Credit card over the limit declined

I have two credit cards, one for my business and one personal.

For both, I pay them in full every month and my current debt is way under my credit limit on both.

And yet, today, at a gas station, both cards were declined due to "OVER THE LIMIT".

There's more than one reason that a credit card processor or issuer may decline a card when it suspects fraud due to too much activity or too high a transaction amount. The basic "over the limit" happens when your card is maxed out or nearly maxed out. That's not necessarily suspicion of fraud; it's just a matter of running out of headroom on the account, which you say is not happening.

Another is frequency of use. Each processor that supplies fraud detection has its own rules about what constitutes high frequency. If you had just used the card a large number of times over a short period that could temporarily cause the problem. Another more worrisome situation is where your card has been hacked and whoever now has the card information is using a "bot" to place a large number of purchases over a very short time. Because they know that a hacked card has a very short effective useful life for them they will try to milk it quickly and then move on to another card. I suggest that you contact your card issuer via the toll-free number on the back and find out if they're seeing potentially fraudulent activity. Bank of America and Chase have excellent fraud detection services, as I know from personal experience, but I have no specific information about other issuers.

How do I know this? I'm a software developer with responsibility for credit card and PayPal processing for a number of e-commerce businesses.

Tom

Tom, thanks. My business CC balance is at about 30% of the limit right now.

I appreciate your thoughts. These are indeed Chase cards. I have grown to know that every time I use a credit card, it is a crapshoot, especially at gas stations.

There used to be a limit here for how much you could pay at the pump. It use to be $80 if I remember correctly. If you stayed under that amount it went through. You could go into the station with your card first I believe and process the card there. Here are a couple articles. They are old but should help explain it...

Leon, I was indeed trying to pay INSIDE.

I tried to buy gas twice in the same day at the same gas station at the pump. Second time was declined. Had to go inside where it was accepted. They said it was a fraud protection thing.

I bought an item at home depot. It was broke, so I took it back for a replacement. They wouldn't swap it. Had to return it for credit and buy the new one again. But the credit card was declined and locked. I had to go home and call the CC company to get it turned back on. Seems you can't buy/return/buy the same item with your credit card. If I'd been out of town and dependent on that card, I'd have been screwed.

Harbor Freight handles extended warranties bought after you've checked the thing out by "returning" it and selling it a second time, along with the warranty. My Visa card hasn't been refused, yet.

It was just a guess...

Did some searching with "chase card". Wow, a lot of disgruntled users. One thing I did notice is that a lot of them payed off their monthly balances in full and yet till got declined for small purchases.

All sorts of tales of woe here:

On 01/10/2017 1:10 PM, mike wrote: ...

Something other than just a return must've triggered it or you've got an exceedingly picky CC issuer. I return stuff all the time via CC and never had any such issue (including on occasion the case you mentioned, altho most times it's a swap or straight return).

On 01/10/2017 11:49 AM, Leon Fisk wrote: ...

A buddy who had local Mobil distributorship until just recently once told me that those limits were set somehow in the pump firmware and transferred along w/ the specific card data to the issuer when the approval request went...

It's real pita when can't even fill a vehicle on an unattended island, though, fer shure.

My wife tried buying some flowers for her mother by telephone for Christmas, and both her Chase card and a Cap. One card were rejected.

It turns out that neither one would accept telephone charges on a chip card. The florist didn't seem to know that, or possibly she didn't use the 3-digit code on the back of the card.

It was a small-town florist that doesn't get many phone orders.

I had trouble a couple times with the Chase INK card, both times the card had 0 balance/$10k+ credit on it. I sent it back.

Now my only Chase card is with Amazon, and I didn't know until I received it that it was a Chase card. They're not my type of family.

If you ever have a card declined twice in a row swiping it, call the card issuer on the spot. As Tom said, the number is on the back. They can tell you instantly whether it's them stopping the transaction.

My regular bank has called me twice over the years telling me that they were sending a new card out to me due to their catching perps trying to use it. I knew it wasn't something I had bought because I don't shop at FiFi's Boutique. The perps ran up $1,200 worth of stuff before the bank reversed it and my money was back in my account that same day. I love 'em.

Their rates are ghastly, especially if you miss a payment or go overlimit. Some of the cards out nowadays (from all companies) are so high they would have been considered _usurious_ when I took Business Law in high school. 34% is the highest I've seen.

And if those aren't bad enough, CC Cos get $39 a pop for late payments, returned checks, and overlimit fees, plus hitting you with the highest rates they state for 6-12mos afterward, if late.

I learned early on to pay off the balance monthly, and to pay the max I could until the balance was paid off after an emergency buy.

Yes, I use a Chase card occasionally because it has no foreign transaction fee (save 2.5%). They are very skittish so I don't ever depend on it.

--sp