Any walmart employees? I need help please

[Varkolak]

Ok, i tried to use my debit card at 2 different places today. i've got almost $500 in my account and keep track of all my spending. today my card was declined at work (dollar general) so i couldn't buy my lunch or easter presents. then i went to buy a 2 liter at walmart 6 hours later. it still said declined! i have money in the account, but its declining my card!!!! my walmart receipt said declined because of reason #05. what does that mean?! i can't call my bank until monday. i asked in the store but everyone said "i dunno." and wouldn't help me at all! does anyone know what reason 5 is?

[kittybethy]

I hope someone can help!

[Rhini]

There are a few things that might have happened.

A. (and I really hope not!) you are a victim of card fraud and they cleaned your account   
B. Sometimes, for whatever reason places like gas stations will place a hold on your account for a certain amount of money after a purchase there.
C. There's some type of error with the card
D. The bank put a hold on your account because of possible fraudulent spending.



Do you have online banking active? Can you see if they money is still in your account? I hope everything works out and its just a small error 

[Varkolak]

i checked my account and it still shows i have all my money in there

Post Merge: March 31, 2012, 10:44:45 PM

could it be because i ordered from taobaonow?
it told me after i had to use my card because they wouldn't take paypal, so i entered my card info, and it took the payment and they said they got it. now all of a sudden my account is frozen? they probably stole my info and cleaned me out and its not showing up because its the weekend. i feel sick right now about this. i have to buy things tomorrow for my bunnies and i can't because of this!

[Kiwi]

The bank may have put a hold on it if they thought the Taobao order was suspicious (not that they've done anything wrong, just if you've never ordered from there before). Can you check online to see your balance or if there are any holds? Even on the weekend, mine still updates.

[kamakazee82]

sounds like they may have put a freeze on the card since taobao can be considered a "suspiscious purchasse" from a high risk of fraudulent activity country ... they most likely tried to contact you about that and if they couldn't reach you, for safeties sake, the card gets frozen ...

most financial institutions have what's called a "trasaction blocker list" which is a list of countries/retailers/sites/etc etc etc that have a high rate of fraudulent activity ... 99.999999999999999999999999999999999% of europe/asia/etc tends to be on those lists ... yay ...

most people don't realize there are daily limits on their cards. for debit, the limits are usually about 150 from an atm. 300 with the pin, 500 with a signature, but it really depends ont he institution, the person's account, etc etc if you have reached a limit, your card is done for the day ... this is again a safety feature ... it should have been disclosed to you upon getting the card ... but i know that no one i talk to EVER listens to me when i explain the limits and then is all "well no one told me" and then i have to pull up the disclosure that they signed etc etc where they see that i circled their limits and explained in great depth that those limits are what would work best for safety reasons and that if they should ever need the limit temporarily raised to simply contact us and let us know ...

many financial instituions have r ecently been informed of several large breaches of security at several imortant card processing centers and have begun the processes of replacing many cards, upgrading their systems, etc etc ...

also, the card systems are computerized ... sadly computers go down sometimes ... sometimes this is planned maintenance and sometimes crap just happens ...


i would say it's most likely the purchase from taobao either reaching your limits or flagging your card as "possible fraud" ... contact your instituion monday AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
 
 
 
ETA: more often than not a store cannot tell you why the card is declined. they are not the financial insitution and cannot see if money is there, the system is down, there are prior holds, etc etc ... that code is probably something as generic as "cannot process" :\

[Varkolak]

thanks for all the info! i hadn't done any debits that day and my total was only $36 so it was probably just the site and they froze my card. it stinks though because i have to buy bunny hay and couldn't get my lunch today at work. i feel better now though knowing it could just be because they're suspicious of the activity. i hope that's all it turns out to be. thanks!

[kamakazee82]

yeah it can be a real pain in the butt i know lol ... but it's a lot better that they be on the alert for it than just let it go ... there is a LOT of fraud going on right now ... i see at least 3-4 people a day with it now and it is not fun ... but getting a card unfrozen is much easier than getting fraud dealt with ...

[kaoskat]

Yeah sounds like a freeze to me too. I hope they can unfreeze it for you soon!

[windsong]

I don't work at Walmart, but I work in a retail store and my boss just told me about issues with Visa cards happening yesterday everywhere, and possibly another type of card too. So that may have been the issue. I'm not sure if it's been resolved yet, but it might just be on the Credit/Debit card's end rather than a frozen account. Hopefully that's all it is anyways!

[kamakazee82]

yeah ... walked into a hornet's nest today at work ... a lot of people very unhappy about their cards not working ... was a "technical problem" on visa's end, visa only as far as i heard ...

so it sounds like it was just the crap hitting the fan for no particular reason other than a computer someone freakin' out ... yay ...

[Varkolak]

i called the bank this morning and they said it was because i ordered from that site, they said they tried to call but i had changed my number since then and forgot to update it. *oops*
so all is good now! my card worked fine today. its a visa, but maybe i missed the whole cards not working today thing??

[kamakazee82]

i guess they weren't working most of the day sunday, and yeah, a lot of people forget to update their info with their financial institutions ... i don't know the last time i updated so many telephone numbers and addresses ... kinda scary when you think about it, but that info is important for contacting you lol i had one guy ask me "is this why i haven't been getting my statements?" i think i litterally made an emoticon face when he asked me that cause i was thinking "YOU HAVEN'T BEEN RECIEVING YOUR BANK STATEMENTS?! WHO THE BLEEP HAS ALL YOUR ACCOUNT INFO NOW?!" ... well, got that guy rolling wi the fraud prevention department ... :\ *facepalm*

soooooo glad you got everything settled varkolark! and sounds like you missed the "fun" by having your own, when it rains it pours huh? lol

[Rhini]

i called the bank this morning and they said it was because i ordered from that site, they said they tried to call but i had changed my number since then and forgot to update it. *oops*
so all is good now! my card worked fine today. its a visa, but maybe i missed the whole cards not working today thing??

Yaay for a small misunderstanding vs actually losing money! lol

[Varkolak]

thanks for all your help everyone!

kamakazee: oh gosh! he hasn't been getting statements?! i get mine and usually toss them in my drawer with my pay stubs >_> probably should take better care of filing them.
its funny how one small mistake or move, such as forgetting to update a phone number, can lead to a huge problem! lol i had to wait all weekend for them to open again. they closed at noon on saturday. i feel bad for getting upset about them not calling, since it was my fault for not updating my number. but i do feel better that they stopped my card in case it WAS someone trying to steal my stuff. just an inconvenience that i could have prevented, had i updated my number. lol