Handling Declines

Card payments can fail for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common are:-

• Insufficient customer funds: If a customer has insufficient customer funds or credit, the card issuer declines the transaction. To help minimise declines due to insufficient funds, consider ?
• Incorrect card data: If a customer enters an incorrect card number, CVV, or expiry date, the card issuer might decline the transaction. In these cases, request your customer to re-enter their card information.
• Fraudulent activity: If a card issuer suspects fraudulent activity, which can be triggered by large purchases or a large volume of transactions over a short period of time, they might decline payments. Your customer must resolve this issue by communicating with their issuing bank and confirming their identity.

Card declines

• When your customer’s card issuer receives a charge, their automated systems and models decide whether to authorise it. These tools analyse signals such as spending habits, account balance, and card data including expiry date, address information, and CVC.
• If the card issuer declines a payment, Passport shares this information through the API. Sometimes, issuers provide specific explanations, such as an incorrect card number or low funds. We show these as decline codes.
• Card issuers categorise most declines as generic (generic_decline), making the exact decline reason unclear. If the card information is correct, request your customer to contact their card issuer to understand why a transaction was declined. For privacy and security reasons, card issuers discuss the specifics of a decline only with their cardholders.

Reducing Card Declines

You can typically resolve card issuer declines resulting from inaccurate card details (such as an incorrect card number or expiration date) by asking your customers to correct the error or use a different card or payment method. For example, Checkout provides feedback to the customer when a card declines and allows them to try again.

To avoid declines that stem from suspected fraudulent activity, request your customers to provide their CVC and postal code during checkout.

For a clear insight into why the card issuer declined the card during generic or do_not_honor declines, examine the associated data. For example, if CVC or Address Verification Service (AVS) checks fail when your customer adds a card, request your customer to verify both of these details before initiating another charge.

Card type restrictions Some customers find that their card has restrictions on the types of purchasable items. FSA or HSA cards are often limited to certain types of businesses (for example, healthcare providers), so card issuer’s decline any other type of purchase. Additionally, some card issuers might not allow purchases from certain countries or outside of their own. In either case, your customer must contact their card issuer to enquire about potential restrictions.

Declined card retries When a payment gets declined, PCE offers a reason for the decline and briefly suggests a resolution path.

Be aware that card networks limit the number of times you can reattempt a single charge. We recommend a maximum of eight retries for charges that permit retries. Card issuers might see creating additional retries as potential fraud, which can result in increased declines for legitimate charges.

In the API, the authMessage and responseCode in the outcome uses decline codes to tell you why the card issuer declined the authorisation. The MerchantAdviceCode and MerchantAdviceMessage in the outcome tells you what to do next.

Manage Declines -

On-session declines If your customer is present in your website or application’s checkout flow, prompt them to try their payment method again or ask for a new payment method.

Off-session declines If your customer isn’t available to make a payment or update a payment method, notify them (for example, send them an email or in-app notification) to visit your website or application.