Visa and AMEX gift cards keep getting declined

[pinwheelrecords]

Over the last few days I've had customers bring in Visa and AMEX gift cards as payment. Both times, the cards were declined.

The balance on these cards wasn't enough to cover the entire transaction, which isn't unusual, of course. When that happened in the past, it would simply turn into a split tender where the remaining balance of the transaction is due, and a different form of payment is accepted to pay the total remaining balance. However, the last couple days the gift card is simply declined and I have to ask for a different form of payment.

I talked to a Square rep (Anthony) over the phone - he was very nice and helpful, but we haven't yet figured out why this is happening all of a sudden. Any other retailers having issues like this lately? Am I doing something wrong? Do gift cards issued by credit card companies just hate me? 🙂

Thanks!

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Hey @pinwheelrecords — welcome to the seller community and thanks for bringing this up!

You're not doing anything wrong — a while back, there was a feature that would allow the seller to have visibility into how much money was needed to complete a sale in the event that there was not enough on the prepaid gift card to cover the entire cost. We received feedback that this caused confusion and increased a chance of a lost sale. For example, if the seller did not realize that the payment wasn't complete, the buyer could leave the store before addressing the issue.

For now, if your customer knows exactly how much is remaining on their prepaid gift card, you can still process a split tender payment by entering in the appropriate amount. I hope this helps make things a bit more clear.

Rest assured that I'll be sharing your experience with our Product Liaison team, who is always working to improve our products.

[hp1]

I have had this issue on a couple of occasions.  Today, I tried entering the exact amount of the gift card and it declined it.  

[Tom]

Hey @hp1, thanks for checking in and sorry to hear about the trouble with this payment. We'd be happy to have a closer look and see if there's any other information that will provide more clarity. Please feel free to send the payment information over to our Support Team directly — they'll get back to you with any other available details.

[SugarSandsVac]

 Currently I'm having the same problem today. I contacted the customer support team and I am waiting for them to call me back to see what can be done. We know the exact amount of the balance on the card. But it keeps declining.

I have many customers  Who use prepaid or gift cards because they feel safer rather than giving their normal card. I understand that and fully agree to that. It's a great way of shopping and doing business. But I don't want to lose customers to this. Any ideas?

[Russell]

Hey there @SugarSandsVac - 

I'm sorry to hear that you had trouble processing pre-paid cards. Often times the decision to decline a transaction is made by the card issuer. When this happens, it is best to request a different form of payment from your customer or ask them to call their card issuer for more information. 

I hope this helps clear things up - let me know if you need anything else. 

[ldisalvo8]

did you get an answer because this is happening to me too

[pinwheelrecords]

If any of these gift cards are declined, it means there's not enough of a balance remaining on the card to cover the purchase. The best way to handle this is to look up the balance of the card (can usually be done online and over the phone - check the back of the card) and run the transaction as a split sale.

The first transaction amount should be whatever the remaining balance of the card is. After you run the gift card, have the customer provide cash or a credit card to cover the remaining amount of the transaction.

This is easier to explain in person than in a message board post, but hopefully this mostly makes sense.

[hp1]

Mine still get declined!  We tried entering the exact amount remaining on the card, still gets declined!

[SugarSandsVac]

First you need to be the correct type of merchant in the community. If you are not then the sale will not go through. BlackHawk bank issuers of Visa and MasterCards, Regardless of your designation, they will decline all transactions. 

If you are a seller and of general merchandise Visa has strict rules and they're attempting to prevent fraud and has blocked so many square transactions that a customer wants to pay with, many times it's very harmless, because the person does not want their actual credit card to be used because of the ability for them to prevent fraud on any of their cards so therefore they spend a few dollars more and by  A prepaid gift card or non-reloadable card to limit their risk.  

This information I also found out from Square to put my designation of my business to the right category instead of other/general merchandise   Because I am a vacation rental company and use square as a back up in case my normal  merchant  system goes down  for any reason.  If any customers have a gift card issued by this particular bank BlackHawk bank FDIC insured, it will decline regardless of the amount even though funds are available.  It will decline every time.  They try to blame it on Visa and not make it their fault, even though they can approve the sale look at the back of the card and find out who is issued by. U.S. Bank has no problems. I am going to try AMEX that has $100.00, I will let you know the results.

[rsklar]

Visa Gift Card with more than enough funds was declined 3 times today by Sqare.  We are an ice cream shop so I am sure we are an OK Type of establishment.  Why has square not responded to this issue with some actual helpful guidence?

Also I notice that you state to send the transaction infroamtion to Customer Service.  Where would the declined transactions be?  Not in the transaction log, I downloaded the transactions to Excel and they are no in the spreadsheet.  No report for declined transaction. ???

[VanKalkerFarms]

you can see the declined and canceled transactions in your Transaction Status Dashboard

[rsklar]

Where?  I PUT in my post that it is not there.  Tell me specifically where.

[VanKalkerFarms]

Click on my link above, and it will take you to the spot in your account. It's in the Sales section under Transaction Status.

[rsklar]

The issue here is not that I can see the declines, but rather why are they declining?  A Visa Gift Card with plenty of funds loaded should be able to be used at any location that accepts Visa.  So Why is Square declining these transaction?

[Coffeetown]

My customer had enough cash on gift card and it still was declined, So what can i do?

[_Violet]

Hi @Coffeetown - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community. I'm sorry to hear that you had some trouble with this payment 😞

You can find some common reasons for payment declines here in our Support Center. If you'd like us to take a look into the payment for you from our end, you'll need to contact our Support Team - as we are unable to view this via the Seller Community. If you haven't already, please reach out directly by logging into your Square account and heading here.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[traderjakz]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: I am having problems accepting Pre Paid Visa cards

My employees are having trouble when customers want to use Pre Paid Visas and other major credit cards that are Pre Paid. Sometimes they can hand key them and they go through and sometimes it continuously declines them. Please advise.

[Helen]

@traderjakz I've added your post to this thread where some other sellers have experienced this issue.

A prepaid card can be declined for a few different reasons:

1. There isn't enough money on the card to complete the transaction. See Tom's Best Answer for more details on using split tender in this scenario.
2. The cardholder hasn't registered their card (usually gift cards) - and ZIP code - with the card issuer. This is especially important if you're trying to manually enter the card information and need to enter a ZIP. 
3. The card-issuer declines the card payment for another reason and that reason is not shared wtih Square. 

In each case the customer should contact the card-issuer directly for more information about why the payment was declined. 

[lize024]

Hi, I manually entered a Visa card and when I processed it, it showed declined. I did this several times thinking I had entered something wrong. When I checked in transactions, it showed nothing. I checked my bank and nothing was deposited. However, the person's bank indicated the transcations withdrawn several times. What do I do and who can I speak with. I feel horrible that this happened! Please help!

[VanKalkerFarms]

the way credit cards work behind the scenes is complicated.  The attempt was made to withdraw the funds is a temporary transaction against their account that failed due to NSF funds or whatever reason.  those temp transactions will automatically fall off.