8 November 2024, El Paso, Texas, Steven Zimmerman – “I was embarrassed,” says Mr. Smith. “I just couldn’t believe what was happening to me.”

Imagine you are out, having dinner, and your bill arrives. You hand the waitress your Discover Bank ATM card to make your payment. A few minutes later, the waitress returned, saying your card was declined.

As you dig in your wallet to see if you have enough cash, you tell the waitress your card should work; you were paid this morning. Your card is run one more time and declined once again.

Your date, who also uses Discover Bank, a Discover product, says she doesn’t have her card but will CashApp you the check amount. She tried to send you money, but her transaction was also declined.

It’s then that you remember that you moved all the money from your checking account to savings, and all you need to do is transfer some back to checking.

You log in, and that’s when you see a notice saying that Discover is down, followed by a long list of things you cannot do.

You can’t pay, the police are called, and you are arrested. Discover did not send a push notification saying the system was down. You didn’t even receive an email from Discover advising you of their problems. You were left in the dark.

“This ain’t the first time this has happened,” says Daniel Smith. “It breaks a lot. This is the first time the police were called and I was taken to jail for something that I had no control over.”

Daniel has said that his account access has been limited at least nine times over the past year, limited because Discover was having issues.

“When I called, all they did was tell me that they were sorry it happened and would pass it on,” says Daniel Smith.

“We’re talking to a lawyer,” added Denise, his fiancee.

I have both a Discover Credit Card and an account with Discover Bank. There have been issues where you cannot transfer money within or out of your account, and there have been times, like today, when my card won’t work.

“When my card wasn’t working at the Walmart, I called Discover,” says Ms Cunningham. “I was told that there can’t be a problem becuase when they look at what I’m doing with my card, they don’t see nothing from Walmart. I told the lady I could send her a picture video of what was happening and she said her system says they just ain’t getting anything from Walmart.”

This is what has happened to me. When I’m paying my life insurance or a bill with our hosting company, the charge is randomly declined. A call to Discover elicits an answer that blames anyone but Discover.

“I was at the doctor’s office today,” says Miguel Roski. “I was at the doctors and had to pay a copay. My card was declined, and I have funds in my account.”

Mr. Roski said that the billing office attempted to run his card several times. Those attempts triggered a fraud alert.

“I’m on the phone with an account manager from Discover who was saying they these attempted charges were making to Discover,” recounts Mr. Roski. “I told her that is strange because I had received two fraud alerts about my card being used at my doctor’s office.”

Mr. Roski was left scratching his head as the representative told him these attempted payments were not being made while transferring him to someone who could address his fraud alerts.

“I also use CashApp, had that card, and thought I would just move the money there,” says Mr. Roski.

Moving the money didn’t work, as he received an error message stating that his bank declined the transfer.

“Discover has decided to block some transactions that involve CashApp,” said a Discover customer service representative I spoke to today.

“We don’t know why this decision was made, they don’t tell us,” she said. “We also don’t know why CashApp payments and transfers are declined.”

I was told Discover made this decision recently. I asked why customers were not notified of this decision.

“I’m not sure why you were not told about this,” said the customer service representative. “But you might be able to transfer money to or use your Discover Card with your CashApp in an hour or tomorrow.”

We did reach out to a Discover media representative with questions about downed accounts and Discover’s decision to begin denying CashApp transactions. Knowing our article’s deadline, Discover decided not to answer our request. As I write for two national publications, I contacted them again, utilizing those email accounts, only to be met with silence from Discover.

“I wanted to ask Discover why my CashApp use with my Discover ATM card was being blocked,” said David Evans. I sent secure messages, phoned them, and even sent a letter via snail mail. I was ignored.”

We sympathize with Mr. Evans and other Discover customers who contacted us, indicating answers aren’t forthcoming. We couldn’t reach anyone who could provide answers. It may be time for Discover to get out of banking. I know I’m moving away from Discover Bank tomorrow.