Payments Testing Test Like Your Customers Pay

Problem Statement

After launching a new mobile app, a global footwear brand heard repeated complaints about payment failures that cost revenue. Its order cancellation process confused customers and added steps to returns, and the team needed to test the full cycle from order and delivery to return and refund.

Solution Proposed

An EPAM QA team built a payment testing process run by EPAMers and local freelancers. Test documentation and instructions were translated into local languages, and order cancellation was automated.

Achieved Results

Payment flows with location-specific options are tested regularly in the UK, US, Germany, France and Korea. The full cycle runs in each monthly release, with auto-cancellation when needed, and one to two new countries join the scope every quarter. The team reports a 100 percent defect containment metric for the last six months and a three-day maximum execution time for a reasonable scope.

Problem Statement

The retailer needed to confirm that its most popular and recently added payment methods worked on 21 country websites. Testers had to buy with real payment methods inside a fixed weekday window, and orders had to be canceled almost immediately so nothing shipped.

Solution Proposed

Test IO found crowd testers in 11 countries who used their own payment methods. For the other 10 countries, it issued Visa and Mastercard cards through a Stripe-based platform that stayed under its control and could be withdrawn when the test ended. A fake email domain, a shared delivery address and a test schedule visible to the client kept orders from shipping to testers.

Achieved Results

80 testers from 21 countries took part, and the client accepted 17 bugs.

Problem Statement

The group needed end-to-end checkout and payment testing across 27 international markets. Its internal test environments didn’t support real local payment methods or cash alternatives, and 3DS authentication made full test automation difficult.

Solution Proposed

Test IO provided managed virtual cards in 27 markets and built card testing into bi-weekly regression cycles, feature testing and post-release smoke testing. Card transfers and monthly spending limits stayed adjustable. 

Achieved Results

The team found critical pre-release payment defects, including declined transactions, incorrect amounts and checkout errors. It validated core ordering flows and edge cases such as take-away, drive-thru, curbside and table service across 27 markets, and retired risky sandbox test cards.

Problem Statement

A private bank wanted to test its banking application with real users while keeping strict application security and a restricted crowd geography. Testing spanned multiple applications and physical devices, and the test data and documentation were limited or outdated.

Solution Proposed

A dedicated team planned, designed and delivered end-to-end crowd testing that mixed exploratory and test case work on web, iOS and Android. Secure access came from direct distribution of mobile builds and whitelisted IPs through proxy and VPN solutions. A crowd-building approach balanced tester expertise with fresh insight from new joiners.

Achieved Results

850 test cases ran over 3.5 months. Testers found 470 defects over one year, using 240 unique devices and 197 unique testers.

Problem Statement

The service tested its checkout flow internally but lacked local payment methods for a full sanity check before releases.

Solution Proposed

Test IO ran passive testing, with cards the client’s team used internally, and active testing, where the crowd verified ordering a ride and paying on every new build. An encrypted platform shared card details with the client under a zero-access policy for testers and EPAM employees. Real user cards and cards generated through a Stripe integration were used.

Achieved Results

P0 issues are reported straight into the client’s Jira within 24 hours of a release.