Strange Steam payment problems in South Africa

Several Absa customers have reported payment issues on the digital PC distribution platform Steam, seemingly due to the bank mistakenly flagging their transactions as suspicious.

However, despite many customers experiencing the same problem, Absa has not acknowledged any issues with its fraud detection system.

MyBroadband first became aware of the issue due to a post on Reddit where multiple people reported their Absa debit and credit cards not working on Steam.

The original poster explained that they had been a Steam customer for about a decade and had exclusively used their Absa account to buy games.

“It has always been a hassle-free experience: add games to cart, checkout, select Visa card, and then approve purchase with my banking app,” they said.

“But today, all of a sudden, I can’t do that. Steam says (in a yellow banner notification): Your purchase has not been completed. Your credit card information has been declined by your credit card company.”

The user also received an SMS from Absa stating that the transaction was “not allowed under South African Exchange Control regulations.”

In a follow-up post, they said Absa’s customer support had told them the bank had temporarily blocked all Steam transactions.

This was to investigate possible fraudulent activity between Steam and the bank. “Apparently, all Absa accounts are affected until this investigation concludes,” the user said.

Absa’s customer support centre told another Reddit user that other customers had been calling about the same problem since Thursday, 29 May 2025.

However, their only suggested course of action was for the customer to wait out the problem without any further explanation.

The user also followed up with Stream support and was told that the purchase failed because the required 3D authentication process was not completed.

“Rest assured, you’re free to use this payment method or any other available for your region listed during the checkout process,” Steam Support said.

“Kindly try purchasing again, and if you’re still having issues, please attach screenshots of each step of the purchase process in order for us to determine where the error is occurring.”

Several other people reported experiencing the same issue and thanked the poster for sharing their experience and the feedback from Absa support.

Others said they experienced the same issue, and upon retrying the transaction, it was successful. Another said they had the issue earlier this year and were able to complete their purchase a few days later.

Absa says no Steam investigation — but SMS a mistake

Some of the comments posted by Absa customers indicated that the issue started on Thursday and was still occurring on Saturday morning, 31 May 2025.

MyBroadband asked Absa about the reports, but the bank said nothing unusual was happening with Steam transactions.

“Absa does allow transactions linked to Steam, an international digital distribution platform,” the bank said. “We decline transactions that are considered suspicious.”

However, the bank said the declined transactions were not related to exchange control regulations. That means that the SMS sent to Absa customers is incorrect.

Several users on Reddit recommended that people buy Steam gift cards via other platforms to load their wallets and buy games or other content on the platform.

While this did not work for one of the Reddit users, MyBroadband could buy a Steam voucher on the bank’s mobile app. This has the additional benefit of qualifying for Absa Rewards cash back.

Other Steam users from multiple banks, including Absa, said that retrying the transaction with the same card details, using a virtual card, or waiting a few hours resolved their declined transaction issues.