Amex Everyday Purchase Declined

[jwall10]

I recently got the Amex Everday Card and have been doing several purchases so far and its been great. Today I went to Bjs and total I had to pay was around 300. I swiped my card like usual but then the cashier says its declined. Why was I denied if I have more then enough available credit?

[longtimelurker]

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@jwall10 wrote:

I recently got the Amex Everday Card and have been doing several purchases so far and its been great. Today I went to Bjs and total I had to pay was around 300. I swiped my card like usual but then the cashier says its declined. Why was I denied if I have more then enough available credit?

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There are a few possibilities:

Fraud Alert from Amex.  Amex decided that this transaction was unusual by their parameters based on your spending.  You would receive a call (or email, text, app alert) asking about it.  Once you confirm it was you, you will be able to do similar transactions

Failed communication.  If you find Amex doesn't have a record of the attempt, it's because something went wrong at BJs, and the transaction never reached Amex to be authorized.

The fraud stuff can happen frequently early on with a new card/issuer.   Generally quickly gets better.

[Kenny]

You should have called right then and there and you would have gotten your explanation and the charge would have been processed through... it might be because the card is new? You yourself said you used it quite a bit.

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

Sometimes if you use a card for the first time at a particular class of store (warehouse store) you may get temporarily flagged as well. 

I've only had one decline recently, and that was probably because I shopped at a store that I had never used that card at, and that store had a severe card breach incident a couple of years ago. 

If the Amex app is available for your phone (I think it's only iPhone etc) then you might want to install it so you get a quick heads-up on any issues, card-not-present charges, and other alerts you configure on the Amex website. 

[USF813]

They aren't used to your charging patterns yet. I bought $53 worth of products at Walmart while I was waiting on tires. When I went to pay for the tires an hour later the $200 charge was declined. I called on the spot.

[longtimelurker]

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@NoAnchoviesPlease wrote:

Sometimes if you use a card for the first time at a particular class of store (warehouse store) you may get temporarily flagged as well. 

I've only had one decline recently, and that was probably because I shopped at a store that I had never used that card at, and that store had a severe card breach incident a couple of years ago. 

If the Amex app is available for your phone (I think it's only iPhone etc) then you might want to install it so you get a quick heads-up on any issues, card-not-present charges, and other alerts you configure on the Amex website. 

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Also available for Android.  It can help in these situations

[jwall10]

Thanks for the reply. I do have the Amex app installed but didnt receive any notification. I was in a hurry so I couldn't call so just used by debit card. Is there any number I should contact or do chat so this dosen't happen. I will be going on vacation with some friends next month and it will be embarrassing to get declined.

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@NoAnchoviesPlease wrote:

If the Amex app is available for your phone (I think it's only iPhone etc) then you might want to install it so you get a quick heads-up on any issues, card-not-present charges, and other alerts you configure on the Amex website. 

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Also available for Android.  It can help in these situations

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Ah yes... good catch. I should have remembered that as I downloaded receiptmatch and the other one when I upgraded my phone recently. I think there was some other finance app I wanted that was only iDevice. It's been a long day.  

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

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@jwall10 wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I do have the Amex app installed but didnt receive any notification. I was in a hurry so I couldn't call so just used by debit card. Is there any number I should contact or do chat so this dosen't happen. I will be going on vacation with some friends next month and it will be embarrassing to get declined.

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Call the number on the back of your card, or 1-800-528-4800 if you don't have another number (that's the number for "Customer Service" on AmericanExpress.com, if you click on the "phone" icon in the top right). But odds are, the number on the back of your card is the best one to use. 

You probably can't get them to never do fraud checks, but when one happens or an unexpected decline happens, you can ask the clerk to set your purchase aside (or "hold" your transaction and go on to the next customer) and get your issue taken care of. 

I usually have this happen when I buy a new laptop, which happens more often than you might think. If you know you're going to make a big purchase at a specific vendor, you could call or chat the card issuer and say "hey I'm gonna spend $3k this afternoon at Costco" and see if they can note the account. 

Also, if you're traveling, you may want to see if the card issuer accepts travel notifications. This can help if you're going to be charging in a place you don't normally charge (i.e. Hawaii or Walmart or whatever).