As part of our checks, we will ask that you provide us with any websites on which payments we process will take place. There are three reasons why we need to review your relevant websites:
- Website checks are necessary to ensure compliance with Card Schemes.
- Reviewing your website is also part of the risk assessment we carry out during our Underwriting process.
- Ensuring the correct content is visible on a merchant's website can help reduce the risk of customer confusion and disputes.
The following guides can help you prepare your websites for review, as non-compliant websites will result in delays to our underwriting process.
1. Website disclosure requirements
Card schemes such as Visa and Mastercard require merchants to disclose certain information on their websites. If any changes are required on your website in order to be compliant before you go live with us, we will inform you accordingly.
There are 7 components of website disclosures we will look for:
| Disclosures | Useful notes |
| Terms and Conditions |
- |
| The legal entity name of the contracting party | Must be present in the Terms and Conditions. |
| The governing jurisdiction (country of incorporation) | As outlined in your terms and conditions, it must correspond to the location provided in your application form. |
| The Merchant address |
Must be displayed during the checkout process before a cardholder completes a transaction (the address can be included in the website footer). Links to separate web pages for the merchant address are not allowed. *For merchants in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong, the merchant address should be displayed on the website before the checkout process. (e.g., included in the terms and conditions or on the “Contact Us” page. |
| Privacy Policy | - |
| Refund/Return Policy | - |
| Customer Service Contact | The contact section must include an email address or phone number, along with the merchant address. A “contact us” form is also acceptable. |
2. Common mistakes to avoid before we review your website
- The website you provided should be the one payments take place on, not your corporate homepage.
- The information you submit in your application form must match the information shown on your website (e.g., trading name or registered business address).
- You must submit all websites we will be processing on for your business in case you have multiple product lines or sub-entities split in different websites.
- Ensure all disclosures outlined above are present at the right places.
3. Merchants whose websites are not live yet
If your website is still under construction or has been taken down for maintenance, you must make us aware as soon as possible before you submit your application form. We will take the following actions instead:
- Ask for one of the below:
- Log-in credentials to view a staging website with all necessary disclosures, OR
- Screenshots of an app/website that fully shows the customer experience flow on the website from end to end.
- Once you go live with us, we will be in contact with you to ensure the content on your live website corresponds to that of the staging environment initially reviewed.