Credit Card Holders Urged to Sign Up

3rd September 2007

Million of credit card holders have already signed up, but APACS, the UK payment association and the Home Office are urging more credit card holders to sign up to Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode which makes credit cards safer to use when shopping online.

The services work when credit cardholders first register online and choose their own password, which they then enter when shopping at participating online retailers. These services provides online shoppers with increased protection against the unauthorized use of their credit card for online purchases and enhanced online security without the requirement for any additional software.

Almost all cardholders can now sign up to Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode at the web site of the financial institution that issues their credit card. Increasingly, cardholders are also being encouraged to sign up when they are shopping at participating merchants as more and more online retailers begin to introduce these new security systems.

"The industry has worked hard to provide practical solutions to fight online shopping fraud and we are calling on those cardholders not yet signed up to do so and take the appropriate security measures when shopping online" said Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS.