I received this by email today… bad news for me :bad:
:: Important Notice Regarding Maestro Transactions ::
Epoch has been advised that beginning July 1st, 2008 all online Maestro transactions will require Secure Code authentication. This email is to inform you of this change, explain to you what it means, and point out how this might affect your business.
Maestro (in some cases formerly referred to as Switch) is MasterCard International’s lead debit brand offering over *540 million cardholders secure and convenient access to their deposit accounts. It is issued in over 100 countries. Epoch began accepting Switch/Maestro transactions in 2005 providing international surfers an additional payment option and increasing sales for our clients.
Maestro’s implementation of Secure Code is prohibitive of recurring transactions. A surfer who joins a membership site by paying with Switch/Maestro will not be able to be rebilled automatically as each transaction must be verified through SecureCode which requires customer initiation. Please note that this new mandate only affects the Maestro debit product and does not affect any other payment type (including the Solo debit card). Epoch will continue to accept Maestro for all non-recurring transactions.
What is Secure Code?
Secure Code is the MasterCard equivalent of Visa’s VBV (Verified by Visa) program. With Secure Code or VBV a surfer is prompted to enter their secret code or password at the moment of checkout when shopping online. This is a level of security used to verify that the purchaser is the actual cardholder. Merchants and retailers never see nor can they collect a cardholder’s secret passcode. This differs from CVV2 or CVC2 authentication which any **Visa PCI compliant service provider may collect but is not permitted to store.
Epoch Response
To continue to remain compliant with all card association rules, Epoch will no longer support recurring transactions for Maestro. Any recurring members being billed via Maestro will not be rebilled after June 30th, 2008.
As a matter of practicality, Epoch will no longer process trials or recurring memberships for Maestro transactions. However, single shot orders (one time charge/non-recurring) will continue to process normally.
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
Yep… so what will the next step be?
Luke - hard to explain, but I’ve just lost 150 monthly recurring customers thanks to this decision. Switch / Maestro card holders have funds in their current account counts - the card is debit, not credit and HUGE over here.
Imagine if Mastercard and Visa decided to do this wholesale to reduce fraud / chargebacks… no recurring model will work and virtually all affiliate programs will be forced in to a PPS model rather than rev-share…
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
Maestro is used in the UK a lot. It’s like a debit card. More secure though in that it has some “extra” security that NOW prevents re-bills. I believe it is used in Europe a lot.
“In the United Kingdom, the former Switch debit card system has been rebranded as Maestro and now uses chip and PIN technology. An advertising campaign labels the system as “The new cash”.”
I GUESS the whole issue is the PIN thing. So, if it is the PIN issue, what is stopping Mastercard from saying any other debit card can’t recur because it needs a PIN. I guess Maestro makes tight security claims.
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
Jim, can you speak with your rep at Epoch about how they are going to handle this? I was told that they aren’t even going to bother emailing recurring customers whose memberships will get automatically declined next month. Naturally, I wrote a very strong email!
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
i hit up rand and frank from epoch, but it’s after business hours here. hopefully one or both of them can post here tomorrow and let us know what’s going on with maestro.
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
I’ll email Frank tomorrow. It sure would be nice for Epoch to at least give us a list of recurring Maestro members so we can email them ourselves. I also wonder how they will redirect new surfers trying to join a recurring membership via Maestro. We’ll need some kind of wording on our pre-join pages now if Epoch doesn’t state it plainly on their join forms.
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
Hello everyone,
Let’s see if I can shed some light on a few misconceptions here…
First off, BassChick (as usual) is a voice of reason. She is correct that it is Maestro that made this decision. In fact for most processors this happened about a year ago. Epoch was able to continue to process recurring for Switch/Maestro much longer than our competitors. So those that had Epoch as their primary biller got an extra year of revenue. – Your welcome. whistle
Adam - We understand that this is unfortunate but there is nothing more that can be done. If you wish to contact your Switch/Maestro members and encourage them to sign up with a different card you are of course welcome to do so. Epoch would not presume to do this on your behalf as it could adversely affect your business. I would highly recommend that you look at your logs to see which members are actually using your service and only contact those members.
InsaneSimon - You can still use Epoch. Maestro’s decision doesn’t affect anything except Maestro card holders. And, had you used Epoch as your primary biller from the beginning you would have enjoyed the Switch/Maestro train while it lasted.
Xtr8guy - For clarification, Epoch will continue to accept Switch/Maestro cards for single shot and CamCharge transactions. There’s still an advantage (especially for cam sites). And, no need for additional wording on the join pages. Epoch’s SmartForms won’t display Switch/Maestro as an option for recurring memberships or trials. If you are going to make some changes, we can show you ways to maximize your sales by minimizing friction to the payment form. Talk to your account rep or drop me a line.
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
[QUOTE=Rand;13031]
Hello everyone,
Let’s see if I can shed some light on a few misconceptions here…
First off, BassChick (as usual) is a voice of reason. She is correct that it is Maestro that made this decision. In fact for most processors this happened about a year ago. Epoch was able to continue to process recurring for Switch/Maestro much longer than our competitors. So those that had Epoch as their primary biller got an extra year of revenue. – Your welcome. whistle
Adam - We understand that this is unfortunate but there is nothing more that can be done. If you wish to contact your Switch/Maestro members and encourage them to sign up with a different card you are of course welcome to do so. Epoch would not presume to do this on your behalf as it could adversely affect your business. I would highly recommend that you look at your logs to see which members are actually using your service and only contact those members.
InsaneSimon - You can still use Epoch. Maestro’s decision doesn’t affect anything except Maestro card holders. And, had you used Epoch as your primary biller from the beginning you would have enjoyed the Switch/Maestro train while it lasted.
Xtr8guy - For clarification, Epoch will continue to accept Switch/Maestro cards for single shot and CamCharge transactions. There’s still an advantage (especially for cam sites). And, no need for additional wording on the join pages. Epoch’s SmartForms won’t display Switch/Maestro as an option for recurring memberships or trials. If you are going to make some changes, we can show you ways to maximize your sales by minimizing friction to the payment form. Talk to your account rep or drop me a line.
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
Rand, I wasn’t blaming Epoch for this decision, but you might have handled it better. For example, offering webmasters the opportunity to ask for an email dump of all active recurring memberships using the affected cards would have been a positive step.
Also, will you be emailing all the declined memberships as they occur, telling them why this is happening? Or do I have to manually pick those up every day and contact them myself?
Again, I appreciate this is not Epoch’s fault, but I don’t see Epoch treating me or my loyal customers with any regard over the issue.
Re: Epoch stopping recurring memberships for Switch / Maestro cards
Great…I send my $750 to Epoch cause folks keep telling me I gotta have them as a processor for these cards and now this happens? I should stick with my instincts.
