The help I have to offer is to explain the issues involved and direct you towards the entities that have the authority to make the necessary changes.
What happens when you attempt to add a card to your Wallet app? The information is sent in several rounds. The first is simple information like account number, expiration date (but not the CVV security code). It goes through a basic verification process, usually by the Payment Network Operator. If you put in the wrong card number you get an invalid card error. Note this is different from the Contact your Bank error.
Banks generally give you 5 tries to add your card. Any further attempts is an automatic 24 hour lockout of attempts. Continuing to try just adds to your frustration and banks, PNOs suspicion that it’s fraud.
If you correctly add the in formation the second round of verification happens. Information on your iPhone is encrypted on your iPhone and sent to who the bank is using for verification. This could be the bank an a few cases. For example Chase Bank does it themselves. Most banks use the PNO or a company specializing in credit card services. One such company is Marqeta. Usually these companies fulfill the role of Token Service Provider as well.
The information from your iPhone is decrypted and analyzed for accuracy and potential fraud risk. The analysis either forwards the request to your bank for final approval or you receive the Contact your bank error.
So, what does your iPhone send to the PNO or third party verifier?
“Information may also be provided by Apple to those entities to enable Apple Pay, determine card eligibility, set up your card with Apple Pay, and to prevent fraud, including:
- Your credit, debit, or prepaid card number
- The name and billing address associated with your Apple Account
- General information about your Apple Account activity (for example, whether you have a long history of transactions within iTunes)
- Information about your device and, if using Apple Watch, the paired iOS device (for example, a device identifier, phone number, and the name and model, for both your Apple Watch and paired iOS device)
- Location at the time you add your card (if you have Location Services enabled)
- Account or device history of adding payment cards
- Aggregated stats relating to the information from payment cards you’ve added or attempted to add to Apple Pay
Legal - Apple Pay & Privacy- Apple
Once one card is declined, that decline is a statistic stored on your iPhone. When the next card you try to add is analyzed, the PNO etc. sees the decline and that’s a red flag and don’t want the risk and decline the second card. Now you have two declines. Add to that the multiple attempts and soon your device has a 24 hour lockout in the statistics. It’s a snowballing issue and gets worse and worse with every added attempt. The final result is a lock on the adding of cards for 30 to 45 days.
Now, what help would you like, beyond the obvious of adding your cards.? The bank and their chosen service provider hold the key both literally and figuratively. The data is encrypted and Apple can’t see it even if they want to. That’s the privacy and security Apple provides through Apple Wallet and Apple Pay services.
I can lay out an action plan and suggest steps to correct maybe a few things, but for most people it’s too much work. Please let be know how you want to proceed. I can answer questions, provide areas for you to investigate and point you back to the bank. They can, in theory, see the issues. They can’t correct them, but they can decide to accept or decline the risk they think you present and that is something Apple just cannot do.
