The Fraud Protection Services enabled by these providers may be causing your transactions to fail.
Why is this happening?
During these difficult times of increased isolation, more people are utilizing online services for purchases to fulfill our needs. Online grocery shopping, Amazon orders, and food delivery services of all types are all being used more than ever. Utility companies are reporting record numbers of online payments. Banks globally are reporting physical currency shortages as electronic payments are on a record-breaking increase. Of course, identity theft and fraud purchases are trending at an all-time high as well. These are just a few stories describing what is happening in the world of Ecommerce today.
As a result, the major credit card providers (American Express, Visa, and Mastercard) have all taken steps to protect their customers at deeper levels in this new digital marketplace. One of these steps includes enabling their Fraud Protection Services, protecting you from any unusual transactions on your credit card.
The Fraud Protection Services enabled by these providers may be causing your transactions to fail.
But why am I getting declined?
Because your subscription to Activity Connection is not a frequent occurrence (compared to getting gas or groceries), most credit card companies see this as an unusual transaction. Also, most credit card companies see Activity Connection as a specialty service, so we may get flagged as suspicious activity from time-to-time, through no fault of our own.
Another common cause is a mismatch in the billing information provided to Activity Connection and the address you may have on file with the credit card company. If these addresses don’t match, your renewal transaction will fail.
You can verify this information by selecting ‘My Account’ in the upper-right of the screen (when logged in) and then ‘Account Info’.
How is Activity Connection working to resolve this?
We are working with our credit card processors, as well as with the major credit card companies, to try and find a way to ease the impact to our community members. However, because of the way that the traditional Fraud Protection elements function, we are very limited in what we do from our side to help resolve your billing issue.
How can I get my credit card transaction approved?
Currently, based on guidance offered to us from the major credit card companies, the best way to correct this issue is to have the card holder call the customer service number (typically located on the back of the card) and authorize Activity Connection on your account.
Note: if your credit card is renewed, or replaced, you may need to re-authorize Activity Connection a second time by calling your credit card customer service number.
Once Activity Connection is approved for your account, you will be able to make the purchase as normal utilizing automatic renewal once more. Some card issuers also have a delay with the approval process, and it can take up to 24 hours for the approval to process to take effect. Please check with your specific credit card issuer for details on this potential delay.