Payment friction accounts for 40% of UK shoppers abandoning online purchases. That comes from research carried out for card-issuing platform Marqeta. RWB spoke to 1,021 UK adults about their experience of online purchases. 80% said they are happy with extra verification because it makes them feel safer. But when it doesn’t work, that’s when they stop and go elsewhere.
Respondents cited numerous reasons for abandoning a purchase, and we’ve all experienced them. Verification codes that never arrived, codes that timed out, or a checkout process that simply felt like too much effort. This is the system failing the customer. Shoppers want security that works properly, not that fails or makes life harder.
Payment friction demands smarter controls
The survey asked what people wanted from their card provider. Respondents want targeted measures over blanket checks. The top three were better real-time fraud alerts, easier ways to lock and freeze cards, and stronger authentication methods.
The most widely recognised security measure is one-time passcodes. These come via text or email, and more than 75% use or notice them. Biometric authentication is catching up, with well over half reporting familiarity. Virtual card numbers for online shopping, by contrast, remain a niche tool.
Fraud exposure is still common. In the past year, over 35% have dealt with a suspicious or fraudulent transaction on their card. Roughly half of that group have experienced it more than once.
Dispute failures weaken card loyalty
But what happens after a payment goes wrong? Nearly a third of the people surveyed had raised a dispute or chargeback in the past year. Fewer than half saw their case fully resolved in their favour, and one in ten gave up before the process concluded.
The experience itself left much to be desired. Barely 40% of those raising disputes felt believed and supported. 20% said they felt blamed or actively disbelieved. Surprisingly, there are no current UK statistics for cardholder fraud. Given the numbers above, that is a surprise. The slow rate of processing claims was also a problem. Over a third said it was too lengthy, while 25% said they waited too long for a final decision.
Dissatisfaction carries real commercial risk. 80% say a negative dispute experience would change their behaviour. The largest group would reach for the card less often. Additionally, 30% would ditch it altogether, 40% would move to a different provider.
Anthony Peculic, Interim Chief Product Officer at Marqeta, said the data reflects rising consumer expectations. “Consumers are telling us they want both safety and simplicity,” he said. “The challenge for the industry is to protect shoppers without turning legitimate payments into a frustrating process.
“The strongest payment journeys are the ones that feel invisible when everything is working, and highly responsive when something goes wrong. At a time when household budgets are under real pressure, every failed payment, delay or unresolved dispute matters more than ever.”
Marqeta claims it processed nearly $400 billion in payment volume during 2025 and is certified to operate in more than 40 countries. It offers issuers and fintechs configurable 3DS and real-time decisioning. The platform lets businesses set rules for when and how cardholders get challenged.
Consumers welcome AI for alerts, not decisions
There is a clear split among consumers on the use of AI in payments. Almost 40% are happy with banks using it to monitor transactions, but acceptance varied sharply by use case.
The most popular application was AI spotting unusual transactions and issuing real-time warnings. Almost half of the respondents backed this. A similar share accepted AI providing instant updates on dispute or refund progress, or learning spending patterns to reduce false declines.
Appetite drops sharply, however, for more autonomous functions. Barely a fifth were comfortable with AI making approval or blocking decisions on their behalf. A similar proportion rejected all proposed AI uses in payments outright.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
This is a problem created solely by the payments industry. When the UK implemented Strong Customer Authentication under PSD2, the goal was to cut fraud. It worked, partially. But the side effects were predictable, and the Marqeta data now quantifies them: four in ten shoppers walk away from a purchase they intended to make.
That figure matters because it represents lost revenue, not just lost patience. And it sits awkwardly next to the fraud numbers. UK Finance reported £423.5 million in remote purchase card fraud losses during 2025. It was a three percent rise on the year before, with cases up 13% to 3.2 million. Fraud rose, and checkout friction pushed legitimate customers away. Meanwhile, customers were irritated by security measures, while they failed to stop fraudsters.
The dispute findings deserve equal scrutiny. When barely four in ten consumers who raise a dispute feel believed, that is not a process issue. That is a trust issue. Issuers have spent years and billions hardening the front door against fraud. The back office, where disputes get resolved and loyalty gets tested, has not received the same investment.
Regulators are catching on. The EU reached a political agreement on PSD3 in November 2025, with a clear push towards smarter SCA exemptions and less blanket friction. The UK is pursuing parallel domestic reforms with similar goals. Both frameworks acknowledge what this research confirms: consumers want protection, but not at the cost of usability.
Marqeta’s commercial interest here is obvious. It sells the configurable infrastructure that lets issuers fine-tune exactly these friction points. But the underlying problem exists regardless of who profits from solving it. The question for issuers is, will they redesign their payment journeys before customers redesign their wallets for them?
