Transaction decline reasons
This page gives details on the types of decline reasons you might see for an attempted transaction and explains possible reasons. Please note that the below list may not be exhaustive and will be supplemented over time.
| Decline message | Reason |
|---|---|
| Account has insufficient funds | Account has insufficient funds |
| Declined due to Card Status: Card Destroyed | Cardholder is attempting to use cancelled card |
| Declined due to Card Status: Short-term Debit Block | Cardholder is attempting to use blocked card |
| Declined due to Card Status: Expired card | Cardholder is attempting to use expired card |
| Declined due to Card Status: Restricted card (Card is not active) | Cardholder is attempting to use the card before activation |
| Authorisation would exceed card limit | Cardholder is attempting a transaction that would cause the card to exceed its lifetime spend limit |
| Declined due to CardUsageGroupCheck | Cardholder is attempting an unsupported transaction type for the card product e.g. balance inquiry at ATM |
| Requires SCA, Card | Cardholder is attempting a contactless transaction but due to limits on the number they can do in a row/accumulative amount they can spend, they temporarily aren’t permitted for contactless and need to use PIN / SCA. |
| Card expiry check failed with Emboss Expiry date | Cardholder has entered incorrect expiry date as part of ecommerce transaction |
| Expiry Date missing | Cardholder has not entered expiry date as part of ecommerce transaction |
| Card CVV2 not matching with cvv2 in auth request | Cardholder has entered incorrect CVC2 as part of ecommerce transaction |
| CVC2 tries exceeded | Cardholder has used incorrect CVC2 the max number of times and now the CVC2 is blocked |
| CVV2 Not Present | Cardholder has not entered CVC2 as part of ecommerce transaction |
| Incorrect PIN | Cardholder is attempting transaction with incorrect PIN |
| Offline PIN incorrect | Cardholder is attempting transaction with incorrect PIN |
| Online / offline PIN try limit exceeded | Cardholder has used incorrect PIN the max number of times and now the PIN is blocked |
| Declined due to GroupMCCCheck | Cardholder is attempting transaction at a merchant type that is not permitted (MCC restriction in place) |
| Invalid Merchant | Cardholder is attempting transaction at a merchant type that not permitted |
| Exceeds withdrawal amount limit | Cardholder is attempting a transaction which would exceed the card velocity (daily/monthly/annual or lifetime limit) |
| Exceeds Max Per Transaction limit | Transaction value exceeds the limit currently set on the card per transaction |
| Processor declined: DR: Declined due to Card Status: Security Violation | Transaction attempted on Suspended Account / Card |
| Timeout | Network / System Related outage at Processor. Cardholder Should retry transaction |
| Processor declined: DR: Requires SCA. Transaction Amount (X) higher than Authentication Amount (Y) by up to 20% | a pre-authorization has been taken for a specific amount, acting as a hold that the merchant can draw from the card. However, the final authorization amount may vary. The Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is provided during this initial pre-auth. Subsequent authorizations may be either approved or softly declined, depending on certain parameters. If soft declined, the SCA process must be redone. In e-commerce scenarios, this will involve going through the Cardinal system and supplying the Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA). |
Updated 12 months ago