Why was my card declined?

There are a variety of reasons why a card can be declined, and more often than not it's nothing to worry about!

RaceNation use a third party to process all payments. We never even get to see your card details, so we are relying on the information passed to us by our payment partner. Unfortunately, this means we are unable to gain any more information than the decline message we display.

'Insufficient Funds' is the most common message and it can often be misunderstood. More often than not, this is a message that is displayed if the card issuing bank are doing more anti-fraud checks.

You may receive a call or text message in the following few hours from your bank asking if the transaction is a real one. If you respond yes, we will not then automatically take payment, so you will need to resubmit your payment.

Sometimes you may not get a call, but there will be some more checks in the background, and after a few hours you may find the transaction will be accepted.

Of course, it can still be an indication that your account does not have the correct funds, but even then you may have a pre-authorisation on your account. For example, you may have £1000 in your account, a hotel may have swiped your card after you check in, and they can 'reserve' up to £250 (which will still show in your account), however these funds have been ring-fenced until you check out.

It’s also worth noting that all charges will show as RaceNation or SportsGiving, so if you are called asking if this is a valid transaction, you know who we are.