Different Types Of Declines

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woman handing credit card to merchant

there are actually five different reasons why a credit card can be declined and not all of them prevent a transaction from being completed.

As a merchant (and as a consumer) the last thing that you want to see when a purchase is being made is a decline of a credit or debit card. Unless the consumer has another method of payment they will not be able to get the goods and the merchant will not be able to make the sale. It is not a good feeling for either party. But, not all declines are equal and by knowing which kind you are getting it could help the sale be completed or to help reduce credit card fraud.

There are five different decline codes. Not all of them are malicious or indicate that the consumer is bad with money. In fact with two types you might still be able to process the transaction. These are the five:

  1. Declined – ND – This is the most common that a merchant will see. It comes directly from the card issuer, like a bank, and indicates that there are insufficient funds in their account or that a restriction has been placed on the card. There is nothing that can be done in this instance except to use another form of payment
  2. Declined – Expired Card – This particular instance may seem silly but it could be more common that you think. People get used to using a particular card and may not pay attention to the expiration date on it. Or they might have activated a new card but forgot to remove the old one. In this case, an unexpired card will be needed.
  3. Declined – Invalid Card – In this case the problem may lie with whoever entered the card information as they entered it incorrectly. A simple Mod10 check was performed (read here for more information on this) and the number entered did not check out. In this case by entering the correct information the transaction should go through.
  4. Declined – Call For Auth – Restrictions can be placed on a card and while the transaction is technically declined this instructs the merchant that they need to call the bank for authorization and if they approve it an authorization code will be issued and the transaction will go through. In some cases, like with business cards the cardholder may need to call to have the purchase approved.
  5. Declined – Pick Up Card – If you see this decline there was no chance that the transaction would go through as the card has been reported lost or stolen and has been taken out of circulation. You may be dealing with a thief and the victim may have just saved you some time and aggravation. It should be noted that you are not required to destroy the card like you see on TV or in the movies.

It is also important to note that when a decline occurs that running the card again is not going to change anything unless it is the Invalid Card type of decline. Don’t waste your time. The customer may need to call their bank and find out just what is going on.