Why do Visa gift cards rarely work on steam?

[Bunnyena]

I have looked all over for an answer to what is causing this and I can't find any explanation. When I try to use a Visa gift card to add money to my steam wallet, most of the time it just says it was declined. Just now I used a $20 card to put $10 into my steam wallet, and it worked completely fine. Then I tried to put the other $10 from the card into my steam wallet, and it suddenly is getting declined??? I've checked online to make sure there's still money on it, and I've even tried it with $5 instead of $10. All declined. Someone, please help me figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong.

[rawWwRrr]

Steam is probably making small holds to verify the card is valid which temporarily reduces the full amount available on the gift card.

[Zekiran]

Because depending on the TYPE of card, they may or may not be allowed to be used to buy further credit. Each one might have a different Terms of Use for online functions. Some are only good at certain locations.

you might want to wait a day or so, and try again, as well - since steam's being overloaded with gift purchases, downloads, and refund requests during this time of year anyway, it might be slower and make errors more likely.

[Bunnyena]

Postat inițial de Zekiran:

Because depending on the TYPE of card, they may or may not be allowed to be used to buy further credit. Each one might have a different Terms of Use for online functions. Some are only good at certain locations.

you might want to wait a day or so, and try again, as well - since steam's being overloaded with gift purchases, downloads, and refund requests during this time of year anyway, it might be slower and make errors more likely.

I know that I'm able to use it to put money into my steam wallet because I've already put $10 into my wallet with it. But when I try to use the remaining money, it declines. I've also used these cards before, and they sometimes work and sometimes don't. It feels like it's completely random whether it gets declined or not.

[Zekiran]

As rawr suggests it might be that there are in fact temporary hold amounts being placed on it between use. If it's only a 20 dollar card, and you use 10 dollars, and want to put another 10 using it up - thing is, it's likely got up to 4$ 'reserved' to prove the card is valid at all. that's what all accounts must do, from bank and paypal to credit and debit cards.

[rawWwRrr]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6088-udxm-7214#giftcards