8 Common Online Payment Issues and How To Avoid Them

November 15, 2024

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We live in a society where cash transactions are becoming rarer, and digitalisation is the way forward. This includes a huge shift towards online payments where people engage in eCommerce and buy directly from websites or online stores.

Where you may have once had to travel to your local city centre to buy goods, you now can simply open your phone and get the same item delivered from Amazon, usually by the next day. This change in consumer and business buying and selling habits means that we must be educated on online payment issues, what can go wrong, and how to avoid these problems.

This is increasingly important as statistics show that online payments like digital wallets account for over $13 trillion in global transactions and these payment methods are often more complex than things like credit or debit cards.

Below, we look at 8 common issues you may encounter with online payments, and how to avoid them.

1. Currency Conversions

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Always check the native currency of the online store or website you want to purchase from. Not all websites accept all global currencies. This can result in conversion fees and unfavourable transactions due to the vendor using a poor currency conversion rate.

For example, perhaps you want to pay in USD, but the store only accepts GBP. You might get hit with a conversion fee, and the rate they offer on USD to GBP may be below the market average. Always check what currencies are available before making an online purchase. Then check if it’s worthwhile converting your currency elsewhere before making a payment to avoid poor rates.

2. Disputed Transactions

This can happen when you are attempting to make larger transactions such as financial investments, big purchases of electronic goods, or something like holiday payments. When large transactions go out of your account, they may be blocked by your financial provider.

They do this as part of their financial compliance and to protect you from fraud. There isn’t really anyway to prevent it from happening. If you find that your bank has blocked a valid online payment, all you can do is contact them to tell them it was authentic.

3. Security Issues

Payment security is easily the most common issue for online payments. This is mainly if you enter your payment details incorrectly, fail authentication, or someone else is trying to use your payment details in an attempt of payment fraud.

We first recommend enabling the highest security features for your digital wallets and online bank accounts. This should be some type of advanced authentication such as 2FA or SMS authentication. Also make sure that you use a strong password for your online accounts – something that has no association with your personal life.

4. Payment Processing Fees

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Different payment networks have different rules and structures for payment fees. This applies to both the payment network, and the platform you are making the payment with. Making these more transparent for customers like NewCasinos (newcasinos.com) does, the company advises that some eWallets or digital payment services like Trustly and PayPal can charge payment fees for making online casino withdrawals.

At the same time, some online casinos also charge a withdrawal processing fee which means you could potentially get hit with two fees when withdrawing your winnings. This isn’t just limited to online casinos either – always be vigilant and check the payment fees from your provider, and the processing fees from the eCommerce store or website.

5. Lack of Funds in Account

Sometimes you might simply not have enough money in your e-wallet or bank account! This can result in your online payment not being processed, or you getting hit with an overdraft fee.

This is incredibly simple to avoid – keep track of your finances, make a budget, and always be aware of how much you have in your accounts. Also, before making any online purchase, take a moment to think if you are using the right account, and if it has the relevant funds.

6. International Payment Issues

You can also experience issues with payments if you are abroad. For example, perhaps you have gone on holiday and are attempting to use your credit or debit card in a different country. This can be flagged by your payment provider, and they may class it as suspicious activity due to the vastly different location to your usual habits.

This is difficult to avoid, but it could be worth contacting your financial provider beforehand and informing them that you will be using your card abroad. Not all banks or payment providers will entertain this though, so it may be a case of confirming the validity of the payment once it has been rejected, or simply making sure you have enough physical foreign currency to cover any expenses.

7. Payment Network Downtime

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Even the most reputable payment networks like Visa and MasterCard have downtime and interruptions to their services. During these periods, you simply might not be able to process any online payments. If you get any errors, check the network status with your payment provider, or the platform you are trying to make the payment with.

Also, to prevent this, we recommend researching network downtime percentages and service uptime when you choose a bank or digital payment provider to go with. Ideally, you want to go with a payment provider who has a service uptime of 99.99% or as close to as possible – no provider will guarantee a 100% uptime.

8. Duplicate Payments

Something that happens less frequently but is still surprisingly common is duplicate payments. This is where you try to process a payment and, on the surface, it appears that the payment hasn’t been processed. As a result, you try to process the payment again when in fact, the original payment did go through and thus you get charged twice.

This should not happen for eCommerce stores or online payments with a set process. However, it is more common for manual online payments such as if you are transferring money to a friend or between accounts. The simplest thing to remember here is time.

Make sure you allow sufficient time for the transaction to process and check your logs before re-submitting a payment request. This is because there could be a simple issue like slow network processing speeds.

Stay Vigilant and Practice Safe Online Payment Processing

We understand that this list of issues might seem daunting, but if you are vigilant, take your time, and utilise appropriate payment security measures you shouldn’t have any problems with your finances. As an extra safeguard, we recommend enabling two-factor authentication for all your online payments and online banking account logins as this will help protect against payment fraud.