Canadian Credit Card Declined?

Has anyone ever had this happen? I called my PVP at Carnival last night and reserved a cruise for my dh and dd and myself. I used my RBC Avion Visa for the deposit and rec'd my confirmation immediately after.

Today, my son says he wants to join us so I called back my PVP and told him to change my reservation to 4 people from 3. After selecting the room etc. my PVP told me he needed to add the extra $ deposit for my son. He proceeded to put thru my same credit card info then he told me my card was declined! He tried again, declined! He said "3 strikes and we're locked out". I assured him there is more than enuf room on that card to go ahead and do it again. Nope. So he told me to "call my bank, the bank needs to fix it". So I did. The bank told me "there is a charge from last evening (my first reservation) but there is no record of the 3 declines today", basically, if it aint broken, they can't fix it. So, I called PVP back and we tried my husbands card (same account different #) - Declined!

Fine, we then decided to use my Master Card.....declined! My Mastercard has no balance on it. Something is wrong!

I told my PVP I would call tomorrow to try again.

In the meantime, I went onto Travelocity and booked 4 flights to Miami on the same RBC Avion Visa... there is absolutely nothing wrong with my credit card.... it's Carnival, but not according to my Carnival PVP. I'm not happy :mad:

Am I missing something here?

get a Carnival superviser, obviously it's not your credit card. You can also do a 3 way call with CCL and your bank.

Once I experienced it. Instead of the bank first, I called the cruise line about my problem but the staff just asked for my card details and proceeded to process it at their end. Never bothered to tell me why I had that problem. My guess at that time was system glitch.

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Call your credit card providers asap, they have your account locked out for unusual activities.

I called Carnival and did a conference call with Visa..... Visa did in fact put a block on my card with 'Carnival' for 'unusual activity' so the block was removed and we tried the transaction once more. Declined! So now Visa is saying it is the merchant that now has a block because of several attempts..... whatever?!?!?

The lovely lady at Carnival was able to extend my due deposit payment to December 19th so I can call back in a couple days to try again after this mess settles.....

Call back...CANCEL the whole thing...then try from scratch tomorrow.

Call your credit card providers asap, they have your account locked out for unusual activities.

This, AND... I would also cancel that card and ask for a new one just in case anybody was trying any funny business.

Call your credit card providers asap, they have your account locked out for unusual activities.

Definitely not the credit card that's at fault as they have the technology in place to detect fraudulent transactions. For sure Carnival has a glitch in their system that they may not even be aware of. I deal with TD Canada Trust and not once have I had to block my card as their fraud department picks up all transactions that are not mine and there have been several.

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I deal with TD Canada Trust and not once have I had to block my card as their fraud department picks up all transactions that are not mine and there have been several.

:eek: Good Lord, change your card already. If you are getting transactions that are not yours, that means that your card has been cloned.

Yes!! Maybe it's a Canadian thing. I tried to book an excursion yesterday and it said purchase not authorized. I tried again, same thing. When my husband got home I tried on his card and that didn't work either! The cards are fine otherwise! I'm hoping it's a glitch. I tried calling Carnival last night but the shore excursion desk was closed so I'll try again today. I sure hope I don't have to get Mastercard on a 3-way call. I don't have time for that during the day while working.

Has anyone ever had this happen? I called my PVP at Carnival last night and reserved a cruise for my dh and dd and myself. I used my RBC Avion Visa for the deposit and rec'd my confirmation immediately after.

Today, my son says he wants to join us so I called back my PVP and told him to change my reservation to 4 people from 3. After selecting the room etc. my PVP told me he needed to add the extra $ deposit for my son. He proceeded to put thru my same credit card info then he told me my card was declined! He tried again, declined! He said "3 strikes and we're locked out". I assured him there is more than enuf room on that card to go ahead and do it again. Nope. So he told me to "call my bank, the bank needs to fix it". So I did. The bank told me "there is a charge from last evening (my first reservation) but there is no record of the 3 declines today", basically, if it aint broken, they can't fix it. So, I called PVP back and we tried my husbands card (same account different #) - Declined!

Fine, we then decided to use my Master Card.....declined! My Mastercard has no balance on it. Something is wrong!

I told my PVP I would call tomorrow to try again.

In the meantime, I went onto Travelocity and booked 4 flights to Miami on the same RBC Avion Visa... there is absolutely nothing wrong with my credit card.... it's Carnival, but not according to my Carnival PVP. I'm not happy :mad:

Am I missing something here?

I had this happen onboard a Carnival ship once related to my Sail and Sign account. Carnival always places holds of varying amounts throughout a cruise while you're onboard, and when Carnival did that the card declined. They were able to rerun the card during my cruise and it worked luckily. Ever since then, I go online and fill out a notification form on my card's website to let them know I'll be making charges with Carnival. I've not had a single problem since I started doing that. I use my card's travel notification online form. My card company also allows me to sign up for text alerts for anything odd, and they text me automatically and ask for my response before they process the questionable charge. That also seems to have helped with keeping my legitimate purchases from being declined. Try using your card's services.

I'll bet this time of year at the holidays, the card companies are stepping up their fraud detection efforts.

It sounds like the decline is related to the card's fraud protection practices. It sounds like Carnival may have a similar system in place.

