I always have one or two back ups if I have my Discover or one of my Amex cards (the Clear and BofA Accelerated Amex). One time, I got a new card with Discover because I wanted a different design and didn't activate it. I went to the store and I tried to use it, but it was declined. Thankfully I had another card. Well, bread and milk are important in my household.

Charonh, if that happened, I would use another credit card. Always have back-ups.

Interjack,did it go through after you entered the correct zip code? This type of decline wouldn't embarass me near as much as a downright refusal for my card to go through resulting in my having to leave all of my clothes or groceries at the register

Yeah. It went through. The only time I have really had a problem with discover is when they sent me multiple credit cards for the same account and did not tell me that I had to activate each one separately even though they had the same acct number.

Interjack,did it go through after you entered the correct zip code? This type of decline wouldn't embarass me near as much as a downright refusal for my card to go through resulting in my having to leave all of my clothes or groceries at the register .

I got a card declined today at a gas station, but it was because I entered the wrong zip code...

Maybe it was a system error?

I understand that it was for my own security but I just don't understand what triggered it and the rep couldn't tell me exactly why it was put on there so that made me worry that maybe someone was doing something fraudulent with my acct.

That's why I closed my AMEX card which greatly decreases my chances of finding myself embarrassed at the front desk at a local store.

Gamergal74, you know the funny part, when the same thing happened to me, I replied to the clerk, "I don't know why, because I have the funds available" of course she was looking at me like yeah lady sure you do, because you know that's the first thing people always say when their card has been declined

That's true I used to work at grocery store, "thinkin the same thing" and than it happened to me and I saw the other side of that spectrum...

Good times, good times.... LOL!

I went to the grocery store today and tried to purchase $45 worth of goods with my BOA Debit card and got declined. I called the rep and she couldn't give me any explanation as to why they redflagged my account but in any case they freed up the acct after verifying I made all the previous purchases. I don't understand because I haven't made any big purchases and this hasn't happened to me before. So now I guess they are not only slashing cl's but they aren't letting customers even use their own money without an issue! What the heck are these banks up to

Gamergal74, you know the funny part, when the same thing happened to me, I replied to the clerk, "I don't know why, because I have the funds available" of course she was looking at me like yeah lady sure you do, because you know that's the first thing people always say when their card has been declined. I can laugh about now, but I sure as heck wasn't when it happened.

Sometimes, they ask you questions that you don't even know the answers to and you wonder how they got a hold of that certain info as interjack stated above.

Interjack, that's very true. But if someone had stolen your card you would have been happy that Wachovia had taken those extra steps.

I was completely happy. It was just scary how much info they knew about me. For example, they gave me an address and asked me what county it was in. They gave me a list of states and asked which ones I had lived in. They asked where I usually like to eat. They gave me a relative's name and asked their approximate age.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Gamergal, it was probably just an extra security measure. Back when I had BOA I recall them doing that to me a few times and it wasn't because I had made large purchases, but something to do with spending habits that I hadn't done before, but everytime I called them they always removed the freeze on the card. I kno it doesn't excuse the embarassment you prob felt in the grocery store (and they looks you may have gotten) but I am sure it was just something corky with their system and that transaction.

I went to the grocery store today and tried to purchase $45 worth of goods with my BOA Debit card and got declined. I called the rep and she couldn't give me any explanation as to why they redflagged my account but in any case they freed up the acct after verifying I made all the previous purchases. I don't understand because I haven't made any big purchases and this hasn't happened to me before. So now I guess they are not only slashing cl's but they aren't letting customers even use their own money without an issue! What the heck are these banks up to?