UX design. If a majority of consumers have been conditioned to expect a credit-card-selection menu (or series of clickable icons), then the absence of such might confuse them and cause measurable drop-offs in the purchase completion funnel. It seems a little farfetched, but I'm sure at least someone has done the tests and proven this to be the case. (And if not, then there is truly no reason for the continued presence of these menus.)

Anecdotally, I've noticed that more and more sites are using autodetect features based on the first 4 digits entered. It certainly didn't put me off as a shopper; in fact, I found it a lot more elegant. But I'm an unusual guy, as are most people who work in tech. We can't assume that what's appealing or efficient to us is necessarily the same for the broader masses.

Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#43

Post by jessaustin »

archivator wrote: post #31
notdonspaulding wrote: post #21

If you only accept the 4 biggest card issuers, you can get away with some dead-simple code to indicate to the user what card type their number indicates they are. Personally, I bind an onkeyup event handler to fade in the appropriate icon based on the first digit of the number. This is not safe if you accept more than these 4 card types, (we don't). function detect_cc_type(number){ return { '3': 'american_express', '…

Except that Maestro cards start with 6 as well. Also, many ATM cards (a foreign concept to this European until very recently) overlap with Visa ranges. In fact, my ATM card parses exactly as a Visa number. It even has the Visa trademark mentioned on the back. No, you can't use it for online transactions. Apparently, Visa Debit is not a thing in Canada ... My point is, showing wrong UI is often worse than clunkier UI.

Just so I understand, your complaint is: if you enter a number that isn't a credit card number, but that can't actually be differentiated from a valid credit card number, the credit card widget isn't able to determine that it's not valid? You seem to be expecting a great deal from this widget.

Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#45

Post by danudey »

jonnathanson wrote: post #42

It's certainly not necessary, but my guess is that it follows from the "Don't Make Me Think" school of UX design. If a majority of consumers have been conditioned to expect a credit-card-selection menu (or series of clickable icons), then the absence of such might confuse them and cause measurable drop-offs in the purchase completion funnel. It seems a little farfetched, but I'm sure at least someone has done the tes…

I worked for a company which sold goods online and ran their own shopping cart. We took out the 'card type' drop down and just auto detected it. We had a bunch of greyed-out logos and once you entered a valid credit card number it would light up whichever card type it was (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Amex).

What we found was a huge increase in people typing 'Visa' or 'Mastercard' into the 'Name on the card' field (whatever the field was called, I don't remember). People were so used to having to provide that information that they began to provide it in lieu of providing the cardholder name at all.

Think about that for a second; they stopped putting their own name anywhere on the credit card form, and instead started putting the card type in that field. Conversion went down, customer service issues went up.

We added the field back to the form, even though it was never checked and did nothing, and it resolved the issue.

Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#46

Post by danudey »

rmc wrote: post #39
notdonspaulding wrote: post #21

If you only accept the 4 biggest card issuers, you can get away with some dead-simple code to indicate to the user what card type their number indicates they are. Personally, I bind an onkeyup event handler to fade in the appropriate icon based on the first digit of the number. This is not safe if you accept more than these 4 card types, (we don't). function detect_cc_type(number){ return { '3': 'american_express', '…

If you only accept the 4 biggest card issuers Heads up: If you're in (say) Europe or UK, then American Express and Discover aren't a "big card issuer"

In Canada, it's Visa and Mastercard, and the occasional AmEx. I don't think anyone here takes Discover.

Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#47

Post by ahallock »

ii wrote: post #38
ahallock wrote: post #15

I think it's one of those things where convenience for those looking at the underlying data has bled over into the UI. While you can deduce the type from the number, it's not easy for humans to do that at glance while looking over SQL query results. I could be wrong, but often, we ask users for more input than we need to because elegant UIs take lots of work.

Is it really hard for anyone in 2014 to get the type of a card from the first 2 digits of a card number and add a field to an INSERT query?

It's not difficult, but quite a few developers I've worked with were unaware of that algorithm, which is one reason I think they pushed it into the UI.

Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#48

Post by sliverstorm »

pbreit wrote: post #7
wcfields wrote: post #2

Could someone who deals with PCI compliance please explain some other nuances of credit cards that I've been curious about: * Fault/Decline Codes returned from processors like CyberSource. How are these factored? How do processors do Regex on names/addresses? [1][2] * CVV numbers and what they mean/how they are treated in the system? If CVV number is included does this increase chargeback protection? * How CHIP cards…

Checks are typically very simple, no regex-ing involved. First, names are not really checked. For addresses, usually only the number (and sometimes just first three digits) are checked as well as the zip. Generally the processor tries to decline as few txns as possible and instead deliver the information to the merchant to make a decision. The merchant can usually pre-configure error codes that it would like the proc…

It's not clear that chip cards would have avoided the Target thing since the fraudsters infiltrated the terminal software

From my understanding, chip cards implement challenge-response. So unless the terminal is capable of placing the card in debug mode and dumping any keys, I would expect chip-and-pin would have prevented the Target breach.

(If the terminal is capable of this... well, that is a gigantic hole)

Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#49

Post by csixty4 »

michaelt wrote: post #19
pbreit wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checks are typically very simple, no regex-ing involved. First, names are not really checked. For addresses, usually only the number (and sometimes just first three digits) are checked as well as the zip. Generally the processor tries to decline as few txns as possible and instead deliver the information to the merchant to make a decision. The merchant can usually pre-configure error codes that it would like the proc…

Can I piggyback on this and ask an unrelated question I'm curious about? Let's say an online merchant gets a transaction they very strongly suspect is a stolen credit card (perhaps it's from a customer with a long history of using stolen cards) but it validates just fine. Is there any provision in the interface for merchants to ask the credit card company to perform extra fraud checks, like calling the cardholder?

Nope. Once the credit card company authorizes the transaction, it's entirely up to the merchant whether to fulfill the transaction and close it out, or refund the customer. The credit card companies will do nothing to assist in making this decision.

But be sure you choose correctly, because they will take the entire payment away from you if there's a chargeback.

Re: Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, Mastercard, etc.?

#50

Post by aestra »

pbreit wrote: post #12
danmanstx wrote: post #6

Working for nonprofits and church's, I know we do it because AMEX and others charge higher rates per transaction than say VISA, thus some clients only take VISA and giving a select list of options, lets the user know to use that type of card.

Not taking Amex for cost reasons is almost always a bad move. First, it annoys the person giving you money (always a bad move). Second, Amex cardholder spend way more than average (frequently a bad move). They may still spend as much when asked to use Visa instead, but maybe not.

I'm an AMEX cardholder. I don't really mind too much when people don't take AMEX. I understand they are a "premium" brand and I adjust my expectations accordingly. That being said 99.9% of the time they take AMEX.

>giving a select list of options, lets the user know to use that type of card

No. AMEX cardholders know they aren't welcome 100% of the time, and they know to look for an AMEX logo before typing in their info. You need to have the proper logos or lists of payment methods right next to your way to pay.

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