If your payment was declined after being selected, the charge was attempted by the retailer, not EQL. A decline happens at your bank's end, and EQL has no visibility into or control over why a bank approves or declines a transaction.
Being selected gives you the opportunity to purchase, but your selection is only confirmed once payment goes through successfully. If your payment fails and cannot be completed, the system moves to the next entrant.
Important: EQL cannot retry a declined payment, take payment manually, or issue a new payment link. Any retry attempt comes from the retailer's own checkout system, and EQL is unable to trigger, delay, or influence it.
Before entering a high-value launch, or if your card has triggered a fraud alert before, let your bank know in advance that a charge from the retailer may be coming. Banks are more likely to flag a transaction as suspicious when it is unexpected.
Make sure the billing address on file with your payment method matches what your bank has on record. A mismatch is a common, avoidable reason for a decline.
Because each bank or card provider handles payments differently, we recommend reaching out to them directly to find out why the transaction was declined. This can help prevent issues in future launches.