From time to time a customer's credit card or payment card will be declined during the payment processes. The most common reasons for a card payment to be declined are as follows:

Incorrect details entered: the majority of declined cards are due to a small typing error. This is usually because of a difference between the billing name and address which you have entered and the name and address on file with your card issuer.
Other details may also be incorrect – such as the 16-digit card number on the front of your card or the 3-digit security code on the back of the card.

The 3D Security Challenge may fail if your billing address contains special characters (e.g. :' & '/). Please remove any special characters and use just letters and numbers in your billing address and attempt the payment again.

Insufficient funds: for a debit card, lack of funds in the bank account or for credit card, not enough credit available to cover payment.

Non legality of card: The card in use may have expired, been cancelled or blocked by the card issuer. You should always check the expiry date on your card before you attempt to make a payment.

Fraud watch: because the payment transaction appears to be out of the ordinary – either due to the time of day or the type or size of payment; the payment may be declined to protect you from what appears to the card issuer as a potentially fraudulent transaction.

Daily purchase limit exceeded: To protect users from fraudulent charges, most credit cards have a limit on how much debt can be accumulated during a 24 hour period. If this amount is exceeded then your credit card company may have blocked your account from any further activity and the card payment will be declined.

Communication Failure: A possible network failure, communication failure or timeout has occurred while processing the card payment.

If your card has been declined... you may try again, but please be aware that the majority of card issuers only allow 3 consecutive attempts before the card is blocked.

We advise you (the card holder) to contact your card issuer directly to ascertain the reason if it is not apparent from the above.

To protect your confidentially, the card issuer will not divulge to Cardiff Metropolitan University the reason for the payment to be declined.

Alumni