Will Dearborn

Frustrating situation...used Freedom card a couple weeks ago to make a purchase at bonus category merchant (approved), a few minutes later attempted to make another purchase at same merchant and was declined. I used the Sapphire Reserve to complete the purchase. I called Chase afterwards and was told without any explanation that a security hold had been placed on the Freedom but they were removing it and acknowledged that the proper points would be credited.

Fast forward to today...attempted to use the Freedom card at the same bonus category merchant for a much larger purchase (would max out my bonus points) and it was declined. The self-checkout machine gave me the same receipt it did those weeks back ("Card error - try again). Again, I used the Sapphire Reserve to complete the transaction. After being on the phone with Chase for 90 minutes, I was told there was nothing they could do. They acknowledged the previous declined transaction but said they saw no trace of one today and that was that. They were not interested in the receipt showing the declined transaction. The only recourse offered was to send me a new card. Customer service ranged from sour to disinterest.

Has anyone had similar issues or know any fixes? I'm pleased with the benefits of both cards but this kind of buffoonery will drive me elsewhere.

mia

You may receive better replies if you mention the name of the merchant and the amounts of the transactions.

Many failed transactions never hit the issuer's system. It's probably not accurate to characterize them as "rejected", but that may simply be the terminology used by the POS terminal.

Will Dearborn

Sam's Club - last approved transaction was ~$70, next declined transaction was ~ $200, last declined transaction (today) was ~ $1000. Leaving 4000 UR points on the table is frustrating, particularly when I have reason to believe it's due to Chase.

Point being, Chase said they saw no evidence the Freedom card was even attempted to be used so blamed it all on the merchant.

mia

Understood, and my point being that it is plausible that the transaction failed for technical reasons, and was never presented to Chase.

rasheed

Looks like you hit some of Wal-Mart's fraud prevention software. It runs heavily also on the website (no transaction presented to card network or card network did not deny).

The best thing I can recommend is make sure you have Chase turned on to text or app push so that when you do get a charge denied, you can quickly allow on the app or text to allow you to try again. But when WM says no, there is no recourse.

Often1

It is almost certain that the merchant's fraud prevention software caused this and it has nothing to do with Chase. If the transaction had been declined by Chase, you would have been able to clear the account (or not) in short order, especially using the app.

But, when it is the merchant, you are stuck as Chase has no record and frankly has none nothing. You might ask the merchant to explain why it is doing this.