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Using an external 3D Secure service

If your payment processing workflow already makes use of a preferred 3D Secure processing partner you may prefer to continue processing 3D Secure with your preferred external partner.

What is external 3D Secure?

Where you have an existing, preferred 3D Secure verification provider you can opt to use your preferred external 3D Secure service when processing payments with us. This service allows the Amazon Payment Services server to accept purchase and authorization transactions where 3D Secure verification check is performed externally using an external MPI.

How does external 3D Secure work?

When you use an external 3D Secure partner the payment processing workflow changes:

  1. Your customer shops and checks out as usual, proceeding to the payment page to complete their payment card details.

  2. Your server sends a transaction request to Amazon Payment Services including your customer's card details.

  3. Amazon Payment Services checks whether your customer's payment card is enrolled with 3D secure. If a 3D secure check is required, the following happens:

    a. Your payment page redirects the customer to the 3D Secure Access Control Server (ACS) to verify card enrollment.

    b. The customer enters their authentication data on the ACS platform.

    c. The ACS attempts to authenticate the customer's data and sends the authentication results to your server.

    d. Your server returns the encrypted 3D Secure payload to Amazon Payment Services

  4. Amazon Payment Services decrypts the 3D Secure payload.

  5. Upon authentication Amazon Payment Services proceeds to execute the transaction as usual.

Even if you choose to use an external 3D Secure verification partner your customers will not notice anything different about their payment experience as long as you integrate external 3D Secure correctly.

Alternatives to external 3D Secure

We offer merchants three alternatives to the external 3D Secure process:

  • Standard 3D Secure where we automatically pass your customer through the 3D Secure steps, using the Amazon Payment Services 3D Secure process, if your customer's payment card is enrolled in 3D Secure.

  • Flex 3D Secure where merchants can fine-tune the 3D Secure response to bypass 3D Secure on some transactions.

  • 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

If you need help integrating your external 3D Secure partner we will happily assist you -- just get in touch with our team to discuss your unique 3D Secure requirements by emailing the team at merchantsupport-ps@amazon.com.