Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) was put in place as part of EU regulations to help reduce fraud and make payments safer. From 14th September 2019, SCA requirements were required to be applied by all payment service providers in the European Economic Area (EEA) (that’s us!).
For Rooster Card users, this means you will be asked for payment and identity authentication more regularly to ensure that we are meeting these SCA requirements.
SCA in a nutshell
SCA comes under a new EU law called Payment Services Directive II, which aims to provide better consumer protection by making payments more secure. What makes SCA “strong” is that the policy requires the consumer — your child — to validate their identity using at least two of three methods:
When your child uses their Rooster Card at a store and is able to provide the PIN upon checkout — voilà! They’ve passed two of the three identity checks and their transaction is safe to go through.
What this means for your child and their Rooster Card
What: Your children will be asked to enter their PIN more often when making contactless payments with their card.
When: Every 5th contactless transaction, or when you child has spent £135 cumulatively without the use of Chip & PIN. Whichever comes first!
How: The contactless payment will be declined and your child will need to use Chip & PIN for the purchase to go through. Once they’ve used their PIN, the counter resets and contactless will work until they reach the criteria above again.
Alternative: We’ve implemented a ‘Reset Contactless’ button in the app that allows you or your child to reset the counter if they are nearing the contactless limit. This can be found in ‘Manage Card’. You or your child will have to verify they have the card and enter the account password for identity verification. You can learn more about ‘Reset Contactless’ here.
The Takeaway:
- Talk to your children about this change and remind them that they can always check their PIN in the app at any time.
- They can change the PIN to something more memorable at an ATM.
- They can ‘Reset Contactless’ anytime from the app, from ‘Manage Card’ to avoid having to enter a PIN at the card terminal.
As usual, if you have any questions about this change or Rooster Money in general, feel free to reach out via the in-app chat or email us at hello@roostermoney.com.