Whether you’re paying for the weekly grocery shop, on a holiday or maybe in a restaurant or at an ATM, there are a few reasons why your SWIRL Prepaid Mastercard could be declined.  

We are going to share the top 5 reasons why this might happen to you and how you can avoid them.  

Keep an eye on your card balance 

As you might already know, you can only spend what you load when using our cards. As they are prepaid, it is important to make sure you top your card up with the necessary funds to avoid any unwanted surprises. You can check your balance and access seamless top-ups using our SWIRL App. You can also top-up in-store at a a local Payzone retailer quickly & easily. Once you have topped-up, remember to also take your subscriptions, direct debits along with the small SWIRL purchase fees into consideration so you know just how much you need to make purchases. 

Know your limits 

Contactless transaction limits, we mean. You can only spend up to €50 (or the equivalent in another currency) using contactless and every 5 transactions you will be required to use Chip and PIN to pay. Also, remember you need to use Chip and PIN once to activate your card’s contactless feature.  

Remember your PIN 

Seems obvious, but a lot of card declines come down to this. If you feel you have forgotten your SWIRL Card PIN at any point while paying, you can view it via the SWIRL App. 

Verify your ID in-app 

Login via the SWIRL Card app to verify your ID and avoid reaching your yearly top-up and spend limits. This will also ensure your card does not get declined unexpectedly.  

And that’s it. If you’ve followed all these steps above and your card is still being declined, it is likely an issue with the merchant. However please reach out to our Customer Support team via info@swirlcard.com so we can investigate further.