My bank froze my credit card, and now its blocked. Am I in trouble and if so what should I do?
You may not actually be in trouble. If your credit card is blocked, there are many different reasons why. Here are some potential reasons why it has been blocked:
- Suspected fraud, which is often indicated by a big purchase that follows many transactions with low dollar amounts, transactions from several locations in a short period of time, or several high-dollar transactions after months of no use
- Unusual spending, which can include high-risk behavior (like purchases with a high-risk merchant), strange behavior, purchases made outside of the country, etc.
- Your card has expired
- Your payment is overdue
- You’re trying to make a purchase that would go over your credit card limit or your card’s daily spending limit
As you can see, you may not be in trouble if you find that your credit card has been blocked. To unblock your credit card, you should contact your issuer, and you can find the phone number to call on the back of your card or on your issuer’s website or app. For suspected frauds, you will simply have to clear things up with your issuer, but if it is in fact a fraud, you will be issued a new card. For late payments, the best way to resolve this is by making a payment as soon as possible to bring your account back up to date. For insufficient credit, you can ask your issuer to increase the limit on your card, which you may be able to do if you have a good track record with them