Reset "Strong Customer Authentication" (SCA) contactless limit in App?

AW · October 7, 2019, 4:10pm

The new Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) rules requiring chip & pin every 5th (or less) transaction is annoying. I had my first one last week which resulted in a duplicate charge which took a week to get refunded, only a small amount but something else you need to keep an eye on.

Anyway, I was looking how other providers deal with this and found one that resets the SCA limits when you log into their app. Quote "SCA will be required prior to the moment your total spend of contactless transactions exceeds the equivalent of €150 (e.g. 5 transactions of €30 each) since the last SCA event (i.e. the last time you logged into your App). "

It would be great if Curve could do something like this, they could even send a notification when you are approaching the limit so you can reset it in the app. From what I gather the SCA rule needs a second form of identification, chip and pin is one way using the “knowledge” option but it can be done with the “possession” option, i.e. a pre registered phone.

Just a thought to make using Curve easier to use.

megamaster · October 7, 2019, 4:37pm

SCA rules also allow for contactless+PIN. It doesn’t need to be chip+PIN. It’s painless enough, if above the limit you’ll just be asked for the PIN after you touch the card

AW · October 7, 2019, 5:12pm

True the rules do allow contactless+pin but this isn’t currently widely adopted and is this requires the pin terminals to be updated which is out of Curve’s control. At the moment most terminals will try to authorise a contactless transaction, fail and ask for you to insert your card, by which time you will have probably already put it back in your wallet. If the normal app use to check transactions can reset the SCA limits then most people would never have to be bothered by it.

moon · October 7, 2019, 5:15pm

Hmm, can you tell more how it can result to duplicate charge?

megamaster · October 7, 2019, 5:41pm

Here in Portugal terminals go to contactless+PIN whenever PIN is required. That’s how it has always worked. I don’t know if the app can be aware that the limit has been reset with contactless+PIN and if not, it would be an added hassle to deal with

AW · October 7, 2019, 6:05pm

After 6 days I contacted Curve and they refunded it. They told me that it was the authorisation request from the contactless attempt and that it should remove itself within 7 days. They refunded it straight away. This was a transaction at Tesco. I scanned the contactless card, after a few seconds the screen said I needed to insert the card for this transaction.
After a couple of days it had already been passed to the underlying card as a completed (not pending) transaction.

moon · October 7, 2019, 6:05pm

In Latvia, sadly its not contactless+PIN whenever PIN is required (only works on some merchants/pos machines). I tested this with purchase above 25euro (which is contactless limit in LV). And POS showed message “Insert card” and not “input PIN”. Quite lame

AW · October 7, 2019, 6:17pm

I’m not sure what you mean, what extra “hassle”. If you haven’t used the app recently then things would carry on as they do now and you would need to enter your pin after 5 transactions (if you haven’t done a chip and pin transaction recently). If you use the app to check your transactions, as I expect most people do, then the SCA limit would reset and you won’t have to enter your pin at checkout. Surely that’s easier for everybody.

moon · October 7, 2019, 6:22pm

Btw, does Curve have this SCA limit implemented already? I think not.
Or you hit this limit when using curve with your underlaying card (underlaying card triggers it) ?

megamaster · October 7, 2019, 6:33pm

AW · October 7, 2019, 6:57pm

I don’t think so. The underlying card see it as an “online” transaction so the contactless limits don’t apply to that side of the transaction.

jan.sladic80 · October 9, 2021, 10:07am

Hello. I have noticed a new feature called “Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)”.

This now means that (in EU) once any transaction amount is higher than 30 EUR or all accumulated spending limit of 150 EUR is reached or after 5 payments, contactless payment will be blocked and you will be required to use Chip & PIN.

This is really great feature for some who don’t use Curve a lot, but for me, who does, this is not really convenient.

I would like you to make this option voluntary as most my payments go through contactless.

poeliev · October 9, 2021, 11:08am

This ‘feature’ is the implementation of the strong customer authentication (SCA) requirement for contactless payments as a requirement of the EU Revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2) on payment service providers within the European Economic Area.

As it’s an implementation of a directive it’s not really an option and I doubt it’s allowed to make this voluntary.
That leaves us with thinking up of easier ways of resetting the contactless limits, such as the one proposed in the opening post.

moon · October 9, 2021, 7:10pm

Declined transactions due to “You need to enter PIN” getting more annoying with Curve. It was not like that before.

Please add option to reset it via app like revolut (based on 150eur limit) not 5 time use limit - or best - let users choose in app which method they want.

poeliev · October 9, 2021, 7:26pm

Revolut does actually also use the 5 contactless transactions in a row limit.

However, if you pay for five transactions in a row with a contactless card, you will be required to enter your PIN – just to confirm that the person paying is still you.