3-D Secure

Also called 3DS, 3DS2, Visa Secure

The card networks' protocol for confirming that the real cardholder is paying at an online checkout, usually through a banking-app prompt or one-time code, which shifts fraud liability to the issuer.

3-D Secure is how a card checkout performs strong customer authentication. The player confirms the payment with their bank, and in return the merchant gets a liability shift: fraud losses on authenticated payments move away from the seller.

In the EEA the law backs this up. Under PSD2 Article 74(2), a payee or its PSP that fails to accept strong customer authentication must refund the payer’s bank for the damage. Skip 3DS on a European card and the fraud loss is yours.

The shift can be lost. Visa’s US Secure Excessive Fraud Program covers merchants with $75,000 of fraud and a 0.9% fraud rate on 3DS-authenticated payments, and the penalty is losing the liability shift (Stripe). Mastercard’s Excessive Fraud Merchant program counts low 3DS usage among its triggers.

On price, Stripe includes 3DS on standard pricing and charges $0.03 per attempt on custom pricing, as of September 2026. See chargebacks and fraud.