Monzo Plus: Virtual Cards

So I’ve just discovered that once I delete a card it can no longer receive refunds. Got a number of them declined because they were sent to a card I deleted this morning as I no longer needed it. I assumed they would be the same as any other virtual card/cancelled card I used before and accept refunds. Tell me this an error and not the case permenantly?

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That sounds odd and if a little worryning for cards which are designed to be used online. Maybe someone from Plus or @Rika could let us know if it is expected?

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Just tried using my virtual card to pay for a car insurance renewal at Quote Me Happy, but it said it was having trouble with it, it wouldn’t initiate 3D Secure. As soon as I used my normal card it worked fine. Has anyone else had these problems?

Yh, annoyingly when I raised with support they’re blaming merchants rather than themselves. I haven’t been able to successfully use mine yet at all

Yes, I’ve done it.

I am now concerned about using virtual cards. Often with online shopping one needs the card to collect or to return things. “Just pop your card in” to print tickets, or to exchange or to refund online shopping.

So I guess it only really useful with subscriptions only for non-physical stuff?

Yes, I believe so. Anything you’re going to need your physical card for I’d keep to your regular card number. They’re great for the weird & wonderful subscription services that keep popping up though…coffee, razors, snacks etc

I just had a quick nose around, and it does seem like across the board *most virtual cards don’t support 3D Secure.

I wonder if that’s one of the “regulatory requirements” listed as a challenge in the launch thread? Given the SCA regs and stuff I wonder if it’s the same theme.
not the case

It would be great to get clarity though on what the limitations of using a Virtual Card are from Monzo.

I used a virtual card on the National Lottery this morning. That uses 3D secure and went through no issue. So maybe it’s just sketchy at the minute.

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I said somewhere above previously, I had a chat with 2 people form the Plus team on support because they’ve been unusable for me, but it seems so far Monzo refuse to admit there’s an issue on their side, they blamed the merchants. This response bothers me because it seems more of a Monzo issue

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I don’t believe there are any restrictions on using 3D Secure with virtual cards, and if there is it would be foolish for Monzo to have not mentioned this if the case as it will further limit virtual cards usefulness.

On a related note, it looks like virtual cards are not covered by the EU interchange fee regulation, which perhaps means higher fees can be charged on virtual cards. This could perhaps net Monzo more profit, and could perhaps result in retailers avoiding them where possible (as happened at times in the past with Amex). Though I’d doubt Visa/MasterCard would permit this.

3DSecure should work on our virtual cards the same way as on our physical cards.

Our virtual cards are issued on a new BIN. While we’ve tried our best, and the new BIN’s been active for a while, some merchants might not have updated their BIN tables yet. If you have any acceptance issues, let us know, and we’ll try and sort it out with the merchant.

My understanding is that refunds should work on a closed virtual card, but gambling payouts won’t. But we can’t guarantee that refunds will work for all merchants. Again, if you have issues, let us know and we’ll see what we can do!

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Thanks for the clarification Tim, hopefully I have some more luck with mine soon

@tjvr Out of interest, what is the new BIN? I’m only showing one for Monzo at the moment doing a bank search.

516859

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Thanks for providing that. :+1: It does look outdated on a number of lookups, previously having been assigned to a bank in the Ukraine. The 3D Secure issues may well be down to outdated BIN information held by certain merchants, which will likely only resolve with time.

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Virtual card worked fine with M&S website the other day, although the sms option wasn’t there, just verify in app

What are people using virtual cards for?

I’m putting all my digital subscriptions on one so I don’t have to change cards for years and :crossed_fingers: can hopefully have it all coming out of a pot soon.

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Virtually nothing.

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