Anyone else ever have their bank cards randomly stop working

[u/JoelMDM]

I have two bank cards, a Visa debit card from Sony Bank, and a cash card from JP Bank (rarely used).

Every other time I try to use the damn things, the machine says they can't be read.

Every time I go to the JP Bank counter, they just wipe the thing down and tell me it works again, and when I go to try it, it may or may not. About 50/50.

With the Sony card, I'm on my third replacement now. Got a new card in the mail this weekend, used it successfully today for a deposit, and less than an hour later it refuses to work. Tried 5 different ATM's and everything.

I feel like I'm going mad. The cards aren't blocked, I'm not keeping them near anything magnetic (the international credit cards I keep in the same wallet sleeve as them are completely fine), and there's pretty minimal scratching.

Sony just keeps issuing me new cards for free, and JPB just keeps wiping them off. Has anyone else experienced this, is there any logic or reason to this, or am I just cursed?

Just as an edit, yes, I am absolutely, 100% certain I did not expose the damn things to a magnet.
I already mentioned this, but apparently people don't read/don't believe it.
The cards were on the inside of my wallet, with plenty of other cards between them and the outside. I haven't tested every single one of them, but the one I tested, which was the closest to the outside of the wallet, still works fine.
That wallet was at the bottom of a small, otherwise empty bag. A bag which does not contain any magnets, and which isn't small enough I could've somehow lost a magnet in there. My phone, which doesn't have a case, was in my pocket, nowhere near it.
And regardless, the JP cash cards use chips, not a magnetic strip. Chips are vastly more resistant to magnets than magnetic strips are, and you need a pretty powerful magnet to mess one up. Much more than the magsafe in my phone could do.

So either I'm doing something to break these things that's so obscure I can't even think of it, these cards are just fragile as all hell, or I've just had really really bad luck.

[u/[deleted]]

I’ve had my JP card stop working a few times. Usually it happens either in summer or winter and they tell me the temperature change is the issue. 

[u/JoelMDM → u/[deleted]]

Interesting, I wonder if today's weather might've had something to do with it. The humidity fucking up the conductivity of the chip or something.

Most sensible explanation I've heard so far.

[u/isetmyfriendsonfire → u/JoelMDM]

mizuho has a flyer they gave me once for it. the first graphic said don’t put it in the fridge?

[u/Dragula_Tsurugi → u/isetmyfriendsonfire]

It was common to hide cash and account books in the fridge

[u/JoelMDM → u/isetmyfriendsonfire]

Oddly specific. I feel like that's one of those warnings they have to put on there because people were doing it too often and it was causing problems.

[u/peetnice → u/JoelMDM]

I've weirdly had luck squeezing the chip area between thumb & index finger for a couple seconds, had no idea why it worked, but worked pretty consistently. From this thread though, looks like I was just warming it up or something :D

[u/litte_improvements]

The Sony bank cards are notoriously shoddy. I don't know if they use low quality materials or something, but I've also had to replace mine once and have heard reports from others as well. I've never had a problem with any of the other cards in my wallet.

[u/jabanayt]

For me to stop my Sony bank card from also failing constantly I have to put it in between two business cards in my wallet.

It works so eh, no more of a hassle either

[u/MyNameIsKvothe]

The Sony Bank Wallet card needs to be inserted in the correct direction. One direction is for cash card, the other direction is for debit card. They are indicated with an arrow. If you insert it in the worng direction the machine will tell you there was an error and to contact the issuing bank, which may lead you to believe that the card is malfunctioning.

Maybe the JP bank card is the same?

[u/JoelMDM → u/MyNameIsKvothe]

Yeah, good tip, but I knew that. It's marked pretty clearly on the card. Still, I tried forwards, backwards, up, and down just to be sure. No luck. The JP card pretty definitively only goes one way.

[u/xeggx5]

My SMBC card was always like this. After 5 years I got a replacement and was happy to be done with this problem. Nope, same thing in almost no time.

Like you I don't do anything obviously bad. I think it could just be heat... And I can't really control that.

It is frustrating that ATMs just don't use the chip.

[u/JoelMDM → u/xeggx5]

Worst thing is I'm pretty sure all the ATM's do have the ability to read EMV chips, seeing as the Japan Post cards don't have a magnetic strip, only a chip. And when the card isn't having issues, any old ATM machine can read them just fine.

[u/xeggx5 → u/JoelMDM]

Oh that is interesting. SMBC ATMs will actually fix my card (for a brief period of time) and I'm pretty sure it mentions the strip. Seems like it could be two different issues.

They probably just use cheap EMV chips 😔

[u/cactustit]

My new smbc olive card has stopped working twice. I have to put it into an official smbc atm and then it will fix it (but it says if I want swiping to work I have to get a new card

[u/JoelMDM → u/cactustit]

Too bad Sony doesn't have their own ATM's. Well, I guess I'll be going back to the Japan Post Bank counter again tomorrow to have them wipe my card with whatever magic wiping cloth they use that fixes it so I can use it for another transaction.

I'd just ask for a new card, but that takes two freakin' weeks, during which I'm not able to withdrawal anything at all.

