New UK research reveals the hidden cost of payment friction, and what it means for companies trying to protect their customers without losing them.
For banks, fintechs, issuers, and merchants operating in the UK, a familiar tension is coming into sharper focus. Cardholders want stronger fraud protection. But when security measures create unnecessary friction at the point of payment, many don't complete the transaction.
New Marqeta research found a clear divide: 80% of consumers feel positive about extra security steps when paying online, but 40% say they have walked away from a purchase because of a security check.¹
For issuers, this creates both a revenue risk and a loyalty risk, not just a customer experience problem. Every incomplete transaction represents a cardholder who may lose confidence in their card, and ultimately in the enterprise behind it.
Issuers are uniquely positioned to solve this challenge because authentication and fraud decisioning happen at the issuer level. The question now is how issuers can design security flows that protect cardholders without disrupting the seamless payment experiences that keep customers engaged.
Security is welcome, but friction is costly
The research is clear that cardholders support fraud prevention. In fact, 80% of those surveyed feel positive about extra security steps, and many say the extra steps make them feel safer and confirm their sensitive data is being protected.
Consumers aren't rejecting security itself. They're rejecting payment journeys that treat every transaction as equally risky. Over half (55%) of consumers surveyed favor selective and adaptive controls, such as better real-time fraud alerts, while 47% are seeking easier ways to lock and freeze cards, rather than being slowed down by blanket checks that add friction without adding confidence.
The implication for card issuers is significant. Friction is not just an inconvenience. It's a direct hit to transaction volume and cardholder loyalty. When legitimate transactions are interrupted by unnecessary security steps, customers don't always wait around. They switch to another card, or lose trust in the one that let them down.
Resolution matters as much as prevention
Fraud prevention is only half the equation. For issuers, how they handle things when payments go wrong is equally critical to cardholder trust.
Among those surveyed, 83% said a negative experience when disputing a transaction would change the way they used the card. 53% would use the card less often, and 30% would stop using it altogether.
32% of consumers surveyed had raised a dispute or chargeback in the past 12 months, and they described the experience as frustrating. Only 41% of consumers surveyed felt believed and supported, 20% felt blamed or disbelieved, and 23% said the final decision took too long. These experiences erode trust rather than build it.
With resolution failures weakening customer loyalty just as much as prevention failures do, consumers expect protection that feels invisible, and support that feels responsive and fair.
Artificial intelligence is welcomed as a helpful assistant, but not a decision-maker
The research also reveals a nuanced view of how consumers think about artificial intelligence (AI) in payments. There's an appetite for AI to play a role, but it's specific. Consumers want AI to flag issues and provide information, not make payment decisions on their behalf.
73% of consumers surveyed said they would be comfortable with AI being used to improve the payments experience in some form. Within that, acceptance is highest for assistive use cases, including using AI to stop unusual transactions and warn cardholders in real time, and using AI to provide instant updates on the progress of a dispute or refund.
Marqeta's platform provides smarter fraud prevention and disputes management
The survey findings complement what consumers are telling us they want: safety and simplicity. The challenge for the industry is to protect shoppers without turning legitimate payments into a frustrating process. At a time when household budgets are under real pressure, every failed payment, delay, or unresolved dispute matters more than ever.
Marqeta's suite of risk services gives card programs the tools to stay ahead of payments fraud, design tailored fraud prevention experiences, and manage disputes effectively. Unlike a patchwork of vendors where every handoff introduces latency and every data silo narrows the picture, Marqeta provides an end-to-end suite, including Know Your Customer (KYC), configurable 3D Secure (3DS), end-to-end disputes management, and Real-Time Decisioning (RTD), all on a single platform.
As the issuer processor with full visibility into every transaction across the cardholder lifecycle, Marqeta can use Issuer Transaction Risk Analysis (TRA) within 3DS, using spending patterns, location, and device signals to clear low-risk transactions without any interruption to the cardholder. That means faster, frictionless purchasing experiences for legitimate customers, while fraud risk is managed behind the scenes. RTD has also been recently enhanced with AI-driven risk decisioning that continuously learns from customer-specific transaction data to more effectively evaluate transaction risk levels in real time and reduce false declines.
Access to real-time data and visibility into dispute status are essential to delivering an efficient, positive experience for both card programs and cardholders. Marqeta's dispute management capabilities support this by enabling disputes to be created, submitted, tracked, and managed in one place. This real-time visibility into dispute status gives card programs greater efficiency, control, and scale from start to finish.
With a full suite of risk management tools and the ability to set rules around when and how cardholders are challenged, issuers and fintechs can reduce unnecessary friction, support legitimate transactions, and more effectively prevent fraud and manage disputes.
Learn more about Marqeta's suite of risk services.
¹ Marqeta survey conducted by RWB Research, 1,021 UK adults surveyed in April 2026.
