How to pay for DeskTime from India

If you’re a DeskTime user in India, you may have had problems with the automatic payment system for our invoices or adding bank cards as payment methods to your account. Unfortunately, these problems are caused by the set-up of the banking system and certain regulations, which means that it’s not something that DeskTime can quickly solve on our own. However, the good news is that there are still other simple ways how you can make sure your payments reach us.

So in this blog post, we’ll look at what causes these issues and how you can handle the payments on your end to ensure that your DeskTime experience is uninterrupted.

The main cause for issues with card payments from India – the 3D Secure standard

When internet use became more widespread and online payments became the norm, the question of payment security became more urgent as well. That’s why in 2001, card networks like Visa, Mastercard, and others introduced the 3D Secure standard.

In short, it’s an extra verification step at the moment of purchase – you are redirected to your bank’s page and asked to enter a code or password that confirms the transaction. This additional authentication step reduces the risk of fraud, accidental purchases, etc.

The original version of the 3D Secure standard (3DS1) was developed around 20 years ago, and back then, no one could have predicted how mobile devices would change our everyday habits. With so many purchases made on smartphones now, the 3DS1 system with its redirect to the banking site was no longer user-friendly, so card networks have introduced an updated version – 3D Secure 2 (3DS2).

The transition to the 3DS2 standard, which offers a smoother payment authentication flow, has been gradually happening for a while. In mid-October 2022, the 3DS1 version of the standard was largely retired.

But in some countries, including India, the rollout has been slower, and 3DS1 cards are still in use. However, many payment processors have stopped supporting the 3DS1 standard and may not allow payments from these cards to go through. As a result, it’s impossible to add a bank card with the 3DS1 standard to DeskTime as a payment method.

Until the full transition to 3DS2 is completed in India, you may have issues adding your current card to our system and making payments. If you want to find out which security standard your card has – 3DS1 or 3DS2 – you’ll need to get in touch with your bank, but ultimately, it’s up to the card networks how quickly they handle the transition to the new standard everywhere.

Problems with automatic payments – due to regulations

Issues with automatic payments from India are also caused by the regulations introduced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s central bank and regulatory body for the banking system.

As of October 2021, RBI requires companies to obtain tokens from their customers’ banks to complete the transactions instead of requesting the customers’ card information upfront. In addition, RBI also demands that in the case of recurring automatic payments, the customer has to be alerted about the upcoming charge at least 24 hours before it happens.

The goal is to increase data security and reduce fraud, but as a result of these additional approval steps, automatic payments fail – including your payments to DeskTime.

How you can pay for DeskTime’s subscription plans from India

Despite the obstacles, there are other ways to pay for the DeskTime invoices from India.

First, the payment options depend on which billing currency you choose for your account. DeskTime accepts payments in three currencies: the US dollar (USD), the euro (EUR), and the Indian rupee (INR).

The invoices we issue for you are in the currency you have selected for your account in the Billing details.

To see which currency has been set for your account:

1. Head to the Billing section in the Settings.

2. Go to the Billing Details block and click on the “Change” button.

3. In the pop-up that appears, you’ll see and be able to change the currency for your billing.

For automatic payments – US dollars and PayPal

The simplest way to pay for DeskTime is to set your account billing to US dollars and add PayPal as your default payment method. In this case, your invoices will be paid for automatically.

You will also need to change your billing currency to the US dollar if you want to use PayPal for manual payments.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll see PayPal as one of the payment methods available to you.

For manual payments and the Indian rupee – only bank cards

If you prefer to use the rupee as your currency or if you don’t have or don’t want to use a PayPal account, you’ll have to make manual payments using your bank card.

The first thing you need to do is make sure you’ve added a default payment method to your DeskTime account – this is the only way to activate your subscription plan and receive invoices.

You can try to add your bank card to DeskTime – if it already supports 3DS2, you should be able to add it successfully. If it’s a 3DS1 card, you won’t be able to save it as a payment method. In this case, you’ll need to get in touch with your bank to request a 3DS2-supported card and add it to your DeskTime account.

Once a payment method has been added to your account and your subscription is active, we’ll be able to charge you. However, because of the RBI regulations mentioned above, automatic payments are unlikely to go through for your account. Instead, you’ll need to pay the invoices manually.

Here’s how you can do that:

1. Head to the Billing section in the Settings.

2. In the “Pay invoice manually” block, click on the “Make a payment” button.

3. In the pop-up, choose the invoice/s you wish to pay for. You can pay for several invoices at once if they’re in the same currency.

4. In the next step, choose the payment method you want to use.

5. Enter your card details and click “Pay.”

What we’re doing to improve the payment flow

We understand that the manual payment process is much more time-consuming than setting up automatic payments, and the issues with processing card payments because of the 3DS1 standard create even more obstacles.

That’s why we’re actively researching payment processing options that would allow us to accept 3DS1 cards and would help with automatic payments, too. We’re also working on setting up a “pay-by-link” option – this way, you’ll receive invoice payment links in an email to eliminate some of the steps in the current manual payment process.

But in the meanwhile, you’ll have to use the manual payment option in the DeskTime Billing or set up automatic payments through PayPal if you choose the US dollar as your billing currency.

If you have any questions or need help with the payment set-up, you can get in touch with our support team via live chat on the website or by email. We’ll make sure to let you know once we have any updates that improve the current payment flow.