Credit Card Declined Codes | Reasons With Solution 2023

Credit Card Declined Code & Credit Card Decline

First of all, we need to understand what a Credit Card decline and what is the list of visa, Mastercard, and chase credit card declined codes but if you are in a hurry, you can directly click here to see all the error codes with their reasons and solution.

Credit Card Decline is simply a process in which your credit card is declined due to various reasons or errors (which we will discuss later in this blog post ), and the payment is not processed on both ends i.e on the customer and merchant side.

For those who have not seen an error code, this is what it looks like and this generally happens when you are trying to make a payment using your Credit card.

To some people, a credit score is also the reason for declination. But credit score won’t affect it.

Note: There can be many errors and hence the display message can alter accordingly.

Credit Card Declines are Categorized in Two Ways:-

• The first one is Soft decline and which means that the bank has processed your payment but there is some other issue in the payment cycle that is causing the error and hence not allowing the payment to reach the merchant or another side.
• The second one is the Hard decline and which means that the bank has not processed your payment from its end due to some reasons which we have discussed below.

Every time a credit card is declined the user is presented with the reason in two ways i.e. first in the form of an error code and second in the form of an English message.

Note: The error codes and message can be of many types and vary from vendor to vendor.

So we are not discussing the error codes in this blog post instead we will be explaining the different messages you receive along with that error codes and explaining their reason and their solution.

Here are some of the examples of some error messages you receive when a credit card is declined (Both Soft and Hard Decline)

Credit Card Decline Error Codes

Error message	Why this error occurs	Solution
Invalid credit card number	The card number entered is invalid	Recheck your Credit Card Number
Invalid address	The billing address does not match the card network records	Re-check the records for the correct address
Do not honor	The issuing bank’s fraud filter has been triggered	Use a different card or contact the bank
Processor declined	Payment authorization has been declined at the issuing bank	Contact the Bank
Payment collection failed	The gateway’s fraud filter has been triggered	Use another card or talk to the customer service merchant
Expired card	The credit card being used has expired	Contact the bank to renew the card or use another card.
Transaction not allowed	Payment authorization has been declined at the issuing bank	Contact the Bank to know the exact the reason
Card reported lost/stolen	The issuing bank has marked this card lost or stolen	Contact the Bank to carry out the further procedure
Payment instrument not supported	The gateway doesn’t support the payment method being used	See for other payment methods available at the merchant
Insufficient funds	There aren’t enough funds in the associated bank account to complete this payment	Kindly fund your account or use a different card
Temporary Hold	The card is put on temporary hold by the bank	Contact your bank to know the exact reason for holding or using a different card.
Card Not Activated	Your card is not activated yet by the bank	Contact your Bank or use the manual provided by them to activate the card.

If your Error message is not mentioned in this blog post it is best to discuss it with your bank directly.

Note Some error messages are intentionally vague.

According to Chargebee, they are vague because of a variety of reasons:

• To Protect the User’s Privacy from the merchant.
• To keep the Hackers in grey by giving them vague reasons for the decline of the card payment.

And no one can tell you why that error code has risen except your Bank and in some cases,

you also know them, but you need a small reminder to remember errors like Insufficient funds, invalid credit card numbers, and invalid addresses are the most common error codes seen in the United States of America.

You can also send money to someone without a bank account if necessary on the spot when your card is not working.

Conclusion

Either you are a merchant or a customer. We hope you were able to find the solution to the cryptic decline message and acted accordingly.

Let us know in the comments if is there anything we didn’t cover or if you are unable to find the solution for your problem.