Bank cards being declined when shopping online

soraya55

I wonder if someone could help. I have been using the same bank debit card for many years with no problems but recently on certain sites it is being declined (normally by Worldpay). I have phoned my bank and they assure me there is no problem with the card or the account.  I contacted the company who I was trying to purchase from and they could not help. I even contacted Worldpay but they said to contact the merchant. 

I have tried waiting 24 hours before trying again and still it says the payment has been declined.  However I have taken money out of the account and paid for something else in the interim so there is nothing wrong with the card. Though online there are three different websites where the card does not go through. 

I then tried another card from a different bank this was declined and then I tried my daughter's card and this was also declined. (all have sufficient funds)  I have used different browsers, cleared cookies and cache, tried using an app, but nothing works.  I am at a loss as what to do.  I phoned my bank again and was on there for quite a while and they could not see what could be wrong there was no block and the authorisation went through.  Has anyone else had something like this happen and was it ever resolved.

Mark_d

It is not a problem with your card/account because "there was no block and the authorisation went through".

You've experienced the same problem with a different bank and with your daughters card - so it is a wider problem.

Using a mobile app as well as website on a computer suggests that the issue is not browser/computer related.

Is there something unusual with your address/postcode?  If your name/surname has spaces, hyphens etc. maybe that's causing an issue with some computer systems?

soraya55

Thanks for your reply, no there is nothing unusual, and I have bought numerous times from the websites that I am now having problems with and no details have changed. It really is a conundrum. No one seems to know how to solve it. I am going to wait another 24 hours before trying again but I cannot see how this will change anything.

Brie

do you need to update your details with them to allow for second level authorisation?  I'm thinking if you don't have your mobile on your profile that might make the transaction look suspicious.  Just guessing as i've not had the problem (yet).  Well, my OH did but that's because he was purchasing something on a card that cost more than £10k and the fraud dept shut down his card for security reasons.  Perfectly acceptable and quickly resolved. 

masonic

Do you have any ad-blocking or website filtering software installed on your device? Including from antivirus tools and settings provided by your ISP. Does the problem persist across different devices and while connected to different networks?

soraya55

I have tried using different laptops and from a phone and the same thing happens. It does not mention 2FA of anything just that it has been declined. Coincidentally I just tried one of the websites that had been constantly declining my card for the past two months and a payment has just gone through when I tried again! It is all very strange..

MrFrugalFever

Yes I had this once with trying to sort my Tesco car insurance, card(s) were getting declined across multiple retailers online and NatWest (my debit card used) at the time couldn't even see the attempted transaction let alone know it was declined. I was on the phone to them 3 times over the course of a few hours and in the end they put me through to their specialist fraud team who still couldn't see what was wrong.

I then tried all of what you mentioned, different browsers, cards, clearing cookies and cache etc and no joy. 

I left it until the next day and low and behold I was able to make the payment on the same browser with the same initial card. I think it was the merchant (Tesco bank insurance) that was the issue (despite them saying nothing was wrong their end).

It could just be a case of trying your card with a different merchant altogether ONLINE (maybe a very small purchase like a charity donation or if you have NS&I a debit card savings deposit) and if it goes through then i'd say the merchant needs to get their IT dept on to it pronto.

born_again

soraya55 said:

I have tried using different laptops and from a phone and the same thing happens. It does not mention 2FA of anything just that it has been declined. Coincidentally I just tried one of the websites that had been constantly declining my card for the past two months and a payment has just gone through when I tried again! It is all very strange..

As it was never reaching your bank it was a issue at retailer end. Could be that it was timing out or never sending request. But worldpay should know if it was. Not that they would tell you.

Odds on retailer have changed something in the set up of the site, or missed a upgrade & it is not displaying something it should. 
A example was a while ago apple/mac users were having problems with certain sites. It turned out that while entering data & hitting return, as you often do, was missing the last field out. What it needed was using tab between the fields to bring up the last field, which for some reason was hidden, which would then submit the request to the bank.

Took a few people quite a while to work that out, even though it was not our issue.

soraya55

So I waited another 24 hours and it still does not work, I have bought something using the card online yesterday without any problems. What I don't understand is that the seller is saying there is no problems their end.  Surely they would have had other customers not being able to pay. Also it did happen last week with one other website. It seems to be only when it goes through Worldpay.

Nebulous2

It happens sometimes. That is one of the reasons why having more than one card is sensible.

I like Chase, as I get 1% cashback on most of my spending, but I've had more declines with them than I've ever had with any banks before. I messaged to query it the last time and they said there was a mismatch between the info on the card and that provided by the merchant, which meant they declined it. It was exactly the same info as I have successfully used before. Sometimes the systems just don't marry up successfully. 

soraya55

Yes but I have tried three different cards, one from a completely different bank and none work on this one website. It is very frustrating. The company do not seem that interested though, it was a case of; it doesn't work there is nothing we can do.