Why is my card payment failing at stores/ATM’s?

Here we list the most common reasons why a card payment might fail and how to fix it.

As a rule of thumb: retry using your physical card, chip and PIN, or try with Apple or Google Pay if you have it.

  • Usually the POS will display a message (or the printed slip) explaining the reason for rejection.
  • If you haven’t seen any message while performing your payment, try opening the app and check if you have any failed transactions or card notifications
  • If it’s still not clear, try to perform a second attempt but now via chip and PIN or contactless.
  • If that doesn’t help ask the seller to provide you with a different POS device in case they have any.
  • Sometimes POS devices may not work in certain locations or there could be a connectivity issue. If you feel the POS is responding to some unknown errors or there is no notification in the N26 app then probably the merchant POS is not working as it should. Try asking the merchant to use an alternative method.
  • After an extended period of use your card may become dirty both on magnetic stripe and on the EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa) chip. In these cases, your card may not function properly at the ATM and POS.

Contactless not working

  • If your card is new, be sure that you used it at an ATM or with the chip and PIN before. Only then you can use it for contactless payments.
  • Contactless payments on your card (NFC) up to €50 don’t require a card PIN. For amounts over €50 or cumulative transactions above 150€ you’ll need to enter your card PIN (new tab)
  • Make sure your contactless payment toggle is on.
  • The POS in the store can behave in several ways after you tried using contactless:
    • Some POS terminals directly ask for the PIN
    • Others require you to tap you card again and introduce PIN
    • Finally, some POS terminals will decline and say transaction failed, in this cases we recommend inserting the card in the chip reader and entering the PIN

Recently changed PIN

  • If you have recently reset your PIN, you need to do a chip and PIN transaction at a store with an online POS or at an ATM

Some store POS check the PIN offline, meaning we can not set the newly defined PIN you created in the app. In those cases we recommend attending an ATM which will always provide an online PIN check, with this we will be able to configure the new pin for your card.

Entered wrong PIN too many times

  • If you enter the wrong PIN code three times in a row, you will need to reset your PIN
  • Reset your PIN from the following steps described here How to change my debit card PIN (new tab)
  • Remember to do a chip and PIN transaction at a store or withdraw from an ATM

Some store POS check the PIN offline, meaning we can not set the newly defined PIN you created in the app. In those cases we recommend attending an ATM which will always provide an online PIN check, with which we will be able to configure the new pin in your card.

Newly activated card

  • If you have recently reset your PIN, you need to do a chip and PIN transaction at a store with an online POS or at an ATM

Some store POS check the PIN offline, meaning we can not set the newly defined PIN you created in the app. In those cases we recommend attending an ATM which will always provide an online PIN check, with which we will be able to configure the new pin in your card. Limit reached

Suspected fraud detection

  • If you receive this notification we might have spotted an uncommon behavior in your payment and would like to ensure it is you who is making the purchase, so please, reach out to us so that we can allow the payment to go through.

Payments abroad

  • Make sure your Payments abroad toggle is turned on.

ATM withdrawal

Magnetic stripe

  • Make sure your Magnetic Stripe payments toggle is turned on.

Toll

  • Usually rejections at tolls are related to the Magnetic stripe. Make sure the toggle is turned on.