If you’re still taking card numbers over the phone or by email (MOTO), you’re carrying more fraud and chargeback risk than you need to — especially on high‑value travel bookings. Modern alternatives like payment links and hosted checkout pages bring built‑in 3D Secure, better fraud controls, richer data for finance, and a smoother customer experience.
MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) is a card‑not‑present method where staff key card details collected over phone or email into a virtual terminal. It feels familiar, but for travel agencies it creates four problems:
Higher fraud and disputes
With no strong customer authentication, stolen card details can slip through. When a cardholder disputes, funds are clawed back.
Chargeback liability on the merchant
If an agent receives a chargeback against a MOTO transaction, this usually leaves them liable for the cost, plus fees when a chargeback lands after the trip has been fulfilled. Without cardholder authentication – it’s very difficult for merchants to dispute a chargeback they’ve received.
Customer security concerns
If your team handles raw card data on unencrypted systems, such as phones, computers, call recordings, emails, post-it notes, etc. each of these is a liability for cardholder information and a veritable data mine for bad actors to exploit.
Operational drag and poor experience
Phone tag, 16 digits read aloud, keying errors, and limited data for reconciliation.
Travel‑agent example: This is a situation that is not entirely uncommon when it comes to MOTO transactions. A last‑minute Friday booking for a Saturday departure is paid via MOTO. The traveller flies; the supplier is paid. Two weeks later, the real cardholder says “not me.” The bank reverses the funds. The agent is out of pocket to the supplier they paid, plus the chargeback amount, and an additional chargeback fee, with little evidence to fight the case.
Payment links are secure URLs you send by email or SMS. Customers pay on a branded, bank‑grade page — no card numbers through phones or inboxes. They hold a number of benefits over MOTO including quality of life, efficiency and security improvements, such as:
Built‑in strong customer authentication (3D Secure)
Low‑risk payments go through frictionlessly. Higher‑risk ones trigger a one‑time code, app push, or biometric approval.
Fraud controls before authorisation
Device fingerprinting, AVS and CVV checks, velocity limits, risk scoring, and block/allow lists reduce bad transactions.
Liability shift potential
Proper 3DS authentication can shift fraud‑related chargeback liability to the issuing bank. Cardholder authentication safeguards you and your payment service provider from fraud.
Rich metadata for finance
Add booking IDs, passenger names, travel dates, invoice numbers, and cost centres to streamline reconciliation.
More ways to pay
Offer cards alongside digital wallets and bank‑based methods to lift conversion and reduce card‑only exposure.
Integrates with your stack
Connect booking engines and accounting platforms so payments auto‑reconcile against the correct booking.
Travel example: Instead of taking a deposit by phone, a travel agent sends a payment link with the booking reference customer details pre‑filled. The customer approves in their banking app under 3DS. If there’s a dispute about a fraudulent transaction later, the authentication record and booking metadata provide strong evidence that the cardholder authenticated the payment, pushing the burden of proof to the cardholder and bank.
💡 3D Secure adds a quick cardholder check during online payment. If the issuer accepts the authentication (frictionless or after a challenge), many card schemes shift fraud‑related chargeback liability from the merchant and payment service provider to the card issuer. Always confirm scheme and regional rules, but the norm is simple: authenticated = safer for you, and your customers.
| MOTO (phone/email) | Payment links with 3DS | |
| Fraud risk | Higher (no strong auth) | Lower (risk checks + 3DS) |
| Chargeback liability | Typically merchant | Often shifts to issuer when authenticated |
| Security scope | Broad (phones, emails, devices holding unencrypted card data) | Narrower (hosted page handles card data) |
| Reconciliation | Manual, limited data | Automated, rich metadata |
| Customer experience | Call during hours, read card aloud | Pay anytime, mobile friendly |
Mint offers 3D secure functionality on payment links, hosted payment pages, and integrated services including most travel mid-office platforms (Tramada 3DS capabilities coming soon). 3DS is available standalone, or through Mint Protect. While Mint does offer a legacy MOTO option, we strongly recommend that merchants utilise payment links, as any transaction processed through MOTO, are not capable of being secured by 3DS.
Already a Mint customer and want some training on using payment links? Contact our support team to book a training session.
For travel agents, Mint offers an additional chargeback guarantee solution, called Mint Protect, designed to safeguard agents in events of chargebacks related to fraud, supplier insolvency, or non-delivery. This solution is designed to help agents protect their bottom line from situations that are outside of their control. For transactions to be eligible for Mint Protect fraud protection, they must be processed via a Mint Payments facility that supports cardholder authentication (e.g. 3DS). In the event that a transaction passes a 3DS check but a chargeback is still raised for fraud and found in favour of the cardholder, Mint will guarantee the cost for the merchant so they are not financially impacted.
MOTO transactions are excluded from the fraud protection component, as the bank and card scheme will see there is no sufficient evidence available to prove that the transaction was legitimate in the event of a chargeback.
MOTO transactions will still be eligible for chargebacks related to supplier failure or supplier non-delivery, as additional forms of evidence can be utilised to challenge the chargeback.
For more information, please refer to our knowledge base and the Mint Protect terms and conditions.
If you handle high‑value bookings, MOTO is a risk you don’t need. Switch to Mint’s payment links with 3D Secure to cut fraud and chargebacks, improve cash collection, and make reconciliation painless. Pilot payment links on your next five bookings (especially last‑minute or high‑value trips) and measure the lift in approvals and the drop in disputes. Contact Mint today to get started with Payment links, learn more about actively reducing your fraud exposure with 3DS, or add an extra layer of financial security with Mint Protect.