Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) and PayPal, disabling CVV2

Got a Visa Classic plastic card at this bank. The fees seemed not too high, the service is good, the internet banking isn't buggy but isn't very functional, and free SMS notifications. Although it turned out not so cheap, because when issuing the card they also wedged in insurance for a hefty sum; I probably could have declined it, but it's safer with it, since after all the card is plastic, not virtual, and good for two years. Also, the account can be topped up without commission through iBox machines, only the payment goes through within three banking days. There's still only one cashier's office in town — also not very convenient, but there are no big queues at it and the teller knows what to do, unlike at PrivatBank's cashier's offices.

The card was made in about 5 days. After that I started adding it for online payments. It went in without problems on ShopTo: first 1.95 pounds sterling was charged, and then it was credited back; both times the conversion happened at different rates, the difference came to 36 kopecks, plus 5 kopecks for each conversion, which works out to 6 cents in the end, not more than 35 cents, like with PrivatBank's virtual card.

Problems started with adding the card to PayPal. The dollar hold went through fine, but the request to charge the verification $1.95 wouldn't go through. At first I thought the problem was the name, so I changed the spelling of my first and last name in PayPal from Cyrillic letters to Latin. That didn't help; after searching the internet I found that the cause of the problem is that PayPal doesn't send the CVV2 code on subsequent transactions, but "Alfa-Bank" always requires the code and declines transactions. It was only later that I noticed that the SMS messages about failed transactions listed the reason for declining as "Pin error". In Russia this problem is solved by opening an additional virtual card to go with the plastic one, but in Ukraine there's no such thing.

After further searching I found out that CVV verification can be disabled for a day by calling the call center, or disabled permanently with a special application. Since I don't always make purchases from home, calling from my mobile every time turns out to be costly. So I decided to go write an application at a bank branch.

But at the branch they were hearing about such an application for the first time; the girls could only advise calling their call center right from the bank branch on a special phone. Having gotten through to an operator and waited a few minutes for a specialist to free up, I heard the same thing I had read online and what they had told me at the bank. When I clarified what to do if the branch itself doesn't know about the application — they said to call them again and then they'd sort it out with the staff.

After that, the girls at the bank suggested writing a free-form request on their form with the question. Since I was already fed up with all this and was curious — I agreed, although I knew that the special application also requires stating that I waive responsibility and agree to pay for all unauthorized transactions. Disabling verification doesn't increase the risks much, considering that the CVV is printed on the card, is passed to sites just like the card number, and SMS about all transactions arrive instantly.

Anyway, yesterday I managed to successfully add the card to PayPal, and today they called from the bank branch, asked about how verification works, and said that going forward, to disable CVV you need to write a special application :) You can understand the staff, you can't remember every possible form, and I was the first such person, the branch has only existed for a couple of months. Still, it's sort of unprofessional, although everyone there is trained to work well with clients. For Kherson the situation is normal, at other banks it's sometimes even worse because of the attitude toward clients.

Now I'm curious, did they disable verification for me for just one day or permanently? There's nothing to test it on in the near term. I now make most of my purchases directly on ShopTo, where the whole database of clients' card numbers was already stolen once; it's unlikely to happen a second time, the site's functionality is strange, but the goods are cheap and delivery is fast. Now I know that I'll be able to disable CVV2 code verification without problems at the Kherson branch of "Alfa-Bank".