Troubleshooting card declined errors

Issue

While checking the status under Order errors from Customers in the merchant portal, in the Errors columns there are ‘card declined’ charge errors. Hovering ‘i’ for more details includes one of the following:

• card declined
• decline code
• card expired

Your customers may also have reported receiving emails stating that their credit cards were declined.

Customers can receive card decline notifications during checkout, or see card decline errors listed in an order status. Cards are declined for a variety of reasons, depending on the customer's bank or credit card. When customers receive a card-decline error, Recharge sends an automated email prompting them to update their card. For hard-decline errors that Recharge doesn't retry, this email is only sent if the Card Declined email for hard declines is enabled.

Environment

Click Customers > Order errors to view charge errors in the merchant portal. 

This error can occur on multiple platforms and with each payment process. Some card decline errors are unique to a payment processor, such as decline code is a Stripe-specific card decline error.

• Shopify Payments: Troubleshoot Shopify Payments
• Stripe: Understanding declines and failed payments
• Braintree: Transactions - Declines
• Authorize.net: Why was my transaction declined?

Resolution

Instruct customers with card declined error messages to contact their financial institution directly. Manually retry the charge when the customer resolves the decline with their financial institution. Click the three dots next to the Error column and select Retry charge.

The customer should contact their bank to investigate the issue if they periodically receive card-decline errors even after updating their card. There may be something specific to their account that is blocking transactions.

If the decline continues, have the customer remove and re-add the payment method

Ask the customer to remove their payment method from their customer portal and re-enter it. Alternatively, they could try a different payment method.

If the errors still persist after troubleshooting

Contact your payment processor support for further assistance.