Template Monster Purchase Experience And Third Party Processors

I recently purchased a new template from www.templatemonster.com for a new website that I’m building out. When I checked out, there were several options for me to pay for my purchase. (see picture below)

It turns out that the payment processor for Template Monster is RBS WorldPay. When I first checked out, it refused to accept my Plum Card, which is our business credit card. So I had to put it on my personal Chase Freedom. But that was not the end of the story. Template Monster would not accept the purchase until it verified who I was. I had to give a phone number. And sure enough, there was a phone call from them after 15 minutes. Once I confirmed that I had bought the template, they processed the transaction.

So I thought that was the end of it. But the next day, I got a call from American Express. They told me that they stopped my purchase because they thought it was suspicious. To be honest, I appreciated their phone call but asked why were they suspicious of a payment processor from a pretty reputable site? They weren’t sure but said I should call immediately in the future if something like that happens and try to get the transaction approved. OK – I’m cool with that.

Then later that same day, I got the following email from Chase.

They said there was a $180 charge to the account (yes I know cos I charged it!) but were suspicious of it and wanted me to verify by clicking the “accept transaction” button (which I did).

Thoughts – I’m really glad that American Express rejected what they thought to be a suspicious transaction if it was from a third party processor. And I was also happy that I got the email from Chase and I guess it showed they were willing to void the transaction if I had told them that I did not accept that transaction. I bought a template from template monster 3 years ago and never had to go through this the last time round. I can only guess that lots of stolen credit cards were used to their templates!