Is a CVV number required?
Posted April 23, 2007 by Jason Billingsley /
Fraud is always an issue when it comes to online purchases and asking for a CVV number is one method of curbing fraudulent credit card use. It is also one extra field to ask users to fill out. So does the extra hassle affect conversion rates? Apparently it does. Overall, conversion rates were a full 40% higher where retailers did not require a CVV number.
If this is a solid finding, retailers must balance the trade-off between fraud prevention and ease-of-use for legitimate purchasers.
55% of Top 100 retailers require shoppers to give a CVV number during the checkout process.
By Visa and MasterCard regulations, CVV is required with every non-recurring internet transaction. Funny that more than half the websites being tested don’t even use it…
Are you referring to PCI compliance? I wonder if they have tested the effect of requiring the CVV input versus conversion rate. Maybe penalties for non-compliance are less than the impact it has on conversions?
Just to clarify this, Visa and MasterCard recommend that all Internet and MOTO transactions include the card code when a transactions is processed. Many processors, especially when it comes to smaller online businesses, require that the card code be included with a transaction on non-recurring Internet and MOTO transactions. There isn’t any system in place with either group to actually force businesses to use card code verification, so in the end it is still up to the business itself whether they want to use it or not.
Once a security feature was given away online you can not consider this feature as secure anymore.
Very dumb to not require cvv. Even though conversion rates are reduced, so are chargeback rates… ;-)
I think consumers may not trust sites that ask for CVV because if you have that data on file, you can use the credit card anywhere. Do you trust every online retailer’s online security that no one will EVER have access to that information? Ironically, the CVV is there to protect you, but it’s a dangerous piece of information to give up.
But it’s part and parcel of transacting online.