We explain how this will help keep customers' money safe.

What do 20 pens, 10 mugs, 8 glasses, 4 tea towels and one pot of cuticle cream all have in common? Well apart from our kitchens and stationary cupboard being slightly better stocked (and some healthy-looking cuticles within the Operations teams), all of these items have been part of the purchases to test and ultimately deliver 3D secure.
So, what is 3D Secure?

3D Secure is a tool for online transactions that requires the account holder to complete an authentication process for some purchases. It forms part of the security of your account.

Some banks use passwords. But we’ve all been in that position when trying to make a purchase late on a Sunday evening. Can you remember the first, fourth and ninth character of the password you set 5 years ago? Probably not.

At Starling, we’ve decided to use ‘one-time passwords’ sent via SMS as the type of authentication for online purchases. This means that a text will be sent to your phone when you are required to authenticate for a specific online purchase. One code will be sent for each purchase meaning that static password can be left behind.
Why have we implemented 3D Secure?

Implementing 3D Secure adds to the many ways we ensure your money is protected, helping you to make online payments safely.

For certain transactions, we want to make sure that the person making the purchase is the account holder. One way to do this is to make the account holder provide information that only they would know, for example, codes sent to the phone number linked to your Starling bank account.

A few websites require banks to support 3D Secure, and rightly so. This is all about making payments more secure for customers. That’s why we’re working hard to roll out this security feature out to all our customers.
a phone displaying a 3D Secure text confirmation
As a customer, what will I have to do?

If you’re paying on a website that uses 3D Secure, you’ll see the 3D Secure screen showing that the transaction is being processed. For some transactions, you will then see a screen where you will be required to enter a ’one-time password’ to complete the transaction.

The ’one-time password’ will be sent to your phone via SMS. There is no charge for you to receive the texts and no changes to how you use your card for other transaction types e.g. contactless or chip and PIN. You won’t need to reply to the text, you’ll simply need to read the code and enter it into your web browser when the text pings into your phone. If you’re making a purchase from your Starling joint account, only the card holder making the purchase will receive the text, not both of you.

Using one-time passwords is the first phase of Starling rolling out 3D Secure. We will be working on a biometric authentication as an alternative to SMS passwords, with this planned to be rolled out later this year.
How is Starling delivering 3D Secure?

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be enrolling all our customers - personal, business and joint - into 3D Secure. You don’t have to do or download anything and you won’t need a new card, we’ll manage the enrolment process for you.

So next time you buy something online you may see 3D Secure live!

Cardholders on specific programmes issued and managed by PFS in the UK can now enable Samsung Pay and use Contactless wherever the contactless symbol is displayed and Mastercard accepted. Near Field Communication (NFC) and enhanced security features including fingerprint authentication, PIN/iris scan make the user experience safe and seamless.

Since the launch of Samsung Pay in 2017, Samsung has focused on building the functionalities of this “digital wallet” to provide the best possible user experience. Key capabilities include:

Simplicity: With Samsung Pay every transaction is easy and convenient. Samsung Pay uses NFC making the user experience seamless. Users can launch Samsung Pay with a simple swipe from the bottom edge of their screen to bring up the last used credit, debit or prepaid card, use their iris, pin or fingerprint to prove their identity, and tap their device on a payment terminal to make a payment. Samsung Pay allows customers to use contactless payment for transactions over £30 (subject to merchant policies).
Security: Samsung is committed to ensuring its customers have complete peace of mind when it comes to mobile payments and digital wallets. Each transaction is authenticated by fingerprint, pin number or iris scan, and uses an encrypted digital token to replace sensitive card information to help prevent fraud. Additionally, Samsung’s industry-leading Knox security platform is built into the hardware and software of your device, which ensures mobile information and data is secure.
Access (Almost Anywhere): Samsung Pay is accepted almost anywhere you can use your contactless credit, debit or prepaid card in the UK and where the Mastercard logo is displayed.

James Bradbury, Head of Services at Samsung Electronics said: “We are delighted to announce the new partnership with PFS and to be able to offer Samsung Pay to PFS customers, helping more people to make on-the-go transactions easy and incredibly secure.”

Lee Britton, Commercial Director at PFS stated: "The future of payments is increasingly digital and PFS and Samsung are at the forefront of this fast-paced evolution. We are excited to reveal the expansion of an attractive mobile offering for clients. This partnership provides an increased number of payment choices through smartphones, smartwatches and the trend-setting wearables market as we revolutionise traditional payment methods together.”

Katherine Rodger, Senior Project Manager Mobile Payments at PFS added: "We are able to leverage Mastercard’s advanced tokenization platform to add even more security to payments. Samsung Pay uses tokens instead of a cardholder’s account number, meaning personal information is never revealed during this ultra-convenient payment process. Additionally, a unique dynamic cryptogram is generated for each transaction ensuring the same credentials can never be used more than once."

The only self-managed options were to endure the labor-intensive task or unfairly sacrifice revenue--until now. Today, Midigator® announces DisputeFlow™, a new feature that makes it radically simple to respond to chargebacks and recover lost revenue.

DisputeFlow allows merchants to fight chargebacks with just a few clicks, reducing the amount of time spent on responses by at least 62.5%. Despite investing less effort into each chargeback, beta test merchants experienced an average win rate 200% higher than what they were able to achieve on their own--higher-quality cases and quicker response times yield greater success.

Another characteristic that contributes to the radical simplicity of DisputeFlow is the integration requirement: zero development resources are needed. Merchants can begin using DisputeFlow within 24 hours.

“There are so many noteworthy features of this new tool, but when you add them all together, the disruptive element of DisputeFlow is the accessibility,” said Corey Baggett, CEO of Midigator. “For a lot of merchants, access to advanced risk technology has been elusive--most small businesses don’t have enough technological resources or the ability to integrate, some enterprise merchants are not able to share confidential data. But DisputeFlow changes all that. Now, everyone has unrestricted access to chargeback management technology.”

To use DisputeFlow’s patent-pending technology, merchants login to Midigator where all chargeback information is consolidated into a single dashboard. The guided workflow prompts merchants to drag and drop information into fields that are customized for the specific case being worked. At various stages, the technology creates and saves templates to make each future response progressively easier. Once completed, Midigator automatically submits the package to the processor and collects result data.

“If you manage chargebacks in-house, DisputeFlow will be your new favorite tool,” said Baggett. “Once you see just how simple it is, you’ll wonder how you managed for so long without it.”