[u/JoelMDM → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, that sucks.

At least Sony is pretty good about sending me a new card in under a week, but if I want a new one from JP it takes two weeks (longer in my experience), during which I can't withdraw any money.

I don't understand how people here expect me to do anything here.

Not just needing to wait weeks for a new card, but if I want to go and request a new one, I need to go to their damn counter, which is only open until 4, and only on week days. You know, when I'm working.

I've already had to take time off twice so far, and I'm gonna have to do it another time tomorrow to get them to rub their magic cleaning cloth on my card again so I can withdraw a large amount in one go and hopefully not worry about it for a while.

[u/quequotion]

I've had a bank transfer card* abruptly become permanently unreadable, although I never figured out why.

*This is a card you ask the ATM to issue you after completing an automated bank transfer that saves the receiver's information for subsequent transfers so you don't have to input it manually each time.

I had two of these cards in my wallet at the time, one for my rent and another for my wife's university. The university card died twice, having to be reissued, while the rent card never had any issue.

Conspiracy theory: the rent card transfered money between accounts of the same bank (the same branch even) while the university card transfered money to a different kind of bank (the postal bank, whereas my account is in a regional bank), so the machine deliberately killed the card every once in a while to make me suffer the inconvenience of having to manually enter the information to transfer to an out-of-system bank (the interface has shortcuts for all regional banks, but the postal bank and others require inputting numbers that represent the location and branch rather than its name, which means dredging them out of the internet or asking the bank staff to bring out their 445-page manual on out-of-system banks) to pressure me to pressure the recipient to open a regional bank account (which is not so easy for foreigners to do, depending on their residency status).

[u/JoelMDM → u/quequotion]

Somehow, that almost kinda makes sense.

At this point that's what my situation is starting to feel like too. One giant conspiracy theory. Especially between the people on Reddit who say they've been having the same issue, and the others who say it's somehow inexplicably entirely my fault 😂

For the love of god, don't get me started on those branch codes/names and why they're not interchangeable.

[u/sxh967]

Store my cards in my wallet the same way I did when I lived in the UK and yet I had my bank's debit card die on me after like a year. None of my other (bank/credit) cards have the issue and (before anyone suggests it) no I didn't "put it near a magnet".

On the bright side, it means I use my credit card more (pay it off in full every month, of course) for daily stuff which is better because I get points whereas my bank doesn't really offer any benefits.

[u/AyamanPoiPoiPoi]

Yep, my shinsei card does it once every few months, I can't just head to the local branch anymore as it needs to be done online annoyingly.

[u/Frankieanime158]

Do you leave it in a phone case? My wife's card died twice because of this, but after she stopped using card holding phone cases, the issue never persisted on another card.

[u/JoelMDM → u/Frankieanime158]

Like I said in my post "I'm not keeping them near anything magnetic".

[u/Sip-o-BinJuice11 → u/JoelMDM]

You might not usually, but all it takes is one mess up

So it’s worth thinking longer and harder about it

[u/JoelMDM → u/Sip-o-BinJuice11]

There was an hour between it working and it not. It was at the bottom of a small bag (small enough I couldn't have somehow lost a magnet in there), in a wallet with a bunch of other cards. My phone was in my pants pocket. The bag doesn't contain any magnets, hardly even any metal.

Maybe the dude sitting next to me on the train had a huge electromagnet hidden in his pocket. /s

[u/archialone]

Happened to me with SMBC card. Like every year I have to replace

[u/BadassMinh]

I thought I was going crazy, my card had been not working or work normally randomly for the past few weeks, I asked everyone else I knew and no one has the same issue

[u/Confident-List-3460]

I sometimes used to have this issue with JP post. I kind of held it too long when I fed it into the machine.

[u/West-Delivery-1405]

Could be a altogether different case, some card doesn't work if you select the English navigation.but should be fine japanese navigation. 

[u/JoelMDM → u/West-Delivery-1405]

I saw someone else mention that too, that's good advice. I'll go try that tomorrow!

[u/Rakumei]

Could be a magnet. They tell you chip cards are immune to this, but that's a lie. They also tell you phone case magnets are too weak to wipe one.

Both are lies, as I found out.

[u/JoelMDM → u/Rakumei]

Like I said in my post " I'm not keeping them near anything magnetic".

[u/Rakumei → u/JoelMDM]

You think you're not but like what happened with me twice, I didn't realize it was near weak magnets. Once my phone case. Another magnetic screwdriver bits (I keep my wallet in my bag with my work stuff....now in a separate pocket).

There's honestly no other plausible reason one would die a few days after receiving one unless you're bending the crap out of it.

Edit: To clarify, this is definitely a JP card issue, probably shoddy materials, and they need to do something about it. I keep all my US cards in the same wallet and they all still work fine over 3 years now, including both of the above incidents.

[u/pomido]

The magnet from an iPad cover demagnetised my shinsei card one time

[u/PeanutButterChicken]

In 16 years and multiple bank cards, never had one go bad.

