Some of our customers may have been in the middle of ordering online, and come across a strange new security page.

DON'T WORRY - it is perfectly safe - this page may look a bit technical, but please read on!

As from 1st July 2007, new security measures are in place to make buying online safer for customers and online shops - called "Verified By VISA" and "Mastercard Securecard", these new measures are jointly using a system called "3-D Secure".

If you have never heard of this, you may be surprised, when you are paying with your credit card at an online shop such as ours and have just left the page where you filled in your card details, when a strange screen pops up in front of you, asking you to enter your password, or your card details again !

It will appear in an otherwise blank screen,
and may look like this >>>>>>>>>>


You can rest assured, THIS IS NOT A SCAM !


You simply have to choose whether to register your card at that time (by clicking "Activate Now"), so that your card issuing bank will in future be able to verify that it is really you that is using your card (not somebody else who may have stolen it, for example) or else you can choose to click the "Activate Later" button, whereupon you will bypass this new feature and be taken straight on to the next page as usual. The payment will complete and you should get a page showing confirmation that your order has been successfully completed, with a receipt tfor you to print out.

WHAT IF I CHOOSE "Activate Now" ?

The next screen will be like this one:

If you now make up a password that you want to use and fill it in, then your bank will take you through any further stages necessary and eventually you will have a shiny new ACTIVATED credit card, ready to use more safey to buy things online ! The payment you were about to make will then be authorised in the usual way and you should find yourself taken to the usual confirmation of purchase page, with the receipt for you to print out, if you wish.
[You should also get an email from your card issuing bank, confirming you have registered your card, with instructions about how you can view your details on their website, and change your 'Personal Message', if you want to - which is a good idea.]

After that, whenever you buy online again, a slightly different screen will pop up each time you leave a shop's payment page, asking you just to put in your password, to prove it is really you using your card.

Doesn't that make you feel safer?