There are times when some folks complain to me how they tried to purchase items on Aliexpress and were unable to make payment for it. Off course that is a failed transaction meaning that they could not buy what they wanted from the online shopping site. Others tried making payment using payment card like UBA Africard and all the get is an error report saying “Sorry, your payment was not successful, no money has been deducted or secured check failed”. Even when they have been using the same card to shop on Aliexpress previously most of these shoppers are told that their bank has declined their payment.
Apart from the UBA online payment cards, card from other banks like MasterCard from GTBank, Visa card from Diamond Bank or Access Bank Visa credit card that can be used for online purchase on Aliexpress, Nigerian users seems to share similar experience recently. This article by Hope Eno, addresses all the issues that people may have had recently using their payment cards on shopping site, aside from the ones he had earlier discussed about in his book on “Online Shopping and Import Business” on www.investmentlight.com/onlineshopping
It is important to know that when payment rejection occurs during online shopping, it is most unlikely that it is the online store that orchestrated the rejection of your payment. The ball will always stop at the table of your bank or the card issuer. They are the ones you can contact to know why or the reason behind the decline in transaction proceedings for your online shopping or import. Such general reasons for card rejections may include:
Insufficient Funds in Your Card Account
The africard UBA visa prepaid card is a VISA CARD issued by visa international; an international payment company just likes MasterCard. Most the times when online shops like Aliexpress rejects transactions on this card, it may be due to cash balance issues in your account. Noticeably, the UBA africard has high efficiency, but also charges high on commission and this can defeat your personal calculation when doing purchase with respect to the balance in the account attached your card. There may not be enough money to finalise your intended transactions if you did not consider the charges.
Note that you may have enough money for the items you intend to purchase but not enough for the bank charges, hence your transaction may fail at that point. To solve the issue simply fund your card with more cash and try the money transfer transaction again. Always make sure you have more than enough funds for the purchase you intend to make before shopping
Unavailable Of Enough Funds to Process the Transaction
If you recently deposited funds or payment to your credit card, debit or prepaid card, that money may not have been credited on your card or applied to your account. There could have been a repeated deductions or a hold on your account by a supplier or site you have previously made transactions with thereby reducing your available balance. Always check the balance on your account or card account to avoid transaction failure.
Transaction Limits
As a card holder make sure payment for your order does not exceed your credit limit or transaction sealing. Every country has an online transaction payment limits on card. Find out how much that is and don’t exceed it. That of Nigeria used to be ten thousand dollars before it was upgraded to a million dollars.
Cards without Complete Registration Details
Some prepaid cards and gift cards may not be accepted because they may be temporary card without complete personal information. Some these cards may be specially issued payment card that may not be popular like MasterCard or visa card. In such cases you may have to register the card online by entering your name and mailing address using stipulated, but usually listed details on the back of the card or on the card package or sent differently to you. This will enable you use the card online to shop after completing the details.
Locally Issued Card and Unsupported Cards
Some cards may not be supported electronically by the shopping site you are dealing with depending on the card issuer. Also some card issuer or bank may disallow internet transactions on their cards, hence cannot be used for international transfer on website. Some card may not come with internet enabled transaction other may not have features for international transactions.
There are card issued for domestic use only like the Verve card without visa card or MasterCard logo, this card cannot be used for international transactions, because they are not connected to the international payment network and can only be used locally. Most Nigerian banks offer cards that can be used locally and the ones that access anywhere in the world. Always find out the difference when obtaining your card.
Sometimes banks can temporarily disable internet transactions on payment card may be due to system maintenance or when they are trying to close in on a frauds issue.
Busy Network, Down Connection and Maintenance Issues
Online payment is a technologically driven system powered by electronics signals, hence we cannot rule out system failures sometimes which may hinder transaction. Your payment transaction may be rejected when your bank or the payment processing company's network may be experiencing technical difficulties or be down for maintenance.
You may also get a decline in your payment transaction when there is heavy transaction traffic or large volume of transactions through the system during holidays or events, or when the payment processing company cannot reach your bank to approve a transaction or when your bank must need your approval for certain transaction they are not sure of. To solve this you may just try again later when the system resumes or contact your card issuer or bank to resolve the failed transaction.
Fraud Issues and Suspicion
All banks have aggressive fraud detection measures and may be blocking your transaction for one reason or the other. Some banks and card issuers may likely block transaction that they feels suspicious of or when they suspect illegal activity on your card. Most time when a payment processing company declines a transaction on behalf of your bank or card issuer as result of security issues it conceals the reason for such rejections.
To solve this authorization and fraud prevention systems issues, you can contact your bank and request for a removal of such a blockage. You are advised not to attack your bank for such an action as it done for your good and these systems structures for fraud check both internally and externally.
Verification Code for Online Payment
There are various codes which payment merchant or payment companies used to strengthen the loopholes or gaps that fraudsters may want to exploit to commit fraud on payment cards. Although these codes help secure the funds of card users, they can also work against the card owner if he or she is not conversant with the usage of the codes. One such is the use of incorrect card security code which can cause payment failure. Card security code is the short numeric code on the back of your credit card.
Sometimes a payment site may show an error sign “Cannot pay, Try MasterCard SecureCode or Verified by Visa”. What this means is that your card issuer or bank, payment company or even the shopping site may require that you use "Verified by Visa" or "MasterCard Secure Code" to complete an online transaction. It is an advance form of security check on transactions so to say.
The 3-D security code is a code that authorizes your credit card issuer to activate your credit card for any online payment you are doing using the card on a website. As stated above the 3-D Security Code for Visa is called Verified by Visa (VBV) and that of Master Card is called MasterCard Secure Code.
I think recently Aliexpress may not have allowed some debit cards in Nigeria because they do not have the 3D Secure Code, most international dollar cards do have this code. The Nigerian government recently announced that all card issued by banks in the country must comply with international best practice and have this code in all payment card so that Nigeria payment card can be seen as secured to makes online transaction internationally. So the secured code will no longer be an issue very soon for Nigerian shopping online. Details from www.investmentlight.com/onlineshopping
Some International Payment Cards You Could Use
MasterCard, Visa are international payment card issuing companies working in alliance with local bank and local card issuing companies to make payment transaction both local and international flawless. There are other international payment transaction companies though not popular in Nigeria, but do have card which is also valid for online transactions.
GTB Naira MasterCard and other conventional Visa cards are valid payment cards online and internationally. It is worthy of note that it is good to always have more than one card for online payment, so if one payment card failed another might work for the same purpose. Access Bank Visa Credit Card has minimal charges, oh sorry, I have run out of space. For complete over seven five page details on all you need to know about online shopping, import, payment and setting up an online store simply visit www.investmentlight.com/onlineshopping
Hope Eno is an investment and business Opportunity expert with vast experience on product design and import
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