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Flex 3D Secure service

3D Secure is a relatively frictionless process but it does involve additional steps that your customer must complete when they pay. Under certain circumstances you may choose to bypass the 3D Secure process to reduce the number of actions your customer has to take -- and to deliver a more seamless payment experience.

Amazon Payment Services gives you the option to waive the 3D Secure process where a transaction meets conditions that you set. It's called Flex 3D Secure.

When should I consider bypassing 3D Secure?

The 3D Secure process is an extra step that offers additional security for both cardholder and merchant, but the extra step required by 3D Secure can harm the customer experience under certain circumstances.

Under some conditions, such as very low transactions values, it can make sense to bypass the 3D Secure process in order to make payment more convenient for your customers.

However, be aware that bypassing the 3D Secure service on a card that is enrolled in 3D Secure will increase the risk of a chargeback.

Amazon Payment Services allows you the flexibility to downgrade 3-D Secure in the transaction processing, based on a set of rules of your choice. You can activate, deactivate and customize this service under the "Flex Management" tab in your Amazon Payment Services back office.

When using our Flex 3D Secure service the decision to downgrade 3D Secure verification is made by Amazon Payment services based on rules that you specified in your Amazon Payment Services back office.

What do I need to do to enable Flex 3D Secure?

To activate our flexible 3D Secure service, click on the Flex Management tab on the main menu of your Amazon Payment Services back office. You will see the following tabs:

Service configuration. Here you can activate or deactivate the Flex 3D Secure service, once you accept the terms and conditions.

List management. You customize the Flex 3D Secure feature by using lists that cover variables including email, IP, card BIN, country, or a custom field of your choice. You can add a new list through add new list.

Rules Management. Here you can configure detailed rules for flexible 3D Secure processing based on the lists you uploaded in list management.

Audit log. This section delivers logs of the flexible 3D Secure processing actions that were triggered by your configuration of the Flex service.

You can only implement flexible 3D Secure for eci = ECOMMERCE transactions, in other words transactions that use our merchant page integration routes, redirection, or the mobile SDK. Flex 3D Secure is only available on transactions processed using payment cards issued by Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.

Certain payment networks enforce 3D Secure. For example, in the KSA, users of a MEDA debit card must pass the 3D Secure check for every transaction. Where a merchant opts to downgrade 3D Secure for a user paying with MEDA, the user will still need to pass 3D Secure checks.

Alternatives to Flex 3D Secure

We offer merchants three other routes to handling 3D Secure:

  • Standard 3D Secure where we automatically pass customers through the 3D Secure steps if the customer's payment card is enrolled in 3D Secure.

  • External 3D Secure service where you can choose to use an external 3D Secure processor instead of Amazon Payment Services 3D Secure processing.

  • Standalone 3D Secure where you can take advantage of our efficient 3D Secure process to handle 3D Secure as a distinct step.

Get in touch

In some cases, Flex 3D Secure can offer your customers a better experience. Want to review whether Flex 3D Secure is the best solution for you? Just get in touch with our team to discuss your unique 3D Secure requirements -- email the team at merchantsupport-ps@amazon.com.