Protect your payment processes with a secondary HSM certificate

Follow our best practice steps below to ensure you reduce the risk of failed payments.

ENQUIRE ABOUT
A SECONDARY CERTIFICATE

Best practice

You will have a HSM certificate associated with your account enabling you to process your payments.

If your HSM certificate expires, you’ll have failed payments, errors and disruptions 

to your processes, all of which can be costly to rectify.

A secondary HSM certificate is the best proactive way to make sure you don’t lose the ability to process payments. A secondary certificate expires a month later than your primary one, providing you

with a back up should you forget to renew. 

Key FAQs

When you procure your certificate from the bank, they may offer a secondary certificate. This expires a month later than your primary one, providing you with a back up should you forget to renew. This secondary certificate can be selected within your payment / collection groups in paygate if required. 

Usually 3 years from creation.

Details of the expiration date can be found on the email sent to your Primary Security Contact (PSC) by the bank when your certificate was issued. We recommend checking that your bank has up to date PSC details to avoid missed communications.

Your bank sends notifications to your Primary Security Contact (PSC) to flag when your certificate is due to expire.

It’s easy to forget to update primary security contact (PSC) details for renewal notices, for example if someone leaves the organisation; you then won’t see the notification and run the risk of not being able to process payments. This is why it’s important to follow best practice.

Yes, you can procure a second certificate from your bank at any time. Your bank may levy a charge for additional certificates. There is no charge from paygate for hosting your secondary certificate, just an initial set up fee.

Best practice guidance recommends the following:

Setting up a secondary 

HSM Certificate   

A secondary certificate can be set to expire 

a month or two later than your primary 

one, providing you with a safety net 

should you forget to renew. 

 

Check your Primary 

Security Contact  

Ensure you have the right Primary Security Contact (PSC) listed with your bank so 

renewal notifications go to the right person.

Do you have another question?