Credit card declined

[LilO]

I wanted to purchase L4D2 on steam but my credit card has been declined. Every information is entered correctly. My card doesn't have a hold on online buys (for example you cant buy 10 things in one day online). My last purchase was over a month ago (steam wallet 5$).

[ReBoot]

Two things you can do:
1. Read the error message and act accordingly
2. Call your bank and tell them to sort ♥♥♥♥ out

[Pancake Turtle]

I can't even purchase a game. Steam Support said I had a "restriction" put on my account because of my card which is BS because I use that card all the time and have never had a dispute with Steam on the card. They are claiming that's why my card has been flagged.

Do you think that may be part of the issue with the Steam store being partially broken?

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Pancake Turtle:

I can't even purchase a game. Steam Support said I had a "restriction" put on my account because of my card which is BS because I use that card all the time and have never had a dispute with Steam on the card. They are claiming that's why my card has been flagged.

Do you think that may be part of the issue with the Steam store being partially broken?

If the Steam store was broken, your thread would be one among hundreds, not one among one.
What is possible though, is your bank having falsely detected credit card fraud.
What EXACTLY was the message you got from Steam? Details often matter.

[Pancake Turtle]

"An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed.
Please wait a few minutes and try again.
If you encounter this error repeatedly, please contact Steam Support."

[Pancake Turtle]

So I contacted support and they said ,"The payment method you are attempting to use has been restricted from use in our system.

This usually indicates that the payment method has been involved in a payment dispute or unauthorized purchasing activity on Steam.

However, we aren't able to identify the event that triggered this restriction. We only keep detailed payment information for a short time, so it is possible that the event that triggered this ban occurred some time ago.

I can't remove this restriction for you. You will need to use an alternate payment method to complete future purchases on Steam."

But I've never been in a dispute with Steam.

[ReBoot]

As I just said

Originally posted by ReBoot:

What is possible though, is your bank having falsely detected credit card fraud.

[Pancake Turtle]

Nope. I called my bank and there is no issue. I'm just going to wait and hope it gets cleared up with this partially broken steam store

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Pancake Turtle:

"An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed.
Please wait a few minutes and try again.
If you encounter this error repeatedly, please contact Steam Support."

This error is the generic eror that banking uses. It's basically due to timeout.

And this will often happen during sale events. You can avoid it simply by tailoring your purchases until as late in the day as possible (I tend to use 2 am, but last thing before bed is a good one).

Basically it works like this. When you pay using a card, there's a short window for the handshake between the vendor and the bank. It's deliberately kept really short for security reasons.

However, this does mean when things get busy (like during sale periods) it can easily bomb out.

What you SHOULD NOT do is keep banging away trying again. Some banks will have other security features employed that see this and as its a generic error, think there may be something malicious going on and have an automated lockout (normally 24 hours). So if you keep banging away, all you'll likely do is reset that counter each time.

So, for the future, remember to buy as late as poss. For now, leave it several hours (or preferably until tomorrow as late as poss) before trying again.

[Washell]

Originally posted by Pancake Turtle:

But I've never been in a dispute with Steam.

Did you do a chargeback to obtain a "refund" at any stage?

[Pancake Turtle]

@crunchyfrog: thank you! That's good advice.

@Washell: no, never

[Magma Dragoon]

Originally posted by Pancake Turtle:

@crunchyfrog: thank you! That's good advice.

@Washell: no, never

There was a huge snafu where people who made purchases on June 6 getting account locks for no reason. If you had a purchase that day bring it up and see if "can't" really means "won't unless it's from that big screw up of ours"

[Potatogamer_77]

Same, I was trying to download SA2, but it said that my card is declined, how can I fix this?

[Dragonhead007]

Originally posted by Pancake Turtle:

So I contacted support and they said ,"The payment method you are attempting to use has been restricted from use in our system.

This usually indicates that the payment method has been involved in a payment dispute or unauthorized purchasing activity on Steam.

However, we aren't able to identify the event that triggered this restriction. We only keep detailed payment information for a short time, so it is possible that the event that triggered this ban occurred some time ago.

I can't remove this restriction for you. You will need to use an alternate payment method to complete future purchases on Steam."

But I've never been in a dispute with Steam.

Hi were you able to fix this issue? I got the same error with same message from support and its honestly driving me crazy

[Katie]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.