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I have a question about a transaction that "happened" to me a few days ago.

I was buying flight tickets on a page that had a Mastercard SecureCode sign next to credit card fields - mytrip.com

  1. After I entered my details I was taken to the authentication page by Swedbank where I saw a different amount (+47€ CC fees).

  2. Then I canceled the authentication process by clicking "cancel". That means I don't want to buy the tickets and therefore do not authorize this payment.

  3. A few minutes later I received the tickets on my email and I realized that the transaction went through. The amount of 911.50€ was booked from my bank account

  4. When I contacted the merchant they told me that if the SecureCode authentication fails they use another gateway to (secretly) finalize the payment. The second gateway is not using SecureCode authentication.

I find this illegal as in the MasterCard SecureCode rules there is a note that if a website has SecureCode enabled, you can't get billed unless you authenticate yourself.

The vendor claims that this is how they work and it's my fault. As the airline is not going to refund the tickets to them, they are not going to refund to me.

Another issue is that they claim that this whole process was, in theory, a single transaction, that they have two gateways running simultaneously and if one (with the SecureCode enabled) fails they're automatically using another one (with no SecureCode authentication needed).

To me, it sounds more like two transactions and in this case the second one was not authorized by me and is therefore a misusage of my credit card details or even a fraud.

The total amount of 911.50€ has already been removed from my account.

The payment was made using a Mastercard debit card.

From Bank's T&C related to Mastercard SecureCode:

... If you are unable to provide your SecureCode or hint response, or if the authentication through MasterCard SecureCode otherwise fails, the merchant may not accept your credit card in payment for that transaction.

Screenshot of the actual credit card fields and SecureCode badge

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    Was this a credit or debit card?
    – BrenBarn
    Mar 7, 2017 at 4:21
  • It was a Mastercard debit card
    – Silver Ringvee
    Mar 7, 2017 at 8:00
  • The argument that the airline is not refunding them has nothing to do with you. Don't even mention it further.
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Mar 7, 2017 at 15:15
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    So, "the merchant may not accept your credit card", or they may accept it, which they did. The merchant chooses. It does not say "the merchant is prevented from accepting your credit card."
    – Nigel Touch
    Mar 7, 2017 at 16:45

1 Answer 1

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Your only recourse is to attempt to cancel the tickets through mytrip.com, and if they do not cancel the tickets, you can initiate a charge-back on your card on the grounds that they did not disclose the full price of the ticket before you initiated checkout and they did not allow you to cancel the transaction after they did disclose the price of the tickets.

You can also contact any relevant consumer protection agencies that have jurisdiction where you live.

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    But the fact that they were (secretly) using a non-SecureCode gateway although they stated that they do, doesn't matter at all? I mean shouldn't I get it sorted with bank and Mastercard?
    – Silver Ringvee
    Mar 6, 2017 at 14:18
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    @SilverRingvee, the second part of the first sentence of my answer says to initiate a charge-back. You might also want to edit your question to specifically state that the company has already completely refused to reimburse you.
    – NL - Apologize to Monica
    Mar 6, 2017 at 14:38
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    @SilverRingvee If you do initiate a charge-back you may need to do it on two different charges - FAQ on the website: (mytrip.com/en/misc/faq) 35. When will my credit card be charged? Your credit card will be charged at the moment of the completion of your reservation. It is possible that you will note 2 different charges on your credit card, one from the airline representing the price of the ticket and another one from our company (E-Travel Athens) representing the services charge. The sum of these two charges suggest the final price of the ticket displayed on our website.
    – EdHunter
    Mar 6, 2017 at 15:08
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    What I saw on the MasterCard site says that problems with SecureCode should be discussed with the issuing bank. You could contact your bank and try to find a way to report the merchant's misuse of the SecureCode logo. There doesn't appear to be a specific category for this on the MasterCard reporting website, but you could also submit a complaint there (maybe under some other category) or otherwise try to get in contact with MasterCard. The thing is that doing this may not help you get a speedy solution to your case; it will just result in the merchant being monitored more closely.
    – BrenBarn
    Mar 7, 2017 at 4:23
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    @SilverRingvee going by the MasterCard merchant handling rules, a vendor is required to attempt to authorise a transaction via SecureCode but they are not prevented from submitting the transaction after a failed SecureCode authentication - SecureCode is simply a liability shifting mechanism, whereby the liability for fraud etc is shifted from the vendor to the issuing bank. If a vendor chooses not to use it, the liability is not shifted, but there is absolutely and utterly nothing in the rules which prevent them from not using it. Your card details weren't misused in this instance.
    – user45974
    Mar 7, 2017 at 12:55

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