My credit cards being denied?

Question

I went to buy groceries the other day and when I swiped my credit card, I was denied. I just got my bill from my company and still have over 1,000$ left on my credit line. I make more than the min. payment and pay well before the due date and have never been late in the 2 years I've had this card.

I've tried to contact the company to no avail.

Why am I being denied?

Answer 1

It is possible that you are a victim of fraud.

Or

There may be some pending charges. Have you recently rented a car? They will run the transaction through and get approval for a lot more than the car rental sometimes and even though they will ultimately charge the card for a lot less it can tie up your credit until you return the car.

Try calling your cards customer service again or check your account status on the internet.

Answer 2

You'll have to contact the credit card issuer to find out. Nobody here can tell you why.

There is a customer service number on every billing statement, as well as on the back of the card. Call one of those numbers. Yes, you'll be stuck in "Phone Hell" for a while but someone will eventually come on the line and can explain why it was denied -- if it was denied on their end.

There's a chance (actually a very good chance) that it was just a glitch in the authorization system that resulted in the denial. This happens fairly often with my company travel card. I often have to ask them to swipe the card 2 or 3 times before it will go through. On several occasions they had to type the number in manually for it to "take". I'd suspect that there was some corruption of the magnetic stripe or a dirty reader that caused that.

Answer 3

Yeah if you have no credit issues then it must be the store's processor. Last week my card was denied for $20. worth of gas. Knowing I had a couple of thousand in there I told the attendant that was impossible and to try it again...it worked the second time. It was just a "glitch" I agree with the other guy, though. If you can't get your card company on the phone when you need them, cancel it and go somewhere else. That's just asking for problems.

Answer 4

the machine may have read it wrong, or have you made a huge purchase, or purchases recently? or you may have a spending limit per day, and if you bought other things before you went to buy groceries, you may have went over your spending limit for the day. Alot of companies do this as a precaution so if your card gets stolen, someone cant go out and charge too much. Or if you recently went out of the country, and used your card there, and then came back, it may be declined also as a precaution...

Answer 5

I don't understand how you've tried to contact the company with no avail.

It's possible they're cutting down your credit limit based on a review of your credit report. But if they do that, they can't just not tell you why.

Keep calling, get a manager on the phone, and get your answer.

Answer 6

You have a serious problem if you can't get through to your credit card company. Call the number on the back of the card.

Answer 7

It may have just been the stores processor. Call your card company and speak with a rep to confirm the status of the card.
Listen to Dave Ramsey while you are on hold!
http://www.daveramsey.com/

Answer 8

Try contacting them again, they have to know something as to why your card is being denied. If they don't know anything, do an investigation and have them run an investigation to see if it was used by somebody else by chance.

Answer 9

There could be something wrong with the credit card strip or with the credit card machine. It has happened to me, and I was issued a new card.

Answer 10

If you can't get through to the credit card it is possible they went out of business.

yes it has happened to me. the FDIC declared Nextcard insulivent, yes I still had to pay back the balance.