If an Altitude Card purchase did not go through, it is usually one of four causes. Work through the checks below.
Common reasons a card is declined
Reason | What to check | How to fix |
Not enough available balance | The card's available balance is lower than the purchase, or pending authorizations are holding funds. | Deposit funds into the card account, or wait for pending transactions to settle or reverse. |
Spending limit reached | The purchase is over the per authorization limit, or the rolling 7 day, 30 day or all time limit is used up. | Check the card's spend against its limit and raise it if appropriate. |
Card is not active | The card is frozen, canceled, not yet activated, or still pending setup or approval. | Unfreeze the card, finish activation, or issue a new card if it was terminated. |
Restricted merchant or country | The purchase is in a merchant category or country that is not permitted. These are platform rules, not your card's settings. | Review the Altitude Card Prohibitions List and Supported countries. |
Adding funds, changing a spending limit, unfreezing a card or issuing a new one are admin-only. If you are a cardholder, ask a card admin to make these changes.
Still not working?
If none of these apply, contact support and include the merchant name, the amount and the date of the attempted purchase.
Note: A healthy total balance does not always mean spend is available. Pending authorizations and rolling limits both reduce what a card can spend right now.