Come August 1, 2009, you will need to have your credit cards verified by your issuing banks to transact on Indian ecommerce sites.
Articles related to this have been covered by a few sites: Medianama, Pluggd.in.
Cleartrip has been aggressively (and responsibly) sending out mailers related to this topic by promoting http://www.cleartrip.com/secure/ in their mailers.
I registered my various cards with the issuing banks. One bank had the year of DOB until 2009! Imagine a newborn having a credit card. What was this bank thinking?
Password Requirement Not Uniform
I would have expected to see the registration process of Visa card (or Mastercard) on every issuing bank site to be the same. Painfully the password pattern varied from bank to bank (6 letters, 8 letters, only one number etc). Not practical at all.
Amex seems to be elite even online
Amex users may not find shopping online that smooth. They need to enter their billing address each time (according to Pluggd.in)
Watch Out for Fake Verification Emails
I have already received a couple of mails asking me to click on a URL to verify my credit card. The emails look very real but it is a clear case of phishing.
The best and only way to verify your card is to visit the issuing bank’s site (http://www.cleartrip.com/secure/ has a comprehensive list of issuing bank sites, if your card is not listed there I would say you are with the wrong bank!)
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