This article explains the difference between a hard and soft decline of a payment, and shows all types of soft/hard declines with their response codes.
Decline Types:
-
Soft Decline:
- Soft declines are declines that do not come from the issuing bank, but from a different source, such as the card owner, or processor.
- The reasons for a soft decline often occur due to insufficient funds, processing error, invalid PIN entry, invalid card details, and unusual payments.
- Soft declines are temporary, and you can try re-processing the transaction in case it was a processing error.
- Soft declines do not mark a payment method as inactive (an inactive payment method means subscription payments will not process).
-
Hard Decline:
- Hard declines are different from soft declines. These declines come from the card's issuing bank.
- The reasons from a hard decline are primarily due to a card being marked lost or stolen. Other causes can be due to a closed account, or invalid card.
- Hard declines WILL mark a payment method as inactive which means if that payment method is set up to process a subscription payment, that subscription will be unable to go through.
Soft Decline Response Codes:
| Code | Type | User Message | Developer Message/Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| A11 | Soft | Approval (Reversal failed) | 1) Initial transaction was approved by a processor and a subsequent reversal was rejected (void failed). 2) User set partial authorization logic as disabled while submitting a transaction, a processor sent partial auth as a transaction response and a subsequent reversal was rejected. For both cases, make sure to submit refund API request for the transaction that has received A11 response code. |
| A60 | Soft | Terminal Offline Approval - EMV/Chip | EMV card transaction has been approved. |
| A61 | Soft | Terminal Offline Approval - Swipe | Magnetic stripe card transaction has been approved. |
| A62 | Soft | Terminal Offline Approval - Credit | Credit card transaction has been approved. |
| D01 | Soft | Denied by customer's bank | Transaction has been denied by cardholder's bank. |
| D03 | Soft | Insufficient funds | Specified credit card does not have sufficient funds. |
| D07 | Soft | Incorrect PIN | Entered PIN is incorrect. |
| D08 | Soft | CSC is invalid | CSC value is invalid. |
| D09 | Soft | Duplicate Transaction | The cardholder’s bank has declined the transaction as this transaction appears to be a duplicate transmission. |
| D12 | Soft | Service not allowed | Cardholder's credit card or merchant processing account is not configured for the specified type of transaction. |
| D15 | Soft | Maximum transaction limit is exceeded | Maximum transaction limit is exceeded at the moment. Try processing your transaction tomorrow. |
| D17 | Soft | Re-enter Transaction | An unknown error occurred during the authorization process. Transaction needs to be re-entered. |
| D18 | Soft | Bad Amount | Specified amount value is invalid. Amount must be a positive number. |
| D19 | Soft | Unmapped decline | Specified processor's response code is not recognized by the system. The respective request of a received code clarification needs to be addressed to the processor. |
| D20 | Soft | Billing profile configuration error | Specified billing profile was configured incorrectly. |
| D21 | Soft | Pin Try Exceeded | Cardholder has entered the incorrect PIN more than three times. |
| D25 | Soft | Refund limit is reached for the day | Specified merchant has reached the refund limit allowed per day on the account. |
| D26 | Soft | Settlement Failed | Submitted transaction cannot be settled. Re-check entered account information and try again. |
| D28 | Soft | Cashback limit exceeded/Cashback unavailable | Specified amount exceeds cashback limit or cashback is not available. |
| D29 | Soft | Card is restricted | Specified credit card has some restrictions. |
| D30 | Soft | Call for Authorization | To proceed with the transaction, call for authorization is needed to confirm the validity of the card. |
| D31 | Soft | Declined due to fraud rules | Specified credit card appears to be fraudulent. |
| D32 | Soft | Declined due to fraud engine decision | Transaction has been declined because of fraud detected by a fraud engine. |
| D33 | Soft | Incorrect merchant setup | Specified merchant is not set up correctly for the submitted transaction. |
| D34 | Soft | Merchant profile configuration issue | Specified merchant profile was configured incorrectly. |
| D35 | Soft | Card chip decline | Transaction has been declined by the chip (for EMV cards only). |
| E02 | Soft | Processing Network Unavailable | Processing network is temporarily unavailable. |
| E03 | Soft | Transaction data integrity validation error | Batch transaction data is invalid. |
| E04 | Soft | Refund limit is reached for the day | Specified merchant has reached the refund limit allowed per day on the account. |
| E06 | Soft | Card is blacklisted | Payment card is blacklisted. |
| E07 | Soft | Tokenization not supported | Tokenization is not supported by a processor. |
| E08 | Soft | Declined by processor | Direct debit transaction has been declined by a processor. |
| E09 | Soft | Processing Network Error | Error occurred during the connection process after the transaction was submitted. |
| E10 | Soft | 3D Secure Verification Failed | 3D Secure verification has failed. |
| E31 | Soft | Declined due to pre-processing rules | Transaction has been declined due to the pre-processing rules |
| X01 | Hard | Processing Cancelled by User | Transaction processing has been cancelled by a cardholder. |
| X02 | Soft | Pending processing | Batch transaction is still processed on a processor's side. |
| X03 | Soft | 3D Secure Verification Required | 3D Secure verification is required. |
| X04 | Soft | Processing cancelled: the request has expired. |
Transaction processing has been cancelled due to a user being inactive for a time period specified as a timeout (default: 15 minutes). |
Hard Decline Response Codes:
| Code | Type | User Message | Developer Message/Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| D02 | Hard | Invalid Expiration Date | Cardholder has entered invalid or malformed expiration date. |
| D04 | Hard | Hold - Pick up card | The cardholder’s bank has declined the transaction and requested cardholder’s credit card to be retained. |
| D05 | Hard | Invalid card number | Specified credit card number is invalid or does not exist. |
| D06 | Hard | No account | Specified credit card number is associated with account that does not exist. |
| D10 | Hard | Card reported lost/stolen | The cardholder’s bank has declined the transaction and requested the cardholder’s credit card to be retained because the card was reported lost or stolen. |
| D11 | Hard | Card reported stolen | The cardholder’s bank has declined the transaction and requested the cardholder’s credit card to be retained because the card was reported stolen. |
| D13 | Hard | Stop Recurring | Cardholder requested stop of specific recurring payment. |
| D14 | Hard | Un-attempted Batch Decline | For internal use only (deprecated). |
| D16 | Hard | Card is Expired | A transaction was processed on an expired card. |
| D22 | Hard | Refund was not processed/received | Refund was not processed successfully or has not been received by the cardholder. |
| D24 | Hard | Chargeback received | Chargeback has been received. |
| D27 | Hard | Transaction Error | Submitted transaction has failed. |
| X01 | Hard | Processing Cancelled by User | Transaction processing has been cancelled by a cardholder. |