Why a card payment is declined
Almost never a broken card. Five reasons, four of which you can fix yourself.
A declined card is almost never a broken card. In nearly every case it is one of five things, and four of them you can fix yourself in under a minute.
Here they are in the order they actually happen.
1. The merchant held more than the price
This is the most common one by a distance, and the least obvious.
Many services check that a card is alive by holding a small amount before taking the real payment. Petrol stations, hotels, car hire and some subscription services do it routinely. The hold can be a dollar, or it can be far more than the purchase.
If your card has exactly the price on it, the hold fails and the whole payment is refused.
What to do: keep a little more on the card than the exact amount. A couple of dollars is usually enough, and for hotels and car hire considerably more.
2. The balance does not cover it
Obvious, but worth checking before anything else, because the number in your account is the authoritative one. A payment you made an hour ago may still be sitting as a hold and reducing what is available.
3. The billing country does not match
Our cards are issued on a US BIN. Some checkout forms ask for a billing address and then compare its country to the card.
If a form asks, choose United States. Choosing your own country there is one of the most frequent causes of a refusal that looks mysterious.
4. The merchant does not accept prepaid cards
A small number of services refuse prepaid cards as a policy, regardless of balance. Car hire and some financial services are the usual examples.
Nothing on our side changes this, and no amount of retrying helps. This is the one case on the list where the answer is to use a different payment method.
5. The card is frozen
If you froze it yourself, unfreeze it in your account. If you did not, write to us at [email protected] and we will tell you what happened.
What to check, in order
- Is there more on the card than the exact price?
- Does the balance in your account match what you expect?
- Did the form ask for a country, and did you choose United States?
- Does this merchant take prepaid cards at all?
- Is the card frozen?
If all five are fine and it still fails, write to us with the merchant name, the amount and the exact message you saw. Those three things are usually enough for us to say what happened.