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⍁ Your card didn't work on a POS

You tried making a payment physically with a physical card and it failed. Learn why.

Updated over 6 months ago

There are many reasons why your physical card can be refused.

On the card's side...

Damaged chip

If your chip is damaged, there are high chances that your payment will not be successful. If you notice that many payments are refused in a row, contact us by logging in here and visiting "Need help - Chat with us", we will respond to your request within 10 minutes. 😊

Incorrect use

  • Your payment will be refused if the PIN is incorrect. You can have a look at your PIN code at anytime on the app (My card > View pin code). Otherwise, send a text message with your pin from the interface, from your Card tab.

  • The merchant tries to swipe your card instead of its normal use (enter the card + type the pin), or does not support contactless.

👉🏻 Swiping your card instead of putting it in the POS will block the chip.🚨

👉🏻You need to make a payment with PIN to be able to use contactless.

Limits

Your payment will automatically be refused by our services if :

  • you have insufficient funds on your card

  • the Spendesk wallet of your company has insufficient funds

  • Your card has expired

  • Your card is blocked on the interface (by your company, by security, or by yourself)

  • You are limited to certain days of the week / hours of the days

  • Your yearly physical spending limit is reached

  • Your monthly physical spending limit is reached

  • Your transaction spending limit is reached.

    The spending limits defined on the Spendesk cards vary according to the currency and the country in which the company is based in. 👉🏻 Read our articles on card limits for more information.

Card type

If your card is a prepaid card, these are not accepted everywhere. Some merchants choose to refuse them for security reasons.

👀 Soon, all Spendesk cards will be debit cards!

Issue with our banking partner / the merchant's banking partner or servers

There can be a downtime. If this is the case, we advise you to wait for a few minutes or hours and to retry.

On the merchant's side...

👉🏻 If the merchant's POS is not properly linked to a network, your payment will not go through.

👉🏻 Payment terminals on the merchant's end need to be configured according to a specific payment method. There are generally two modes available:

  • "Card Present" mode is a transaction made where the cardholder either enters their card into a payment terminal. The customer may need to use their PIN code, or swipe the card in the machine and sign the receipt.

  • "Card Not Present" mode is a transaction made where the cardholder is not physically present. This is the mode that should be set for most online purchases or purchases made over the phone, for example. This will not always work. Some purchases require the user to verify the transaction via 3DS or type in their PIN, which is not possible on a phone purchase.

Muted card

If the payment terminal displays ‘Muted card’, try rubbing the chip on your card against a piece of cloth and retry the payment. If this still does not work, unfortunately this means that your card has probably been demagnetised (by contact with a telephone or coins, for example).

We therefore recommend that you cancel this card from the ‘Card’ tab and then ask one of your staff members in the Administrator role to order you a new card.

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