Gateway Bank & Trust and Steam

I was trying to purchase L4D2 this morning through steam and steam came back saying my card was declined. I know I had money on my card so I called my bank, Gateway Bank & Trust. They have informed me that they have ALL game sites block including steam. This means that anyone who banks with them can no longer buy games from steam unless they have a credit card or buy a prepaid debit card.

Has anyone else who banks with them had this issue? I have already emailed steam to see if there was anything they could do about it.

 

Ouch...that's harsh. I buy all my games now through Steam (mostly for the deals). I'm assuming you're using a debit card to buy em' ya?

 

yep. I've used my debit card on steam since 2008 and had no issues till today.

 

Steam probably won't/can't do anything about it, since it's your bank that's blocking the transaction. Just use a credit card, it's quite secure as long as you don't store your CC info on your Steam account, plus Steam uses email verifications.

 

I dont use my credit card to buy games. My credit card is used for emergencies only. Looks like I might be changing banks.

 

i use paypal now as my bank in the uk charges for the transfer from £ - $
i cant understand how a bank can block who you want to pay money too,its your money for gods sake. i know a lot of banks are blocking transactions on a regular basis but this is for fraud prevention and to protect you as the customer. i would ask to speak to the bank manager and threaten to change banks if this issue doesnt get sorted soon.

 

It had happened me once or twice, but usually by calling your bank they can remove the block (which is usually triggered if it isn't a regular place where you buy or some untrusted place). Have you tried asking to remove the block or ask them to explain why there is a block at all?

 

Paypal. 10char

 

First off it's a REALLY REALLY bad idea to use debit card for online purchases.

It's a direct line to your bank account, and even if you bank has great protections and good insurance against theft (most do, but not all) you're still looking at weeks to months to get them to repatriate lost cash, over draft fee's, ect. If you use that money for bills, that would be a huge fraking problem.

So I'm not really suprised they're doing that. You really should use a credit card on the net, then just immediatly pay it off right after your purchase.

 

well, I mean I use a debit card for purchases online however, I only purchase things from steam, amazon, and newegg online

 

6 months ago i bought my new bmw and paid £31,000 by debit card without any problem. 30 minutes later i went to fill up with petrol and the card was blocked. they explained it was a general random check that they do on almost all cards to check for fraud.
wish they would get their prioritys right. id rater they blocked the card on a 31 grand purchase than a £60 petrol fill up.
a quick transfer to the banks fraud squad to check if i am the card holder and the block was lifted.

 

Same here. I asked them to remove the block and they said no but they did give me a gift card for free and put some of my money on it so i could get LFD2. Its frustrating. Im still waiting to hear from steam but realistically do not expect them to be able to do anything, but hey who knows.

 

Well, the transaction is forbidden from your bank, not rejected by Steam. They (steam) have no say on the issue.

 

I believe that they specifically don't really check large purchases because of the assumption that you'd notice large purchases happening on your card, as opposed to the small transactions that some criminals are allegedly using to siphon money off of thousands (tens of thousands? hundreds?) of credit cards without their owners noticing.

I had Citibank call me to verify that I was charging about 5 USD to my card for a game off of Steam, but no such check was made against the thousands of pounds my sister put down for her semester's tuition fees.