Should we ask for name on card even though it's not required for credit card payments?

Question

The name on card is not used when processing credit card payments. Paypal does not ask the user to enter the name on card when saving a card to the "wallet", while Amazon.com does.

The benefit of asking for it is that the user can feel more "secure" because we are asking for more details. With out the name on card field, the user might think: Hey, does that mean anyone can just grab my card number and the expiration and they can use it? This is taking into account the fact that CCVs and Address Verification can be turned off by the merchant.

The obvious advantage of not having the name on card field is that it's faster. 1 less field to fill in is always better when it comes to form design.

Should we ask for the name on card when users are paying/storing credit card details?

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As an aside: We do not plan to store any of the card holder details and billing addresses in our system at the moment (that will happen when be grow to be a huge company and that becomes cost effective and feasible ;)). These will all be stored with the payment processor and details will be passed using direct post/transparent redirect, so that they never ever hit our server.

Answer 1

More often that not, what you have to store is determined by your payment processor and so you usually have very little say in the matter. When you do, the general rule for security is to only store what you absolutely have to. The less information you store, the lower your security risk, and the less information customers have to enter (in general) the better your conversion rates.

So if you don't need the name, or it provides no additional benefit from you provider, then don't require it. However, I know of at least one case where requiring more information on a form resulted in a better conversion (although this wasn't for payment details). So, as always, you should test this hypothesis with your customers.

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As an aside, I prefer to always use a payment provider that stores any information that is needed. That way I don't have to deal with any of the legal compliance issues and the accompanying liability.

Answer 2

A few things things to consider:

• Having the name can help with sorting out some kinds of credit card fraud offline. You can usually call the card issuer directly and validate that the name, card number and address match for example.

• Some folk use the name as a way to filter out some kinds of pre-payment credit cards (like visa gift cards) that don't have a name. There are better ways of doing this - but it's a way.

• You sometimes need the cardholder name for other parts of the system (e.g. receipts)

Answer 3

As said by anthonyryan1, it is required for American Express. So either you ask for/require this information only for American Express (which would mean you would either have to ask the user for the card type or start by letting them input the card number and then asking for the rest, or you disable the field if you see it's not required once a Non-Amex card number was entered) or you always ask for it since it's something customers kinda expect because they are asked for in many other places as well.

Update: This seems to be no longer true. But the following point still applies.

But: if you go for the latter, you should at least not make this field mandatory, or add something like "If written on card" to it, because there are also cards without any name on it, such as this one:

...and it is frustrating and confusing when you are asking for information the user can't provide, and since they are unsure what to enter (not everybody knows that in this case it's fine to enter "John Doe" because this information is not verified anyway) they might think they can't use their card and might even abort the checkout in such a case.

See also Name on card, or Card number first?

Answer 4

No, we do not need cardholder name on credit card online payments. Only old dated payment gateways require it.

Actually big issuers like Visa, MasterCard or AMEX - American Express do not require cardholder name on online transactions. And to be honest - you can enter on such input anything.

New technology payment gateways like Stripe, Braintree or european SecurionPay allows you to make a transaction without cardholder name.

What is more important no cardholder name is crucial for conversion (especially in EU, where people have problems what to write, e.g. "n" or "ń"). In some cases giving up cardholder name increases conversion on payment by 2-5%.

In gaming, gambling, adult business etc. conversion increase is even higher. Simply because people feel intimidated by providing their name. So avoiding name on card in payment forms is a wise move.

Ask only for:

• Card number
• Expiry date: mm / yy
• Security code: CVC / CVV

Answer 5

I would imagine that it would be at the least slightly beneficial to your professional image to ask for the card holder's name as many potential customers are already expecting to answer this question. All in all I would agree that it is another potential vulnerability to even store the name in the first place.

Answer 6

DO NOT ask for the card holders name if it is not required by the payment gateway to make the transaction. If you ask for a name and someone types in a false name the transaction will still execute. People will then get the impression that your website is insecure as you are processing payments with false names.

Only ask for a name if it is actually required by the payment gateway to process payments.

Answer 7

While you're correct that Visa and MasterCard do not validate this information, that's not true of all credit card providers.

American Express actually does validate the "Name" field if you collect it as a merchant and by not collecting it you're more likely to have legitimate payments declined with this card.