Visa Electron: Why Not Accepted?

Alex_LS

bert&ernie wrote: »

Interesting. So the issuer host dynamically alters the cumulative limit - presumably based on account status. That's pretty cute. Did it work? Were there any issues with the terminals applying the scripts? PM me if you prefer.

Cardholder is/was able to deposit money into the account online and the card balance would be updated next time the card goes online. Everything worked fine. Has the added benefit of being able to read the balance offline, although does require a dedicated card reader.

bert&ernie wrote: »

I see your point, but I still don't think that the decision to go on-line has that much to do with the risk of a counterfeit card. To my knowledge, nobody has actually encountered a cloned SDA card in the wild - at least not in the UK... yet!

Quite so. And a good reason is that it's not particularly worthwhile doing so when transactions are largely sent online and the fraud would be picked up. There is a cost benefit to having offline transactions (connection costs, fees, transaction times, etc.) but UK transactions were traditionally largely online and I guess the theoretical risks meant it would be a brave decision to change that. It may well be that even with DDA/CDA the reduced costs for offline aren't a sufficient reason to change the status quo, but there's a much reduced risk barrier.

Godiva500

Still can't workout whether a prepaid card is more acceptable than an elektron. For example, can they be used in major supermarkets and other stores on line?

Alex_LS

Major supermarkets - almost certainly. Other stores and online - depends on whether the card is electronic use only, as many currently are (ignoring our little side-conversation). The whole point about pre-paid is that you generally don't require credit checks and a credit agreement to get one, but this means that unless the Issuer employs a little trickery (as we're discussing above) the easiest thing for them to do is authorise all transactions online so would not work any differently to a Visa Electron; in fact, the Post Office prepaid card is a Visa Electron.

savagej

I am not entirely sure what is tricky (it is certainly esoteric but there is nothing inherently difficult to understand) about the use of dynamic ICC's. This year I beleive it is paypoint and newcastle building society who will be lauching the first cards where both the card can be loaded at the issuer (in the current fashion) and / or the chip can also be loaded separately so it becomes a stored value card in addition to a prepaid card, as per EMV procedures on this subject.