10x the declined cards since Christmas

[Tonearm]

Has anyone else seen a massive increase in the number of declined cards since Christmas? I thought it might have to do with everyone being broke after the holidays so I re-processed the declined cards after the 1st (payday) with the same result. The only thing I can think of is they must all be gift cards and the recipients went on a spending spree without paying attention to their card's balance.

[rachel123]

We are seeing some but no more than normal for January - maybe 2 or 3% more than average for the whole year.

so I re-processed the declined cards after the 1st (payday)

do you have a subscription service? Otherwise I would think you would get an auth before the customer can complete the order?

[Corey Bryant]

If it is a gift card, you might check with the consumer to see what the gift amount is. If it is $50.00 but you are processing a $65.00 transaction, it might be declined.

Are you re-running the transaction via the virtual terminal? Is the error message generic or something specific?

[LifeinAsia]

A lot of credit card companies are cancelling cards or decreasing the limits. The customers may not know about the changes yet and still trying to use a card that's been cancelled or no longer has a sufficient limit.