Understanding declines and failed payments

Payments can fail for a variety of reasons and it’s frustrating when they result in the loss of legitimate transaction. Many payments fail for good reason and do so to minimize the possibility of a fraudulent payment.

We continuously work to reduce decline rates for cards processed on Stripe with machine learning and experimentation, along with issuer and network outreach to optimize acceptance rates for all Stripe businesses—often without requiring any changes to your integration.

There are three possible reasons why a credit card payment might fail:

Each type of failure is handled differently. 

Payments declined by card issuers

When a charge is submitted to the issuer of your customer’s card, they have automated systems and models that determine whether or not to authorize it. These systems analyze various signals, such as your customer’s spending habits, account balance, and card information such as the expiration date, address information and CVC. 

 In some cases, card issuers also provide helpful explanations, such as the card number or expiration date being incorrect, or that the customer does not have enough funds available to make the payment. The card issuer may provide one of these more specific reasons to Stripe through the use of a decline code. 

If all of the card information seems correct, it is best to have your customer contact their card issuer and ask for more information. For privacy and security, card issuers can only discuss the specifics of a declined payment with their cardholders–they cannot discuss this with the merchant, or even with Stripe. 

PLEASE ASK YOUR BANK FOR THE DECLINE REASON.  You can ask them to approve the next payment attempt by our system.

Reducing card issuer declines

Card issuer declines arising from incorrect card information (for example, incorrect card number or expiration date) are best handled by guiding your customer to correct the error or even using another card or payment method. For instance, Checkout can provide feedback to the customer if the card they’re attempting to use is declined, allowing them to try again or use an alternative payment method.

Card restrictions

Some customers find that their card has restrictions on the type of purchases it can make. FSA/HSA cards are often limited to certain types of businesses (for example, healthcare providers), so any other type of purchase would be declined.  In either case, your customer must contact their card issuer to check for any restrictions that are in place.

Blocked payments

Stripe’s automated fraud prevention toolset, Radar, blocks high-risk payments, such as those with mismatched CVC or postal code values, even if you are not subscribed to Radar. See our Fraud prevention doc for more information on how Radar can help you define rules to combat and prevent fraud and disputes.

A blocked payment is initially authorized by the card issuer and could be processed successfully. Instead, Stripe does not charge the card as it’s likely the payment is fraudulent and could result in a dispute.

Depending on the type of card being used, some customers may see the card issuer’s authorization for the payment amount on their statement. This amount hasn’t been charged and no funds have been taken. The authorization is removed from their statement by the card issuer within a few days.

Please contact your bank and have them unblock the future payment.