
Soft Declines and Your Security đ
Online card payments are now more secure than ever!
As of the 1st January 2021, new regulations have come into effect that aim to increase the safety and security of online card payments all across Europe. These new regulations are part of Europeâs PSD2, which seeks to improve the security of (online) payments, boost innovation and help banks across Europe with modernising and adapting to new services. As part of the process to continue to modernise and ensure the highest safety standards, 3DS2 was introduced.
3DS2 is a type of security feature known as Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) or two-step verification. This type of verification ensures that you, the card holder, are the one performing the online payment and no one else đĽˇ
We brought this security standard to our users in December 2020 and made sure that with bunq, it would be a quick and easy feature. With this new high-end security feature, users can authorise online card payments through a push notification from the bunq app. Once youâve approved the purchase, youâre done! Weâve made it easier and faster than ever to approve your purchases đ
How do these rules impact you?
Luckily most of our users wonât notice the changes and can continue to do online payments as usual âď¸ In some rare cases, you might come across a failed large payment because the merchant doesnât process the payment using the most recent and highest security standards. We believe in transparency, which is why we have implemented a text to notify you about large payments that failed because they didnât meet that high security standard.
Here you can see an example of a failed payment:

As itâs required for us to decline these unsafe payments, you might encounter a failed payment for certain transactions. Weâre always looking for ways to improve your banking experience, but of course the safety of your money comes first đ If you want to continue to use your card as usual, itâs important to notify the merchant that they donât comply with the latest regulations. As soon as the merchant initiates the payment with strong customer authentication, you can successfully complete the payment.
Want to explore more bunq features or learn how to find your card details for online payments? đ
Take a look at the knowledge section of Together here.