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Opayo 3Dsecure- Recent issues, upgrades and troubleshooting.

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This article includes everything you need to know about:

  • The previous issues you may have faced recently when taking payments
  • The reason for these changes and updates
  • Troubleshooting future payment failures

Please read the full article so you can gain a full understanding as this will help you to diagnose any current 3DS payment issues before needing to create a support ticket. 

You can also click here to view our recent blog on Payments, Authentication and Security: Understanding 3DS.

Recent 3D Secure upgrades and the affects on payments...

You may be experiencing errors for failed payments from your guests. There has been a recent introduction of 3DSecure Version 2 (Protocol 4), where a guest is often required to authorize a payment transaction before it can be processed. This is related to the PSD2 (Payment Services Directive) regulations that have been more strongly enforced this year and will continue to do so going forward. It started on the 1st of June 2021 where card providers such as MasterCard, American Express and Visa have started to implement SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) in line with the regulation coming into full force on the 14th March 2022.

Right now if a guest is not using a 3D Secure card or did not complete the SCA process then the payment will likely fail. This is why payment failure rates are higher than ever before. 

What does this process look like to the guest?

This is a simple process where, during the payment after the guest has entered their card details to submit the payment, they have to authorise the transaction via a text message from their card issuer, or their banking app. This has become a standard payment process when making online payments via card, and is not specific to OpayoSuperControl, or the holiday rental industry.

Do I need to do anything?

We have fully upgraded to Opayo to protocol 4 so you do not need to do anything. However we do recommend that you check the following:

In your MySagePay login go to Settings> 3D Secure>Turn on. This is to make sure 3DSecure is turned on as this could be a blocker to successful payments.  

What account type do I have, MOTO or E-commerce?

If you have an E-commerce account you will now no longer be able to process any MOTO payments. You need to complete the following steps if you want to process MOTO payments.

  1. Contact your merchant provider/Acquirer to tell them you want to process MOTO payments in your PMS. (E.g WolrdPay, Elavon, Global payments etc.)
  2. Your merchant will provide you with a merchant number. You need to add this to your Opayo account. You can do this by either following the instructions here, or by contacting Opayo. 
  3.  The final step once you have had your merchant number added is to then contact [email protected] to ask them to change your account type and enable you to make MOTO payments again. 

With Opayo in SuperControl you can have 2 different account types MOTO and/or E-commerce.

This is something that is set-up with your merchant provider and Opayo, not SuperControl. Previously, before the final 3Dsecure upgrades, in SuperControl if you had an E-commerce account with Opayo they would still allow successful MOTO payments to pass through however this is now not the case due to stricter 3DS compliance.

What is a MOTO account? 

A MOTO account type will allow you to process both online website payments AND MOTO payments (Mail Order/Telephone Order). In SuperControl MOTO payments are any admin backend payments. 

  • Submitting a manual card payment in the customer payment tab.
  • Manually processing repeat card payments (future balance payments) from a previously pre-authorised card.
  • Manually holding funds for a security deposit with a previously pre-authorised card. 

What is an E-commerce account?

An E-commerce account type will only allow you to process online card payments made directly by the guest and not MOTO backend payments in SuperControl. These payments are as follows:

  • Guest's paying when making a booking on your website.
  • Guest's paying through the online payment link that you send them within the booking in an E-mail or SMS.
  • Guest's paying through the online payment link in the guest login.


I have a MOTO account but MOTO payments still aren't working?

It is possible that your account type set in SuperControl is set to E-commerce still,  this is likely because when you first joined SuperControl you had an E-commerce account and it has since changed, but not been updated in SuperControl's back end. 

All you need to do is contact [email protected] and ask them to change your account type to MOTO and this will enable you to take MOTO payments again. 

In some channel bookings e.g Vrbo & Booking.com I didn't receive card details like I usually do?

As mentioned here we done the final 3D secure (Protocol 4) upgrade in two stages, front end first then back end. Channel payments are classed as backend payments. (MOTO) 

With Vrbo or Booking.com bookings if you manage the payments then it is you who directly processes that payment, not the guest, so the payment wasn't coming through in the bookings prior to the final upgrade as Opayo were blocking all non 3D Secure payments. 

The upgrade was made on 23rd August 2021 any bookings prior to this that do not have any card details for you to process in the booking unfortunately you will need to contact the guest to re-submit the payment by sending the SuperControl payment link. Any bookings after the 23rd will pull through the card details for you to continue to process, as long as you have a MOTO Opayo account. 

Why did I get an e-mail from Opayo informing me that my SuperControl account wasn't 3DS compliant?

Opayo in SuperControl has now been upgraded to 100% 3DS compliance. (3DSV2- Protocol 4)

Opayo sent out an update to all SuperControl Opayo users. This was to inform you that your account wasn't 100% 3DS compliant due to having not implemented Version 2 of 3D secure (Protocol 4).

The official deadline for this SCA compliance deadline in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority is not until 14th March 2022. 

At SuperControl we upgraded to protocol 4 in two stages, first of all we upgraded all front end payments to Protocol 4 first, then we recently just upgraded backend payments. This means we are now fully 3DS compliant and Version 2 ready. Opayo sent this notice out before we had completed the second stage (backend payments) and was just a generic reminder to complete this before March 2022.

What are Front end and Back end payments?

Front end payments are any payments made directly by the guest i.e:

  • Guest's paying when making a booking on your website.
  • Guest's paying through the online payment link that you send them within the booking in an E-mail or SMS.
  • Guest's paying through the online payment link in the guest login.

Back end payments are any payments made in the backend of SuperControl so any manual/admin payments i.e:

  • Submitting a manual card payment or refund in the customer payment tab.
  • Manually processing repeat card payments (future balance payments) from a previously pre-authorised card.
  • Manually holding/releasing funds for a security deposit with a previously pre-authorised card. 
Troubleshooting failed Opayo payments

In your MySagePay login portal if a payment has failed then an error code and message will be displayed as to why it failed. 

To help you diagnose the reason for failed payment Opayo have an error dictionary so you can type the error code in and see the response/reason for fail. This is a great tool to use. Click here to take a look. 

If the guest is using a 3Dsecure card but the payment is still failing this could be for a few reasons:

1. The one time pin sent from the bank was entered incorrectly.
2. They did not receive the OTP or authorisation message from their bank to approve the transaction or they are entering an old/expired pin.
3. The OTP or authorisation message sent from their bank was not entered or approved within the required time frame.

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