Credit card declined

[Captain Trips]

When I was help desk, I would take calls that "the credit card system is down" when the user kept swiping the same card and it repeatedly came up "declined." Who would think that a computer tech's job includes explaining that "yes, 'declined' is a valid response. If the system were down, you'd get a 'system down' response instead."

I'm so glad I'm finally off the help desk...

[Caractacus_Potts]

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.

I've only had a card declined once. I used another method of payment and called the bank. They told me the fraud dept had put a hold on it due to suspicious activity. Once I confirmed that I had actually made the purchases they found suspicious they activated the account.

I was actually impressed that they were being so diligent about protecting my money. IDK, maybe if I had not had an alternate method of payment I would have been less impressed!

[SilverCrocus]

I've had a card declined before, but it was always due to a card reader error.

My Mom once had her card declined multiple times. She knew she had money in the bank, and the store she was at was the first one she'd been to all week, so it wasn't an issue with holds. The cashier got incredibly snotty with her about it when Mom asked her to run the card again and told mom "You probably just don't have any money in your account".

Turns out the entire system had just gone down, and it was declining all debit cards.

[sstabeler]

I've had my card frozen due to the bank getting suspicious in the past too. ( basically, I got a job, so went from spending £200 per month to spending much more. therefore, my spending patterns changed, making them suspicious. it took a year for them to realise, so I assume they compared spending patterns over a year) it never took much to get the card unfrozen. 5 minute telephoen conversation, verify the last 5 transactions, card unforzen in 15 mins ( usualyl immediately, but they reccommended waiting 15 mins)

[Rapscallion]

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.

Not really overkill. I do this myself - I get notes put on both my credit and debit cards to say where I'm going. Saved my arse on a number of trips abroad to Yurp.

Rapscallion

[Ophbalance]

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.

From what I've dealt with, and it's not that much to be sure, it's actually the merchant account that determines this and not the card issuer. I've dealt primarily with online merchant accounts, but you can enable/disable some of the address verification settings. Some of it applies ONLY to card not present sales, as there are at times different requirements if the card is swiped versus put in via an online form.

[Reyneth]

I had mine decline recently when there was more than enough in the account. When I called my bank, they asked me to verify recent purchases. Two that totaled about $400 were NOT mine and not from any place I even recognized or did business with!

They closed that card and the money was immediately back in my account and they did as much as they could to get a replacement card to me ASAP. I was so grateful - I wouldn't have noticed those charges for days but yet they pinpointed the fraudulent ones.

When talking with another bank about it, she said thieves will just keep running numbers and once they hit on the first 8 (they identify a particular bank) that work then its usually really easy after that for the last eight. They had been really hard hit with the same sort of thing recently.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I've been fortunate not to run into issues with my credit card declining, but then I'm not usually spending money willy nilly.

I'm glad my bank monitors my spending habits, though. Recently I had to buy some new clothes before my Mexico trip, and spent a few hundred bucks in one store. Within SECONDS of my signing the pad and getting the receipt, I got an email alert about "suspicious activity" on my card. I got another one when I spent another couple hundred bucks in another store, again within SECONDS of getting the receipt.

Thus, I'm confident that should someone try to hack my card or something, the bank will inform me toot sweet.

[Spydyr]

I had my card decline today. Guess what I did. I realized my fault and ran to my car for a different card. Didn't even try the run it again game.

They don't seem to work until you activate them. Lol.

[EricKei]

I've had a card declined before, but it was always due to a card reader error.

Well, there's always the plastic bag trick ^_^ I've used it before, and it really does work!

to !

[RootedPhoenix]

Yeah, sometimes things are glitchy, so running them again can help.

Of course, it's still not nice for someone to chew you out, no matter what's actually happened.

[Pagan]

Last time I went to Scotland, I went to the credit union I belonged to to have them put a note in my account that when charges came through from Scotland, that was me (it also had the Visa logo and could be run as credit, but there was no number to call on the card).

These geniuses, in spite of me be in front of them telling them this, wanted a phone number in Scotland to call me at in case they wanted to verify the charge. They refused to put a note on my account. We weren't taking our cells (not worth it to set up international calling for a week) and were renting an apartment but had no clue what the phone number was.

[Dizazter]

There is a local HUGE credit union here that services close to half, if not more of the town's population. Occasionally, their ATM system goes down. When it does, the debit/credit cards decline everywhere.

[pzychobitch]

Sometimes there is really a glitch in the system and running it through a second time if the card is truely under limit it will work. I ran into that same problem time and time again when I worked at the red circles of hell and a gas station afterwards.

[BrenDAnn]

Most of the time, when a card declines, I get a confused blink and "Whyyy?" from the customer. As for swiping it again, I've found this handy with the debits with the credit card (VISA/MC) logos. You see, sometimes they decline when you swipe them as a debit (ie, needing a PIN to be entered), but when you swipe them as a credit (no PIN, but money comes out of the same account), they go through. There is also a credit union in town that limits how much people can spend with their bank cards in a day. The number of people I get coming in from that credit union, having their cards decline, is almost laughable. While I appreciate the credit union's trying to keep them safe, it seems to me it creates a problem more than anything. One woman runs a daycare, therefore spends a lot on weekends getting groceries. I've seen her have to write checks come Monday mornings, because the CU has locked up her card. So yea...cards do get locked for various reasons. Explaining that to an upset SC is the fun part.