Why did AMEX cards keep getting declined yesterday...

PinkSneakers · ‎11-02-2017

Yesterday all of my customer American Express cards kept being declined. Thank goodness I hadn't yet canceled my previous merchant account!! I called Square but after being on hold for over an HOUR, I gave up and just ran the cards through my former merchant account and they went through. What is wrong with your system? I've only been with you two weeks and have issues already?? No access to customer service on phone so I emailed and received a auto reply that you'll get back to me in 1-3 days. Seriously? THEN one of the customers called us and said they received a "fraud alert" on their Amex Card! That was because of SQUARE. What's up? Should I deactivate Square and go back to my previous merchant company?? I can't have this issue every two weeks and then have zero access to customer service.

EJ_ · ‎11-02-2017

Hi @PinkSneakers

Sorry to hear about the bad experience.

While I can't discuss the payment specifics of your account since this is a public forum, I can shed light on a few things that might help.

Depending on the payment method, almost every decline is initiated by the cardholder's bank. Banks don't share the exact reason why a card is declined with Square directly, but in this instance they let your customer know the payment might've triggered their fraud system.

American Express is most definitely an accepted card with Square, so that wouldn't be the reason of the declines happening even if it seems to happen more with that type of card than others.

We can provide more details if you give our Support Team a call so we can look at the actual payments. I know you waited a long while when you called us the first time, but try calling us again and we'll get you taken care of.

PinkSneakers · ‎11-02-2017

It was your system that declined the two different customer Amex cards. They are hotels and their cards are fine. I used my former merchant processor directly afterwards and they went through fine. I will call your customer service once right now but I won't hold for an hour again. I have a feeling the long wait times was because your system was declining cards when they shouldn't have been and many vendors like me were calling you. Thank you.

PinkSneakers · ‎11-02-2017

Arrrrgh! Your system now declined a Mastercard from another hotel account we have! I went back to my square account and I see your announcement that you're having problems all over the place with cards being declined. WOW. I've been with you two weeks and I've now experienced more declined cards in two DAYS than I have in 12 years with my former merchant processor! I did as you asked and called customer service but there's a looooong hold time again. I'm using a virtual terminal in case you need to know it's not only point of sale that's declining cards, it's virtural also. I'm going back to my previous company. Do any other customers have this problem too, with legit cards being declined? And are these issues the norm with Square?? (One of our customers received a fraud alert warning because I tried processing their payment on Square and it was declined. How embarassing. That's a first for my 12 yrs of owning my business...receiving a call from a hotel account, asking what is going on with our credit card processing system that caused a fraud alert.)

EJ_ · ‎11-03-2017

Hi again @PinkSneakers

The issues occurring yesterday only applied to payments being taken on Android devices using a specific version of the Point of Sale app.

Virtual Terminal payments can be declined due to incorrect information being entered, or, the cardholders bank decision.

Other point of sale providers will allow payments to go through with partial accuracy, but Square requires 100% accuracy for the card number, zip code, security code, and expiration date.

I'll have a team member reach out via email to clarify the payment specifics. Keep an eye out for their communication.

kwd1 · ‎08-19-2019

Is there any way to find out more info on "Unknown Card"

Declined

ashc · ‎08-19-2019

Hey @kwd1! Welcome to the Community.

I moved your post to this thread on declined cards and how the information on why they're declined would have to come from the bank or card issuer.

Even though this one is specifically an AMEX card situation, this applies to all declined cards in our system.

Ashley C
Community Moderator, Square
Sign in and click Mark as Best Answer if my reply answers your question.

Why did AMEX cards keep getting declined yesterday on Nov 1, 2017 ???!!!