This article will guide merchants through understanding transaction declines.

Understanding Credit Card Transaction Declines

Credit card transactions can be declined for various reasons. To determine the cause of a decline, examine the transaction response from your Authorize.net payment gateway account.

How to Review Transaction Details?

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Click Transaction Search from the main toolbar.
3. Enter the relevant search criteria to find the transaction.
4. Click Search at the bottom of the page.
5. Click the appropriate Transaction ID to review the transaction details.
6. On the Transaction Detail page, the transaction status Declined is displayed directly under the Transaction ID. A brief reason for the decline may be provided in parenthesis.

Common Decline Reasons

• Declined (Card declined by issuer - contact card issuer to determine reason.)
  • The customer's credit card issuing bank did not approve the transaction. This could be due to insufficient funds, frozen account status, invalid credit card number or expiration date, etc. The customer will need to contact the card issuing bank for more information.
  • Check the transaction's Address Verification Service (AVS) status in the Authorization Information section of the Transaction Detail page. If it shows AVS Not Applicable (P), this generally means that no verification of the address information was initiated as the transaction was declined beforehand.
• Declined (Contact card issuer to complete transaction.)
  • A referral to a voice authorization center was received. Please call the appropriate voice authorization number below for the card type being used:
    • American Express: (800) 528-2121
    • Visa/MasterCard: (800) 228-1122
    • Discover/Novus: (800) 347-1111
    • Diners Club: (800) 525-9040
    • JCB: (800) 522-9345
• Declined (Card reported lost or stolen - contact card issuer for resolution.)
  • The transaction status means that the credit card has been reported as lost or stolen. The credit card company is informing you, as the merchant, that this card should be taken from the customer and destroyed. If the transaction was made via the Internet, contact the customer to inform them of the card's status and seek another method of payment.
• Declined (AVS Mismatch) or (Card Code Mismatch)
  • This means the transaction was declined due to the Address Verification Service (AVS) or Card Code Verification (CCV) results. AVS compares the billing address (numerical portions) provided in a transaction with the cardholder's address on file at the credit card issuing bank. CCV compares the card code (a three- or four-digit security code that is printed on the credit card) provided in a transaction with the card code on file at the credit card issuing bank.
  • You can configure settings for AVS and CCV in the Merchant Interface to decline transactions based on those codes.
  • For more information on AVS, see: What is Address Verification Service (AVS) and how to use and configure it?
  • For more information on CVV, see: What is Card Code Verification (CVV) and how to use it?
• Declined (The transaction was declined as a result of triggering a Fraud Detection Suite filter.)
  • If the account has Fraud Detection Suite (FDS) or Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) enabled, you can configure the payment gateway to decline transactions that trigger specific FDS filters. To determine if AFDS is the reason for the decline, review the Fraud Information section of the Transaction Detail page. The Fraud Filter field will display which filter was triggered.
  • For more information on AFDS, see: What Is the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) and how to use it?
• An error occurred during processing. Call Merchant Service Provider
  • If you encounter the error message An error occurred during processing. Call Merchant Service Provider it is important to contact your Merchant Service Provider (MSP) to confirm the details and setup of your Merchant Account and to confirm your Authorize.net as well is completely setup and connected to your Merchant Accounts processor. This ensures that there are no hidden issues or necessary actions to resolve the failure/decline.

Authorize.net may not provide specific reasons for a particular decline, but some details on declines are included in transaction responses, if available.

Below are some common decline reasons along with their associated Response Reason Codes, for more information on Response Codes, see: Developer Center Transaction Response Codes Lookup