What is SCA?
SCA, or Strong Customer Authentication, is a new rule that is part of the PSD2 (Payments Service Directive 2) regulations going into effect on September 14, 2019.
In SCA, customers in the EEA (European Economic Area) may be required to enter a second form of authentication for their online credit card purchases initiated within Europe as required by their issuing bank. These will be primarily processed through 3D Secure.
This means that all new Pledge Store transactions made by players in these locations may be required to pass Strong Customer Authentication going forward. Any new pledges, subscriptions, or merchandise purchases will be required to be authenticated by the means their issuing bank has deemed to be required for Strong Customer Authentication.
What is the purpose of SCA?
The purpose of Strong Customer Authentication is to combat and prevent fraudulent and otherwise unauthorized payment method usage.
What does this mean for my current Star Citizen subscription?
If you have a recurring Subscription plan, you may need to re-authenticate the payment with your financial institution. Should this be required, you may also need to resubscribe to the Subscription program for continued access to those features.
For more information on managing your subscription, check out these guides on our Knowledge Base:
Manage and Cancel Subscriptions
What about my past one-time pledges?
Your past pledges are not affected by SCA.
Will all my orders go through SCA going forward?
The short answer is yes.
There are a number of exemptions that could be applied to store orders so that a customer does not have to present a secondary authentication, however most of these are up to the card-issuing bank.
It is also possible that you may not be required to enter a secondary authentication, but again, that is left up to your card-issuing bank’s discretion.
I live in the United Kingdom. How does Brexit affect this?
Regardless of the outcome of Brexit, it is expected that the FCA will enforce the PSD2 regulation, including SCA, going forward.
Who should I contact if I have more questions about SCA?
If you have more questions about Strong Customer Authentication and how it affects you, we would suggest contacting the financial institutions who issued your credit cards to you.