10 Best ways to fix a declined debit card

This post gives you the best answer and the solution on how to fix a declined debit card or even a credit card as well.

Ever been in a situation whereby you want to make a payment and boom, you saw card declined.

What was your reaction?

I already know cause I’ve been in this situation before and I was really angry and same time confused about what to do.

Before looking for the solution of how to fix a declined debit card, you should know the reason why such a thing happened.

For example, there was a time I tried to make payment online and that was on aliexpress mobile app. Immediately I entered my debit card details and hit on the pay button, what I saw was debit card declined.

I was really surprised and same time confused cause I have enough money in my bank account.

Trying to figure out what actually is the cause of it, and after several trials, I found out that the fault is from my debit card and not my bank account.

Aliexpress doesn’t support my visa debit card.

This is one solution to how to fix a declined debit card.

There are many causes and also solutions in solving the problem. Before you can solve a problem, you’ll first find out the cause of the problem.

This is what this post is all about, telling you the major causes of debit card declined and also how to fix a declined debit card.

How to fix a declined debit card

how to fix a declined debit card

So let’s get started with the problems and their solutions.

1. Insufficient account balance

Yes, of course, the insufficient account balance is the number one major reason why a debit card is declined.

Do you know that a cent can make a debit card payment to decline?

For instance, you want to make a payment online and the currency is in US dollars. The payment states $1000 and your debit card is in the pound, euro, or the Chinese yen, etc.

You don’t have any amount in your account, and which you want to transfer the US dollar equivalent in your currency into your bank account which you ie to be used for the payment.

Now you have to convert your country currency to the US dollar, and in the case of the conversion, the amount was short by just a cent, during payment it won’t go through.

The payment will automatically fail even though the amount was short by just a cent.

This already tells you that there is an insufficient balance in your bank account even though there’s money in the account.

The one-cent makes the account to be insufficient.

An example, a few weeks back I tried to make a payment online and which is in the Canadian dollar. Having converted the equivalent of the amount to my country currency, I transferred the money into my bank account.

During payment, I was surprised that I saw payment failed and it didn’t state the reason.

That’s normal as many debit cards failed payments that don’t indicate or state the reason for the failed transaction.

What I did is to fund the account and tried the payment again, and this time it went through.

So I deduced that the reason for the failed payment is because of insufficient balance and which was short by $2 Canadian dollar.

So insufficient balance is one major reason for debit card failure and to fix a declined debit card in this case, you’ve to fund your bank account. 

If the payment you want to make using your debit card is $500, make sure that the money in your bank account is at least $520.

This is the number one solution on how to fix a declined debit card.

2. Unsupported debit card

The second major reason and solution on how to fix a declined debit card are using an unsupported debit card.

I’m pretty sure of Visa debit card.

Most online payments platform rejects the visa debit card and this practically declines any payment made using the visa debit card.

For example, using a Visa debit card to make payments on aliexpress online shopping store won’t go through except for a debit MasterCard.

This isn’t only applicable to aliexpress online store, even Amazon and eBay online store reject the visa debit card except for the visa credit card.

So bear in mind that one of the major reasons why the debit card is declined or rejected can be caused by an unsupported debit card. To fix a declined debit card, use a different card, and see if the payment will go through.

3. Daily or monthly spending limit

Reaching daily or monthly spending limit causes debit card decline or rejection.

Banks have daily or monthly spending, especially in their debit cards. A bank customer can never exceed the daily or monthly spending and this can cause a debit card rejection in a payment.

How to fix a declined debit card, in this case, is to wait until the next day if you’ve reached a daily spending limit or wait until month-end if you’ve reached the monthly spending limit.

This is why I prefer to have two bank accounts.

If I have my daily or monthly spending limit, I switch to my other bank account and use it for the payment.

Honestly, this method has been of great help to me in solving how to fix a declined debit card when it comes to a spending limit.

If you don’t know your bank spending limit for the day or month, please kindly contact your account manager and make inquiries on the limit.

This helps in answering the question of why the debit card is declined or rejected.

How to fix a declined debit card is to check if your debit card has reached the daily or monthly spending limit.

4. Frozen or blocked account

You have enough money in your account, you haven’t reached a daily or monthly spending limit and your debit card is fully supported as you have been using it to make payments.

Then suddenly, you can’t make payments anymore using the debit card attached or linked to your bank account.

A frozen or blocked account can cause this type of problem.

I’m not saying definitely your bank account is frozen or blocked, but it might cause the debit card rejection.

If a bank suspects a bank account or if a customer account becomes suspicious, a bank has the legal right to block or freeze the account. This doesn’t mean that the customer account is permanently frozen.

This is usually temporary if the bank suspects a suspicious activity in a customer’s bank account.

The bank will await the customer to come up and notify them about the issue. All things being equal, the bank will unfreeze the account and it will become functional again.

To know if your bank account is frozen, try to make a withdrawal and if it didn’t go through, kindly contact your bank and they will notify you about it.

This is another major cause of debit card being declined or rejected during payment.

To fix a declined debit card in this case requires the account owner to go to the bank and do the necessary things required to unfreeze or unblock the bank account.

5. Network issue

This might sound funny to you but it does happen.

A bank might experience network glitches or issues, and which affects its online or internet banking services plus withdrawals.

If this occurs, there’s no way a customer can make payment using the bank debit card. I’ve once experienced this and it was so painful to me cause it lasted for hours before the bank rectified the issue.

Your problem of not using your debit card might not be your fault or insufficient balance, but rather from your bank.

How to fix a declined debit card, in this case, is to wait until the bank resolves its network issue, and you can go with the payment.

6. Incorrect pin

Entering an incorrect pin for the debit card payment will definitely prevent the transaction to go through.

It’s so rare to see an incorrect pin or maybe multiple incorrect pins, but it does happen especially if it is a new debit card issued to the bank customer.

Even tension can make someone completely forget it’s debit card personal identification number but it is rare to see such happen.

If such happens and to fix a declined debit card, in this case, requires you to try again and make sure you entered the correct personal identification number.

7. Expired debit card

This is quite rare to see, though some debit cardholders are nonchalant to check the expiration date on their debit cards.

You need to put this into consideration. You have your debit card rejected, just flip it and take a look at the expiration date.

You May have forgotten that the card has already expired, but if it didn’t then you have to look for the next solution on how to fix a declined debit card.

And that is if the debit card is activated.

Before using a debit card for withdrawal, payment, or any other services, you need to activate the debit card issued to you.

During the activation, you’ll enter your personal identification number (pin) for any transaction using the debit card.

If a debit card isn’t activated, there’s no way it can be used for payment, money transfer, or withdrawal.

These are the major reasons why a debit card is declined or rejected, and these seven answers are the best I know that can help you to fix a declined debit card.

However, if you tried everything you can and it didn’t work out, then it’s a hard time you contact your bank.

Contacting your bank is the last solution I have for you on how to fix a declined debit card.

The bank is the last resort and it is left for you to notify them about the problem you have with your debit card.

The bank will run a check on your account to see if there’s an issue, and if they didn’t see any issue with your bank account, the debit card followed next.

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This is where I come to the conclusion of this post on how to fix a declined debit card. If your debit card problem isn’t resolved using these methods, kindly contact your bank or account manager.

The bank will definitely sort it for you and it, in turn, help you how to fix a declined debit card. Please don’t hesitate to share this post using the share buttons.

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