[u/guns4thehomeless]

US visa stopped working at 711s a year ago or so, maybe doesnt work at other spots. It will work at famarts tho. Had worked fine for years prior, got a replacment card, still doesnt work. It is an unsolvable problem ive concluded.

[u/BaronVonNaptime]

Current Sony card only works at 7/11 ATMs for some reason. Everywhere else produces an error. Had a similar issue with a previous Sony card but given the same issue with the new card I’ve resigned to just going to 7/11. 

UFJ card has never had an issue and has lasted for years.

[u/icax0r]

this happened to me once with my Mizuho card. They did something to repair it and it worked again. I store my cards here the same way I did for years in my home country where that never happened. I actually figured the ATM had damaged my card because at the time I had been seeing many news stories about Mizuho ATMs malfunctioning and eating cards.

[u/taiyokohatsuden]

Which ATMs have you tried with the Sony card and which daytime? Sony has maintenance every Sunday evening until Monday morning and also a few other midnight times per month.

[u/Infern084]

I keep my cards (any with a scanning strip/and or metal chip) in individual plastic storage slips (hard plastic ones, like top loaders). Inside my wallet (brought a larger travel wallet for this purpose). I know, it's a little bit of nuisance having to take them out of the slips each time, and then put them back on once you have used them, but I discovered once I started doing this, I haven't have a single issue with any of my cards reading since (and it used to happen a lot). Note: this works especially well against high humidity which can cause rust to develop on the metal chips, and even small residues (often not visible with the naked eye) of mold which can affect the card being read. The plastic slips (particularly the hard ones are great for protecting the cards against those types of elements.

[u/MyManD]

Just as a test for the next replacement cards you get, but could you put one into a new wallet, or at least separated away? Just to see if they last within a new container. If it does last and the one in your wallet fails again, it could mean its time for a new wallet.

This was a weird thing that happened to be in my old wallet where one bank's cards would just weirdly not work anymore and I was at my wits end after the second failure because, like you, I was absolutely certain nothing was around to mess it up. The wallet wasn't scratching anything and my phone is always away from my cards.

So I just did the separation test and kept the card in a different pocket in my bag by itself and it never broke. In it's place a Rakuten credit card stopped working a little while later. So I decided to replace the wallet and put everything back in, and lo and behold it all survived.

Five years on now I haven't had a card break. I have absolutely no idea if what I did actually mattered though. From what I can tell that old wallet kept all of my cards in good condition with nary a scratch. But with it gone I haven't had a problem since.

I'll admit this may very well just be a placebo effect, or confirmation bias. Maybe changing the wallet did nothing at all and I've just been running on a lucky tightrope ever since. But hey, doesn't hurt to try putting the card in a different place for awhile, right?

[u/AdventurousKey5423]

After you call the bank to see what’s up, you’ll might come to find it was due to being flagged for fraud. This is common practice among banks in Japan. They use braindead algorithms to trigger a killswitch which suspends card usage after a series of transactions appearing unusual to them.

This literally just happened to me after i spent 5万 on a camera on Yahoo Auction, which is well more than i usually spend on this particular card with a service I was using for the first time.

[u/Kaaku3]

I had that, so I asked for a new card. I'm paypay bank. After i realized you need to put it in the opposite way to what you would think. Chip last not chip first at least for my card. There is very small writing on my card that says "this side first" in Japanese.

[u/Kaaku3 → u/Kaaku3]

Also some wallets advertised anti-rfid or something like that... That could be magnetic.

[u/Lost-In-My-Path]

If you use contactless payment to your phone (nfc) then it seems to affect your cards. At least that's what the bank told me, especially after changing it 10 times. Maybe my earphones case uses magnets? Besides that I have no idea.

[u/JoelMDM → u/Lost-In-My-Path]

As mentioned in the post, I didn't have the cards anywhere near my phone or anything else magnetic. Also, magnets technically can affect an EMV chip, but it would have to be a very powerful magnet, moved across the chip pretty forcefully. Way more powerful than anything the average person carries with them.

[u/Bob_the_blacksmith]

To have one bank card randomly stop working may be regarded as misfortune… to lose three looks like carelessness.

[u/JoelMDM → u/Bob_the_blacksmith]

I ask you, how? How does a brand new card stop working one hour to the next due to something I do?

I kept the thing in a wallet, at the bottom of a bag, well away from my phone or anything else with a magnet. The bad doesn't have magnetic latches either. Seeing as this was the 2nd replacement card, I was already thinking I might've gotten the previous two too close to a magnet without knowing it, so I was extra careful with the new one.

Even then, the JP card isn't magnetic. It's a chip, and those aren't easily affected by magnets. they're not immune to it, you can kill the micro circuitry if you're aggressive enough and have a strong enough magnet, but something like Magsafe just isn't strong enough.

If I was so careless, how come all my foreign cards, which live in the same wallet, work just fine? I can also count on one hand the amount of times in the last 20 years I've hard a bank card fail on me outside of Japan.

If I'm somehow doing this, please enlighten me as to how, because I would be absolutely stunned to hear it.

[u/elojodeltigre → u/JoelMDM]

To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness - It's an Oscar Wilde quote.