Today I was helping a customer pay online with their Nedbank credit card. Mastercard has implemented "Secure Code" technology, which means that after entering your credit card details you are asked for another "password", which is supposed to ensure that you are the owner of the credit card.

It's a nice idea, but it has been very poorly implemented by our local banks. They have spent no time or money educating their clients about this technology, so the first time they hear about "Secure Code" is when they are in the middle of an online transaction, and it usually confuses (and frightens) them. To give you an example of what a joke Nedbank thinks this whole thing is, have a look at their help page that customers are shown. Here are some extracts:

To use MasterCard Secure Code, you simply verify your identity and create your password or you may be able to use an existing passowrd you have with your bank.. Then, your card issuer will automatically ask for your password whenever your card number is used at participating online stores.

[Insert Issuer - Provided content]

I'm guessing that Mastercard provided a template for a help page that each of the banks was supposed to customise. Nedbank didn't even bother reading through it, so it still has the [Insert Content Here] messages, the typos, and the double full-stop at the end of the sentence. It gets worse:

Social Security Number
With increasing frequency, government agencies, schools, ulility companies and businesses rely on Social security numbers to identify individuals' records in their computer systems. This service uses only the last 4 digits of the primary cardholder's Social Security number to help verify your identity. Providing the last 4 digits of the primary cardholder's Social Security number does not give access to any of your Social Security records.

Social Security Number? That's going to confuse South Africans. Would it have been so hard to change it to say "ID Number"?

But there's more:

Create Your Password
Use [X] to [XX] characters and at least one digit to create your password. You may use letters, numbers, or any combination of these.

How many characters is X?

It just goes to show that Nedbank has implemented Secure Code because Mastercard is forcing them to. Nedbank themselves are not that interested in making the experience an easy and safe one for customers of our online stores.

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