gooselee

TL;DR - Issues with Chase AU card being a duplicate number and I think resulting in issues with digital wallets/contactless. Anyone else have issues with getting their CSR (or any Chase card) to work on Google Pay across multiple devices?

I've had my phone activated and working fine for a year or two. Mrs. Lee just got a smartwatch and decided to add her CSR (which is an AU on my account) for a trip, and it either fails to scan or gets declined everywhere.

Tapping with my phone or physical card works fine. Her watch or phone never works and her physical AU card only works about half the time. Once the decline message was followed by a fraud alert, but we had already moved on by the time we got and replied to the text.

I suspect the watch/phone issues have something to do with Chase issuing AU cards with the same number/security code as the main one, and just a different name. So to Google, it looks like I just have my one card registered on three different devices. But not sure then why her physical card doesn't work in some places but mine works fine?

Also was hoping two different GPay devices would allow us to both use our separate devices to ride public transit where that's enabled (like TfL in London) vs. what we do now with one of us using phone and the other using a physical card.

Any ideas? Will Chase reissue her AU card with a separate number if I ask, similar to how Amex handles additional members?

mia

This is the way that nearly all MasterCard and VISA issuers handle authorized users on personal cards. (If you want unique numbers open a Chase business card account and the employee card will have a different number than the primary card.) Inasmuch as this is very common, it may not be the cause of the problem. It may be Google Pay itself. See (for example) this thread, start at post 296 and read to the end:

Citi fraud procedures and experiences [Consolidated]

gooselee

Thanks. Read that thread but it seems to not be the same problem. The card has been added to my Google Wallet for some time and added to Mrs. Lee's successfully (no fraud alert on the Google authorization). The charges that keep getting flagged or declined are specifically from various merchants and only on her devices or card. They then immediately go through (without any fraud intervention) on my device or physical card.

It may indeed be Google Pay itself but I'm unsure how to fix it and why it also is messing up her physical card.

mia

Agreed, different issuers, different procedures, but the underlying fault could be the same. I would try removing her card from Google Pay to see if her physical card is then reliably accepted. If not, is there a pattern to the rejections (e.g. contactless vs insert vs online/phone transactions)?

gooselee

No issues with online/phone as the card number and everything is the same. Haven't found a pattern to the declines - it's a combo of tap/insert and all kinds of different merchants. My card and phone work fine.

We will remove and re-add. Also I suspect part of it is that her first few attempts were overseas which would explain the Google Pay declines, though I can't explain the difference in the two physical cards.

Ideally some use when back home for a bit will get things going smoothly next time we are traveling.

mia

My suggestion is that you remove her card from Google Pay, do not immediately re-add it, use her physical card for a period of time to see if there are declines, THEN re-add it to Google Pay. This would allow you to test if Google Pay is related to the problems.