Credit card declined

[figgyx]

Why are people suddenly surprised when their credit cards are declined? These people will ask you to run the card again because there must be some mistake. As if running the same card three or four times will magically make money appear on their account. Do these people not realize that everywhere you go there is a minimum amount held on your card. Perhaps your card was declined because the gas station is holding 100 dollars, the car rental company is holding a 300 dollar deposit - etc. By the time you arrive to checkin your card has 10 bucks on it.

This happens more than you know.

[Librarybabe]

I had it happen at the post office, needing to buy stamps. I'd just used it at a nearby dept. store, but was still REALLY UNDER my limit. I just used a debit card for the stamps and ran home to call the issuing bank to see what was up.
It seems someone had hacked an online retailer's site that I did business with a few weeks before, and they were just being cautious, verified my info, and released the hold. I didn't get pissy with the Postal Clerk, nor the bank rep. In fact, I THANKED the bank rep for their diligence.

[bainsidhe]

I can appreciate how difficult it is for people to accept, when a lot of folks ride on the line between overdrawing their account and paying their bills. When that small leeway is blocked by "holds", it really hurts. Still, it was rare for me to get irate customers at *big box retail*. By and large, they'd simply pull out a 2nd or 3rd card and run it through, as if it was no big deal to have so many cards that were declined.

[Spydyr]

I had a lady come in to buy gas. Card was declined 6 times in a row. Sure enough her friend ran to the bank and checked the account while she waited. Money was there.... The last 4 card numbers didn't match. Lol.

I know the feels.

[Nurian]

My wife used to work in the fraud department of a national bank. They got calls from people who got declined. They had plenty of money or the balance was low enough to allow it. They just weren't in their home area. She got all kinds of grief for it.

[taxguykarl]

The last time that happened to me, it was a mystery how, as there was plenty on the account ($80 charge/$3000+ available credit). Something was amiss, but I never figured out what

[Sulhythal]

Sometimes, it's a card read error too, or something. I have actually had it happen when ringing people up that the first swipe is declined, but the second swipe of the same card is accepted, often enough I don't even blink anymore when they try it again.

On the other hand, electronics has been long known to behave oddly around me, so maybe it's just me!

[tollbaby]

My wife used to work in the fraud department of a national bank. They got calls from people who got declined. They had plenty of money or the balance was low enough to allow it. They just weren't in their home area. She got all kinds of grief for it.

See, now that's why I call my bank EVERY TIME I TRAVEL. Going to a town two hours away for a day trip? Call the bank! Going to Chicago for a week of craziness? CALL THE BANK. It takes 2 minutes, and it saves all kinds of hassles.

[EricKei]

The best part is, despite what some of the suckier customers seem to believe (and despite all the evidence to the contrary), the cashiers generally have no idea WHY a card is declined, let alone control over it (for those extra speshul snowflakes)...When I was cashiering at a grocery store, we either got "approve" or "decline" -- at GameStore and the accounting place, we got "approve", some code that meant "decline/NSF", or "decline, hang on to the card, and CALL THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY RIGHT F'ING NOW!!" o_O

[lobo65]

I can go online and click a box to inform USAA that I'm going on a trip if I want. It allowed me to use the card when I went to Ukraine.

[Jester]

I make a habit of calling both my bank and Visa when I'm going to be traveling. Sure, it's a bit of overkill, but rather overkill it and have my money available to me then not, and not.

As for running the card again, I can understand a request to run it a second time, as more often than you would think, a card declined the first time will be approved on the second swipe. Not a huge amount, but enough so that any time a customer's card is declined at The Bar, I'll swipe it a second time. And if it's declined again, I get to tell them I already tried it twice if they ask me to swipe it again.

[Sonoma]

My friend had her debit card decline at a local fast food place. She had plenty of money in the account, but they ran it twice and it declined both times. She gave them a credit card, which also declined. Turns out the card processer was down, but the only message it would give was 'decline'.

[NorthernZel]

Over here, most card readers will give the "declined" message if/when the store does not take international debit cards (Visa Electron or MasterCard Maestro/MasterCard Direct). And since not all stores put up signs stating which cards they allow, awkward situations can and will happen.

[MoonCat]

It's extra fun when you're taking card numbers over the phone. Our system will say 'declined' but doesn't say why. I have been told the address we have on the account must match the billing address of the card. I have also been told it doesn't matter.

By far the biggest error we encounter is someone giving us the wrong card number, which comes up as "invalid number." I have had people give me the wrong number repeatedly, get upset, hang up & call back and finally admit they had it written down wrong.

I have also determined that most people, when giving their card number over the phone, are:
1) Not wearing their glasses
2) Trying to read it in a dark room ("Haha, I have to turn the light on!" )
3) Holding the card upside down
4) Unable to tell a 3 from an 8, or a 1 from a 7.

[EricKei]

MC - I would imagine it depends on the card issuer. I know most care an awful lot about the ZIP code, not so sure about the street address itself.