Authorization declines

Learn about the different types of authorization declines and how to handle them.
When the shopper submits a cart, Digital River must request authorization from the payment provider to create a charge for the amount indicated. Sometimes, however, this authorization request is declined.
Digital River works with multiple credit card processors using a proprietary solution that maximizes billing success. If an authorization attempt fails with the first credit card processor, we may try billing against a different processor.
When Digital River cannot obtain a successful authorization, we return an error that indicates the reason for the decline. 
Do not share the error code with the customer. Doing so may aid parties that are attempting to care out fraudulent activities.
Some common reasons for authorization declines are incorrectly entered credit card numbers, invalid security codes, and insufficient funds. In the event of a hard or soft authorization decline, you maintain responsibility for communicating with the customer, as well as following Digital River's retry policies.
There are two major types of authorization declines: hard and soft.

Hard declines are permanent authorization failures.  In other words, retrying the payment source won't be successful. They are usually due to irreversible events, such as a payment method no longer being valid because the account was closed or the card was stolen. In these cases, you'll need to inform customers that they must either use a different payment method or fix any payment data that was incorrectly entered.   
Some common reasons for authorization declines are incorrectly entered credit card numbers, invalid security codes, and insufficient funds. In the event of a hard or soft authorization decline, you maintain responsibility for communicating with the customer, as well as following the Digital River retry policies. 
Soft declines, on the other hand, typically occur when the reason for the decline is temporary.  They are often due to insufficient funds or an exceeded daily limit. After a soft decline occurs, retrying the payment source may be successful. But, there are certain retry policies you must observe when conducting these retries.
Hard declines vs. soft declines
There are two major types of authorization declines: hard and soft.

Hard declines are permanent authorization failures.  In other words, retrying the payment source won't be successful. They are usually due to irreversible events, such as a payment method no longer being valid because the account was closed, or the card was stolen. In these cases, you'll need to inform customers that they must either use a different payment method or fix any payment data that was entered incorrectly.   
Soft declines, on the other hand, typically occur when the reason for the decline is temporary. They are often due to insufficient funds or an exceeded daily limit. After a soft decline occurs, retrying the payment source may be successful but there are certain retry policies that you must observe.
Decline codes 
For customer-initiated and merchant-initiated transactions, the following table explains whether the error code you receive indicates a hard or soft decline. When it's a soft decline, make sure you follow the retry policies when submitting additional authorization requests. See the complete list of error codes for more information.
account_closed
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
account_frozen
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
authentication_required
Customer-initiated decline type: Soft
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
blacklisted_card
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
card_expired
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
card_limit_exceeded
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
card_not_active
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
card_type_block
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
card_velocity_exceeded
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
declined
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
declined_can_retry
Customer-initiated decline type: Soft
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
do_not_honor
Customer-initiated decline type: Soft
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
duplicate_transaction
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
fraud
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
fraud_block
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
illegal_action
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
insufficient_funds
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
invalid_address
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_amount
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_card_bin
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_card_number
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_currency
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
invalid_expiration_date
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
invalid_field_data
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_merchant
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_payment_method
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_pin
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_security_code
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_security_field
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
invalid_transaction_type
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
issuer_invalid_card
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
issuer_not_found
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
issuer_unavailable
Customer-initiated decline type: Soft
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
limit_exceeded
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
lost_stolen_card
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
mid_limit_exceeded
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
new_card_issued
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
no_response
Customer-initiated decline type: Soft
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
pin_try_exceeded
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
restricted_card
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
sca_not_completed
Customer-initiated decline type: Soft
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
stop_recurring
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
suspected_fraud
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
unidentified_error
Customer-initiated decline type: Soft
Merchant-initiated decline type: Soft
voice_authorization_required
Customer-initiated decline type: Hard
Merchant-initiated decline type: Hard
Retry policies
The following are the retry policies you must adhere to when resubmitting an authorization request:
No more than one authorization attempt per day per subscription
No more than four authorization attempts over a 30-day period per subscription
Additionally, we recommend that you do not schedule retries seven days apart. This prevents them from falling on the same day of the week, thereby helping you obtain a higher authorization success rate.
Initiating a charge
Resuming cart submission
Last modified 11mo ago