What is SCA? How Does it Impact My Payment?

If your card works everywhere else but is being declined on BackerKit, your bank may be asking for extra verification. Here’s what’s happening and how to fix it.

Why is this happening?

When BackerKit processes payments, it uses Stripe as its payment processor, and the funds go directly to the project creator’s individual account. For some banks—especially in the EU, UK, and parts of Northern Europe—this can trigger a regulation called SCA (Strong Customer Authentication).

SCA requires your bank to verify that you are the one authorizing the charge. This usually means your bank will pop up a prompt, send you an SMS, or ask you to confirm the payment inside your banking app before the transaction can go through.

This is a security measure your bank is requiring—not something BackerKit or the project creator can skip or override on their end.

💡 Why does my card work elsewhere but not here?

BackerKit charges are often delayed-capture transactions—meaning the charge happens after your survey is locked, not immediately at checkout. Some banks treat these differently from standard purchases and require extra verification for them specifically.

Finding the notice on your survey page

If your payment requires SCA verification, you’ll see a red notice on your BackerKit survey’s review page.

Beneath the status of your order, you will see a notice such as the following:

Click the “Follow up with your bank” link inside the red notice. This will open a portal that connects directly to your bank to verify the transaction.

How to complete bank verification

Step 1: Go to your BackerKit survey review page

Check your email for a message from BackerKit about your payment. It will contain a direct link to your survey’s review page. You can also log in to your BackerKit account directly to find your survey. If you require assistance locating your survey, see: Where are my Pledges?

Step 2: Click “Follow up with your bank” in the red notice

Click the link inside the red alert box. This opens your bank’s authentication portal. Keep this window open while completing the next step.

Step 3: Log in to your mobile banking app first (if needed)

If you haven’t logged into your mobile banking app recently, this can cause the verification portal to error. Before clicking the link, open your banking app in a separate tab or on your phone, log in and log back out, then return and try the verification link again.

Step 4: Approve the transaction in the portal

Follow the steps your bank presents. This might include entering an SMS code, confirming in your banking app, or answering a security question. Once approved, your payment should process automatically.

Step 5: Check your survey status

Return to your BackerKit survey. If the payment went through, the red notice will be gone and your status will update to show your card has been charged. If it’s still showing, see the section below.

⚠️ Having trouble with the verification portal?

Try using a different browser, or disable any browser extensions that might block popups. If the portal doesn’t load at all, contact BackerKit support. We are here to help!

For Preorders:

You should have received a verification email as soon as your charge failed.If not, please contact Support, and we will trigger a verification email to be sent to your inbox.

Please use the "Please confirm your payment with the bank here." link provided in the email to verify your transaction. This will open a portal directly connecting you with your bank to validate the transaction.

After this, your transaction should be complete.

If verification succeeds but payment still fails

This is one of the more confusing scenarios: your bank completes the verification step successfully, but the payment still doesn’t go through. This is possible and here’s why:

🔍 Authentication and authorization are two separate steps

When you verify your identity through the bank portal, that’s called authentication. The actual charge being approved is called authorization—and your bank can approve one while still declining the other.

This typically happens because of account-level or card-level restrictions, such as a debit card not being enabled for international or online purchases.

If this happens to you, BackerKit support won’t be able to see a specific reason beyond a generic decline code. Here’s what you can do:

Contact your bank directly. Ask them if your card is enabled for international purchases, online purchases, or delayed-capture/recurring charges. These are the most common blockers.
Ask BackerKit support for your Payment ID. When you reach out, we can provide you with a Payment ID that your bank can use to locate the specific transaction attempt on their end.
Try a different payment method. If available, try a different card—including a credit card, a different debit card, or a prepaid/gift card from a major card provider (Visa, Mastercard, etc.).
Update your payment info in BackerKit. You can update your card on file through your BackerKit account at any time before the project ships.

📞 Tip: Call your bank while attempting the charge

Having a bank representative on the phone while you attempt the payment can sometimes resolve blocks in real time—they can manually approve the transaction on their end as it comes through.

Special note for Swedish & Nordic backers

We see SCA and payment verification issues most frequently with backers using cards issued in Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and neighboring countries. Nordic and European banks often have very strict default settings for international and delayed charges — and these settings can be reset automatically after a failed payment attempt.

Before retrying your payment, check that all of the following are enabled in your banking app for your card:

✓	Online purchases
✓	International purchases
✓	Recurring / delayed charges
✓	Payments to Stripe

These settings may reset automatically

Some banks automatically turn off these settings after a failed transaction. Even if you’ve enabled them before, it’s worth checking again before retrying.

After confirming these settings are on, contact BackerKit support so we can send you a direct payment link. This takes the payment immediately rather than as a delayed charge, which tends to be more reliable for Nordic cards.

Still stuck? Contact support

We know this process can be frustrating — especially when you’ve done everything right and it’s still not working. BackerKit Backer Support is here to help.

When you reach out, it helps to let us know:

The name of the project you backed
The country your card was issued in
Whether you completed the bank verification step or whether it errored
Whether the payment was declined before or after authentication

We can look up your payment activity on our end, provide you with a Payment ID to share with your bank, and in some cases send you a direct charge link to attempt the payment in an alternative way.

💬 Note: We can see more than you can

The decline reason shown to you is often a generic message. On our end, we can see more detailed error codes from Stripe. After contacting your bank or financial institution first, it’s worth contacting us so we can investigate the specific failure if they report everything looks fine.

My survey hasn’t been sent yet. How can I fix this for my BackerKit pledge?

What you can do now:

Try updating your payment on your pledge confirmation page with a different card that does not require bank authentication. More about how to do that here.
If you are unable to fix the payment now, don't worry. You will have another opportunity to update your payment method when the project survey is sent out.

What happens later:

BackerKit saves all pledge data, so you will still receive the project survey even if your payment is incomplete after the campaign ends.
Once the survey is locked and charged, we are often able to provide a direct link to fix the issue and troubleshoot further if issues persist.
When you receive your project survey via the email you pledged with, you will be prompted to authenticate your payment through a portal with your bank, which should resolve the issue.

Why is My Payment Declining and How Do I Fix It? — Common decline codes, browser troubleshooting, and general payment fixes

How Do I Contact Backer Support? — Step-by-step guide to reaching the BackerKit support team