"International orders must be made with a credit card" issue

[franswa]

Dear all,

My apologizes for creating a new topic, but my friends and I (all from France) have experienced a serious issue with the payment of the balance this year, especially concerning the credit card which is required for it. We've managed to get through it, but I thought it would be worthy to share it with the community, to better understand what happened

- The credit card requirement is not new and we've always been able to sort it out with a card specifically labelled "credit"

- But this year, it turns out that the requirements are way harsher than the previous years, with many card labelled "credit" being rejected, despite having worked for the 2019 payments

- So only roughly one out ten cards tested worked. We were not able to identify a specific pattern between the accepted and rejected card (we've pretty much tried everything : Visa, AmEX, from different banks, from different countries including UK...)

Has anyone outside the UK (or inside) experienced similar difficulties ? I would be glad to know about it, so we can hopefully understand what happened and find a solution. This kind of issue could be a disaster for the 2023 ticket day...

Thank you very much in advance ! 🙂

[AlexOvd]

This is a ridiculous policy. I needed to order a credit card to the bank just to pay the balance as I don't own one (usually credit cards have some maintenance commissions and stuff in my country so none of my friends or family even had one) . The only festival in the planet that doesn't allow debit cards if you are out of UK... 

I hope this will change but it doesn't look like as it looks it has been like this for a while. And it's terrible. 

Edited March 5, 2022 by AlexOvd

[incident]

10 minutes ago, franswa said:

(we've pretty much tried everything : Visa, AmEX, from different banks, from different countries including UK...)

Not sure about the rest, but AmEx has always been off the table - needs to be VISA or MasterCard only.

[franswa]

19 minutes ago, AlexOvd said:

This is a ridiculous policy. I needed to order a credit card to the bank just to pay the balance as I don't own one (usually credit cards have some maintenance commissions and stuff in my country so none of my friends or family even had one) . The only festival in the planet that doesn't allow debit cards if you are out of UK... 

I hope this will change but it doesn't look like as it looks it has been like this for a while. And it's terrible. 

Sure, this requirement is already quite a hassle. It has been on since 2017 if I remember well.

 

10 minutes ago, incident said:

Not sure about the rest, but AmEx has always been off the table - needs to be VISA or MasterCard only.

Thanks for this information. This year we had several VISA credit cards being rejected, and a few VISA credit cards being accepted, with no explanation provided

Edited March 5, 2022 by franswa

[incident]

I've also heard of instances where people in the UK have had unexplained payment issues.

I'm wondering if it's essentially the same, or at least in a similar vicinity, as the issue that Oxfam ran into when they opened up applications a week or so ago.

Essentially - Web sites are now being asked to introduce a new verification / fraud detection feature called Strong Customer Authentication.

The deadline for implementing this is in the UK is 14th March (having been previously delay more than once), and in the case of the Oxfam applications, it appeared that some banks were requiring it already and rejected transactions. I believe the deadline for implementing it has long since passed in the EU, and so it could be that card providers there are expecting it but finding that it's not implemented or at least not implemented in the way they expect.

The above is an educated guess, but I think it makes sense.

[Calvin Klein]

Yes. I don't know specifically what it is but in my case I need to call the Visa first and they have to approve the payment. After they do that I can go to seetickets and pay it. I got declined a couple of times and then after calling Visa it went through.

This is not new. I'm pretty sure that back in october 2019 I made sure to call them before ticket day to make sure this didn't happen.

 

So, if you use a credit card always have it approved with the CC people before ticket day.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Calvin Klein

[gfa]

2 hours ago, incident said:

I've also heard of instances where people in the UK have had unexplained payment issues.

I'm wondering if it's essentially the same, or at least in a similar vicinity, as the issue that Oxfam ran into when they opened up applications a week or so ago.

Essentially - Web sites are now being asked to introduce a new verification / fraud detection feature called Strong Customer Authentication.

The deadline for implementing this is in the UK is 14th March (having been previously delay more than once), and in the case of the Oxfam applications, it appeared that some banks were requiring it already and rejected transactions. I believe the deadline for implementing it has long since passed in the EU, and so it could be that card providers there are expecting it but finding that it's not implemented or at least not implemented in the way they expect.

The above is an educated guess, but I think it makes sense.

This is going to be an absolute nightmare for the resale I bet - people were talking about preparing for it on the thread. I would recommend trying out Revolut if your in the UK for a debit card, not sure for international maybe a UK bank's foreign branch credit card would be the best bet?

[netspy]

2017:

2019:

 

2022: This year is the worst. Card types that were accepted in 2019 are rejected in 2022.
Revolut (UK, Credit), N26 (Germany, Credit), Caisse d'épargne VISA Gold (France, Credit), Banque Populaire Facelia (France, Credit) ...
None of the cards work and all trigger the "International orders must be made using a credit card" error message.

SeeTickets uses https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_methods which flags all these cards as debit cards. Why ? It's a mystery ...
By entering their first 8 digits on binlist.net, these cards are detected as credit cards :

I haven't contacted See Tickets again this year, but they are usually only able to pretend to be sorry for the inconvenience and suggest using another card.
And this year, as they are also very busy NOT shipping international orders, I wouldn't want to bother them any more.

 

Like Franswa, if anyone has any certainty about the cause, I'm very interested (and already scared for the upcoming October sale).

[incident]

22 minutes ago, netspy said:

2022: This year is the worst. Card types that were accepted in 2019 are rejected in 2022.
Revolut (UK, Credit), N26 (Germany, Credit), Caisse d'épargne VISA Gold (France, Credit), Banque Populaire Facelia (France, Credit) ...
None of the cards work and all trigger the "International orders must be made using a credit card" error message.

