Buying Bitcoin with credit cards / 3d secure

[greBit]

I was recently surprised to find that Transferwise now accept credit/debit cards for funding currency transfers of up to £2000. This seemed odd because I had assumed that they would be massively exposed to charge-back risk.

On closer inspection they allow only '3D secure' enabled cards, the benefit of which is that it completely shifts the charge-back liability from the merchant to the bank.

Could we see BTC dealers doing the same for quick Bitcoin purchases?

[1715183296]

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[1715183296]

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[1715183296]

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[1715183296]

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[Mike Hearn]

In theory it was always possible - several people selling BTC for credit cards reported that they were able to control chargeback rates using solid anti-fraud techniques and being careful.

The big problems are the high fees involved and the fact that you need to find a payment processor who is willing to let you do "high risk" currency exchange transactions. As anyone running an exchange knows, just finding a bank willing to let you do Bitcoin transactions is hard because they're all so afraid of vague AML laws. Finding a bank+a payment processor is even harder.

Anyone who manages it could make a lot of money though.

[Boussac]

In order to sell bitcoins by debit card as a business using 3DS systematically,  you must have your own merchant account with your acquiring bank that will filter out all non-3DS transactions.
I am not aware of a bitcoin business successfully applying for such merchant account with their bank: are you ?

[og kush420]

if this happens, i think there will be more demand and price will go up.

[djtriggz]

http://transferwise.com/blog/2013-04/notice-to-bitcoin-users-april-2013

[justusranvier]

IMHO, the best way to allow people to buy Bitcoins with credit cards is to do something like this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/BitSpend/comments/1gqjf8/an_open_letter_to_the_bitspend_team/

Basically, sidestep the currency exchange entirely.