I am in India and I have Mastercard debit card from State Bank of India (SBI). I had earlier purchased a LOT of apps and In-App Purchases (IAPs) using the very same debit card.
But recently (I don't know since when - maybe a couple of months), it is no longer working.
The reason for that most provably is that the Windows store payment processor is not asking for the code for second level of authentication (MasterCard secure code) . The payment simply fails with the error that it is not authorized by bank.
RANT : The one thing I hated with Android play store when using Android phone us the lack of support for Indian Debit cards. Now if Windows 10 store goes the same wat, I am more than disappointed especially considering the heavy investment that I have already done.
Questions
1) Am I the only one facing this issue? Or there other users in India also having the same issue?
2) What is the best way to nudge Microsoft to start supporting Indian debit cards once again?
P.S. People from other countries - let me address some VERY frequent questions that I usually face when talking about debit cards from India
1) Yes, it is a Debit card and NOT a credit card and yes, it used to work earlier in the store.
2) No, the bank CANNOT do anything in this case. In India, by RBI(Reserve Bank of India) guidelines, all debit card payments must be authenticated by second level of authentication. And if a particular merchant doesn't support that, there is nothing the bank can do
3) No, I don't want to get a credit card. In India, we can do very well just with debit cards alone, except when it comes to payment to companies based outside India.
I am sorry for letters in caps. But I get these questions ALL the time and I just want to address this early on so that I don't have to explain them repeatedly in the comments.
08-19-2016 08:28 PM
