I  have had a strange issue going on for almost 2 years now for which I have only just found a solution – my credit card has been declined online for no apparent reason on multiple websites.

It doesn’t happen every time that I buy things, but maybe only about 10% of times.

This started a couple of years ago with a small website where I was trying to buy tickets for a local event. It didn’t matter which card I chose to use (in fact I tried a credit card and 2 debit cards) but my payment still came up as declined. In the end I had to get a relative to buy the tickets and pay them back.

Having your credit card declined online can be really frustrating when you have the money to pay for things!

Usually on Smaller Websites

This then kept happening sporadically on different websites (and using different devices including PC, laptop and phone) – but they were mostly smaller websites not using things like Worldpay to take payments (so maybe they just had their own integrated payment systems).

I had issues trying to make some charity payments and donations, as well as buying wine and books. The problem was not with any kind of credit limit as I always had enough credit on my cards and they had not been reported stolen etc so it was really frustrating.

It started getting really annoying when I was trying to buy an online streaming event and even trying my own cards, and somebody else’s, I still couldn’t get a payment to work. I even called my bank and they couldn’t find any issues. In the end I set up an account for another family member and managed to use their card from my PC.

Finding the Solution

A few weeks later I wanted to buy another streamed event from the same company so I logged on using the other person’s account that I had set up and then tried to pay with my credit card – for some reason this worked!

This made me think about what could be the reasoning behind it working with my card but using their account but my credit card being declined when using my own account. There wasn’t much I could do at that point to test things out until it happened again.

So roll on today, and another credit card declined message when I tried to buy some textbooks. I was just about to get annoyed again when I thought back to what had happened and I changed the email address in my details (luckily I have a couple of email addresses).

With just that one change, I clicked on the payment button again and the payment went straight through! I don’t know if there is any kind of database somewhere that blacklists email addresses for some reason and mine has managed to get on that list. Maybe I will never find out if that is the case.

So, if you have the same situation with your credit card being declined when you try and make an online purchase, then maybe try changing the email address you are using for the payment, it may just work.