Verify your credit card to transact online in India, but be careful

Come August 1, 2009. You must have your credit cards verified by your issuing banks to transact on Indian e-commerce 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 the registration process for Visa cards (or Mastercards) 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). It’s 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

Several emails have asked 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 (https://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!)