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Cardholder Not Present (CNP)

Tom Kiddle

Tom Kiddle

Co-Founder•1 min read

Cardholder Not Present (CNP) refers to a payment transaction where the physical card and cardholder are not present at the point of sale.

These payments are typically made remotely — for example, through online checkouts, phone orders, or recurring billing — where the card details (number, expiry, CVV, etc.) are entered manually rather than tapped, inserted, or swiped.

Because CNP transactions carry higher fraud and chargeback risk, they usually attract higher interchange fees and require strong customer authentication (SCA) measures under UK and EU regulations.

Example:

A customer books a hotel online and pays £200 by entering their Visa card details — this is a CNP transaction, since neither the card nor the person is physically present.

Used in:

E-commerce, phone sales, recurring subscriptions, and remote payment processing.

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