:eek: Good Lord, change your card already. If you are getting transactions that are not yours, that means that your card has been cloned.

Cloning has nothing to do with it. Fraudulent transactions are blocked at POS.

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My sister and I are also trying to make our final payment and it is getting declined. Must be a Carnival glitch. How annoying that they are not acknowledging this and trying to fix it 😠

I had that trying to purchase bottomless bubbles yesterday. IT IS CARNIVAL GLITCH! I tried yesterday using 2 different cards. It came up with a message saying card not recognized. I phoned today and they sorted it out was a glitch in their system the person helping me had to get a tech person to fix the problem. Call them.

Our final deposit is due in just over 30 days and this worried me a bit. I just tried to put some of the final payment on my Visa(we are Canadian) no problem :)maybe the glitch is fixed?

An update..... I haven't called Carnival back yet, I figured I would wait till tomorrow to allow enuf time to pass before another credit card attempt. I will definitely let y'all know the outcome.... fingers and toes crossed 😊

An update..... I haven't called Carnival back yet, I figured I would wait till tomorrow to allow enuf time to pass before another credit card attempt. I will definitely let y'all know the outcome.... fingers and toes crossed 😊

I've been in banking in the US for 11 years and have worked at both small community banks and large national banks. While I'm sure there are many differences with banking in the two countries, every bank has their own fraud detection procedures and red-flags and they are constantly adapting their security measures. But these follow current fraud patterns so there are a lot of really common red-flags that most banks will watch for. It's very common for international transactions to get blocked if you don't let your bank know beforehand, especially if you're making purchases at the same exact merchant multiple times in a row. (Fraudsters will often do several smaller transactions now rather than one big hit).

Another thing to consider is a lot of merchant processing systems will automatically decline your card for a period of time if it declines multiple times. Fraudulent transactions cause charge backs and the merchant loses money, so these are their own fraud prevention methods.

In your PVP's defense, it does sound like he warned you that you'd be locked out after 3 tries and you told him to go ahead and do it anyway. If you don't wait the allotted time period their system will automatically decline it without even sending the transaction to your bank (and if Carnival is smart they will not tell employees at this level who may unknowingly use the knowledge to help a fraudster).

Don't try your card with Carnival for 2 business days after the last time their system declined it. That's probably a conservative time frame but its better to be conservative and approved then rush the reset and get declined again.

Edit: if it gets declined once the next time you try it, hang up and call your bank. Confirm you are making a foreign purchase. Then call Carnival back and try again.

I just made a purchase on-line with no proplem so hopefully Carnival has any glitch worked out.

We've had our card comprised in Mexico while away on a RCCL cruise years ago. When they went to run the final bill through our card was locked. Royal waited for 5 weeks to run our final bill through. We now have three cards.... a Visa, MC and Amex so that doesn't happen again.

Having said that we have had ALL of them comprised at different points through out the years but at least we have several different cards to choose from should something happen while away.

I also ALWAYS call the card companies and give them a heads up that we are traveling from This dates till This date going to these places.

Since doing that we have found things to be much smoother.

Good Luck with things!

Safe Travels.

I used the exact same card for my payment though a travel agent. It went through, however the Banks system thought it was a suspicious payment and suspended my card until I was able to contact them.

I have been trying to pay the final balance on my carnival cruise since yesterday. I tried serval times but kept getting an erro messagae. Today I checked my credit card online and had 11 charges from carnival total just over $22,000 Canadian. However I'm still showing a balance owing on my cruise. This is very frustrating 😡

Cloning has nothing to do with it. Fraudulent transactions are blocked at POS.

I don't get it.

If somebody else is trying to buy something with your C/C number at any POS...somebody else has your C/C number which is still linked to a valid and current account. Why continue to rely on your bank's fraud protection software ? Why not cancel the card with the number that somebody now has in addition to yourself ? The bank will issue a new card with a new number. Whoever still has the old number will just get card declined messages anytime he tries to use it. It's a free service offered by the card issuers.

this might be old info.. but carnival may have the same programmer ..

If prompted for your ZIP code, just enter the three digits of your postal code plus two zeros. So for example, if your postal code is A2B 3C4, the 5 digit number you should enter is 23400

or .. try 00000 another thing... if they are asked for an auth number.. you can enter any 5 digits and it will complete the sale.. well.. it has worked for me about 6 times..

Spoke to my Pv preorder and it was a glitch on their part. She extended our final payment date until the 14th but I just went on and tried it and it went through.

Spoke to my Pv preorder and it was a glitch on their part. She extended our final payment date until the 14th but I just went on and tried it and it went through.

Good info , thanks for the feedback! I hope everyone else gets good results!

I have found another interesting C/C problem,, when travelling, where a car rental agency precharges your card for thousands of dollars... then you promptly get in the rental car, drive to the beach, and try to get snorkel equipment,, and they decline a $20 purchase,, like the very first minutes of your vacation!!!

When merchant contacts C/C you get informed your over your credit limit.. sorry... W?H?A?T? !!

AND it is from some place in Portland Oregon ,, while you are in Hawaii,, and are from Ontario Ca. ...

turns out , head office of the car rental place is in Portland..

you need to have them remove the precharge ,, or prepayment overcharge

so it is a good idea to have a second card