Online payment issue needs to be solved

Walk into a Nordic brick and mortar retailer, and it is usually simple to split a purchase among different payment instruments. You can pay part with cash and part with card, or split the amount among multiple cards. But move online, and you are forced to complete the entire transaction on a single instrument (one card). 

This can obviously be an issue when a customer doesn't have enough funds in a single account, but becomes especially grieving when paying with a scheme-based prepaid card. Unless the prepaid balance matches the exact amount of the shopping cart, there will either be breakage on the transaction – or no payment made at all. 

Splitting an e-commerce purchase across multiple cards shouldn't be that difficult from a technical point of view. It can be done in the brick and mortar environment, after all, and according to fellow industry professionals, e-retailers across the pond can already do it. Nordic payment service providers are hereby encouraged to step up and look into this issue. It could result in a competitive advantage. 

This post is an extract from MACAW Payments Bulletin 62: Payment issues that need to be solved.