Important Steps to Take Straight Away if Your Credit Card is Declined

HYDERABAD: Nobody likes to have their credit card declined as it is one of the most embarrassing moments anyone could face ever, mainly if you are the first one who is standing in a long queue of customers for making payment. Even worse situation is that when you do not have another payment method.

When a cashier swipes up your card, the payment system communicates with your credit card issuer in order to determine whether your card is valid as well as you have sufficient funds available for making that particular transaction. If everything seems fine with your plastic card, the system sends back a message of approval and this way your transaction gets completed. However, in a few cases, your credit card issuer sends back a decline message of your card transaction.

Have you ever gone through such an embarrassing situation in your lifeor might wondering how it all happened or what are you supposed to do next?

If yes, then fret not. Just follow the below-mentioned 4 steps in order to prevent it from happening again the future.

1.     First Decide What to do about Your Current Purchase

May be you won’t even realize that there is an issue until and unless you are trying to purchase something. The first and foremost thing you’ve to decide how you want to handle your current purchase

so that you can get out of shop/store and then start thinking about why your credit card has been declined.

Well, you could try to swipe again the card if you think maybe you have not inserted the card in the right manner or it was a fluke. But it still does not function; you either pay for the purchase by using some other alternative method or just skip it.

If you are purchasing a non-essential thing or if you think that your transaction was declined due to the exceeded credit card limit, then it would be great if you skip the planning to purchase that item. And purchase it later after sorting all things out.

2.     Check the Statement of Your Credit Card

Now check the statement of your credit card for getting clues that why your card was declined. You can either check your credit card statement through a recent bill if you’ve got one or you can check it in your account online by accessing internet banking to see all the latest transactions.

First of all, check your available credit. The answer might be as easy as you maxed out the limit of your credit card. Then, go through the history of all the transactions and be sure that all of the transactions are authorized and they are made by you. It is mainly imperative if your card outstanding balance amount seems higher than you expected. This way, you could be able to find out the fraud transaction if it has happened against your card. If the thief has made a lot of fake transactions in your name, it might appear to your credit card company that you’ve maxed out the limit of your plastic card even though you have not.

Thus, the statement of your card will hold all the key answers that why your credit card was declined. However, if you still can’t find the answer from there, then contact your credit card company straight away to get to the bottom of the situation.

3.     Cancel Your Credit Card Immediately If You Find Fraudulent Charges

If you find any sort of fraudulent charges on your plastic card then notify your credit card provider immediately without delaying further. Then your credit card provider will check all of the charges on your latest credit card statement with you in order to identify which charges were made by you and which ones were made by the thief. After that, your card issuer will remove all the fraudulent charges from your credit card account. In this manner, you will not be held responsible for all these fraudulent charges. Then your card provider will cancel your existing card and send you a new card with a new number in the email. However, you can also apply for a new credit card application from the desired bank yourself.

In the meantime, you’ll have to depend on other cards or payment methods for making purchases. You might also want to pull your credit reports in order to know that the identify thief has not assessed more of your accounts or opened up some other fraudulent accounts using your name and identity. If it happens ever, make sure you notify the credit bureaus as well as the bank associated with the fraud account.