SeeTickets uses https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_methods which flags all these cards as debit cards. Why ? It's a mystery ...
By entering their first 8 digits on binlist.net, these cards are detected as credit cards :

Can't speak for any of the others - but Revolut cards in the UK are definitely not Credit Cards - they're technically prepaid cards. If any system is showing them as Credit Cards, then that system is unreliable.

[Crazyfool01]

5 minutes ago, incident said:

Can't speak for any of the others - but Revolut cards in the UK are definitely not Credit Cards - they're technically prepaid cards. If any system is showing them as Credit Cards, then that system is unreliable.

and they definately work for the sale ? 

[netspy]

32 minutes ago, incident said:

Can't speak for any of the others - but Revolut cards in the UK are definitely not Credit Cards - they're technically prepaid cards. If any system is showing them as Credit Cards, then that system is unreliable.

Ok, thank you. I didn't have the Revolut and N26 in my hands (someone else in my group did), but I personally tried the last 2 models mentioned (2 "Caisse d'épargne VISA Gold" cards + 1 "Banque Populaire Facelia" card). These cards are marked "CREDIT" above their expiration date (this is one of those cards I used for the binlist screenshot), yet are rejected by See/Stripe.

Edited March 5, 2022 by netspy

[incident]

Just now, crazyfool1 said:

and they definately work for the sale ? 

I assume they would for UK orders - I'm sure we'd have heard by now if they didn't as plenty of people have them - but it's expected that they wouldn't for International orders.

[netspy]

7 minutes ago, incident said:

I assume they would for UK orders - I'm sure we'd have heard by now if they didn't as plenty of people have them - but it's expected that they wouldn't for International orders.

Exactly :

Quote

 

UK Tickets can now be purchased with a UK debit card or Visa or Mastercard credit cards.

International Tickets can only be bought by Visa credit card or Mastercard credit card.

 

https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/tickets/#BOOK

[Smeble]

Are the cards you are trying from high street banks or recognised credit card providers? Cards from other legitimate but less established providers may not work.

[netspy]

12 minutes ago, Smeble said:

Are the cards you are trying from high street banks or recognised credit card providers? Cards from other legitimate but less established providers may not work.

The cards I tested are VISA Credit cards from well-established banks. The "Caisse d'Epargne" is for example France's fourth largest bank.

[Ayrshire Chris]

seems to be other issues with card payments. Even in the UK. I had a virgin debit card rejected despite plenty funds. Had to use a virgin credit card 

[franswa]

Thank you very much guys for all your help on that issue !

As Netspy said, in our case, the problem seems to be how Seetickets decides which is a valid credit card, and which is not, based on mysterious criteria. As numerous credit card were rejected, it seems there is a serious flaw there.

Independent from that, one funny thing is that at a further step, when validating the payment, we sometimes had the Strong Customer Authentication, and sometimes not, with the same credit card

Did the problems encountered by UK people appeared when Seetickets checked the card validity ? or when asking the authorization from the bank ?

Edited March 5, 2022 by franswa

[AlexOvd]

6 hours ago, franswa said:

Sure, this requirement is already quite a hassle. It has been on since 2017 if I remember well.

 

Thanks for this information. This year we had several VISA credit cards being rejected, and a few VISA credit cards being accepted, with no explanation provided

Not from 2017, it has been for a long long time... I found information from at least 2012 ticket sale with this requirement. 

 

[franswa]

2 hours ago, AlexOvd said:

Not from 2017, it has been for a long long time... I found information from at least 2012 ticket sale with this requirement. 

 

Interesting. I've mentioned 2017 because I remember having paid at least one balance (in 2014, my first edition, and possibly 2016) with my French debit card

[netspy]

2 hours ago, AlexOvd said:

Not from 2017, it has been for a long long time... I found information from at least 2012 ticket sale with this requirement. 

 

You are right, it appeared in 2012 :

However, the controls applied in recent years have become so strict and opaque that they are incomprehensible. And it's a shame on such a sensitive transaction (for the payment of balances, we have time to look for a card that is accepted among many other cards, but when it comes to paying deposits, it can be tragic).

Edited March 5, 2022 by netspy

[The other Bellboy]

11 hours ago, incident said:

I've also heard of instances where people in the UK have had unexplained payment issues.

I'm wondering if it's essentially the same, or at least in a similar vicinity, as the issue that Oxfam ran into when they opened up applications a week or so ago.

Essentially - Web sites are now being asked to introduce a new verification / fraud detection feature called Strong Customer Authentication.

The deadline for implementing this is in the UK is 14th March (having been previously delay more than once), and in the case of the Oxfam applications, it appeared that some banks were requiring it already and rejected transactions. I believe the deadline for implementing it has long since passed in the EU, and so it could be that card providers there are expecting it but finding that it's not implemented or at least not implemented in the way they expect.

The above is an educated guess, but I think it makes sense.

I've had messages about this from the bank many times, but recently a sort of "its imminent" one was received, i wasn't too worried about this as I don't use my UK cards much, but it could be an issue for resale / futures sales, think all you need is your registered mobile number to hand, but anything that slows the process down on ticket sale day is not going to be welcome. Paying the balance at least gives you a week to try alternatives - i can see the tales of misery already for the end of this month 😞 

[The other Bellboy]

When I use my (debit) card over here in NZ, i have to hit the credit button at ATM's and hand held terminals, still confuses me after 4 years, just shows that banking rules across the world may not be as simplified and unified as we think - of course it could just be that GFL are trying to improve their green credential even more by ensuring that no oversea's punters attend! Does seem to be more and more obstacles each you - this is of course tongue in cheek! 😝 

[TheDayman]

Good news guys, looks like debit cards are working this time (at least for Irish accounts anyway!)