My Skype credit is hovering around $0.00 as I make some Christmas calls here in Spain. Yesterday, I attempted to put $10 on my account with my Visa card. Everything went fine until a “verified by Visa” prompt came up during the order process.
Digression: This is some “feature” from Visa which intervenes during an online transaction to ask for the purchaser’s password. In theory this sounds like a wonderful feature which could really limit online credit card fraud by having a universal password for the card which every payment system accessed. There is only one small problem with the verified by Visa system, it’s optional. I made a purchase earlier in the day without having a single prompt along the way. If I would have found the card on the street, I could have made the purchase. Ok…back to the story.
I wasn’t sure about the password since I had set it about six months ago and had, of course, never been prompted for it again. I took a stab at it and the payment was declined by Skype. They told me to try back tomorrow. Crap.
Today I tried again and, upon arriving at the “verified by Visa” screen, I chose “forgot my password” instead of guessing. After jumping through their hoops it redirected me to the “Skype payment failed” screen without any further fanfare or information. So, now it’s time to figure out how this stupid Visa feature works. The “Verified by Visa” website provided me with a support number I could call to get a temporary password so I could login and reset my real password.
Digression: The security protocol of that is just ridiculous. If the thief has all of your info except the password they can get the password over the phone, whereas, if they had an online system, the thief would also need to control your e-mail account to recover the info. But, that would make sense so I’ll just let it be.
I called the number and after verifying my information I was forwarded to the issuer of the card, my bank. Information verified again, asked what the problem is again, forwarded back to Visa fraud. Information verified, problem asked, forwarded to Visa International since I’m calling from Spain. Now, the person I’m speaking with is really helpful for a change! The only problem is that they want to change my PIN number… I reexplain the problem and they ask me why I called them since it’s my bank’s problem.
I’ve now given up on resetting the password and try to figure out why the transaction was declined. Perhaps it wasn’t the password!? They transfer me back to fraud…
insert five minutes of explaining, verifying, re-explaining and hearing them say “sky-pee-ee?”
The real reason my transaction was declined? There has been a lot of fraud on Skype’s website and they now require you to verify your card with its issuer. This clears a flag set by Skype’s payment system and then you can make your purchase.
Wouldn’t it just have been easier to write that little tidbit on the “Payment Rejected” page? I really do love you Skype but you need some better integration with your payment handler.
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