When a card Payin (keyed in transaction) or a refund fails, Method Pay returns a refusal code explaining why. This article lists each code, what usually causes it, and what to do next.
Refusal codes apply to card payments only. If an ACH payment comes back, that's an ACH return with an R-code (R01, R03, and so on) and works differently. For more information on ACH, please see ACH rejection codes.
Refusal codes
Code | Common Cause | Action |
3DS Challenge Failed | Your customer didn't complete the bank's authentication step, or closed the window before it finished | Safe to retry. |
Declined | A general refusal from the card issuer. Issuers often don't disclose the specific reason | The customer has to act. |
Do Not Honor | The most common generic decline. Usually an issuer fraud rule triggered by a card-not-present charge | The customer has to act. |
Expired Card | The card has passed its expiry date. Common on saved cards and recurring payments | Bad data. Re-collect and retry. |
Fraudulent Card | The issuer has flagged the card | Do not retry. Do not re-collect. |
Incorrect Payment Information | One or more entered fields don't match the issuer's records | Bad data. Re-collect and retry. |
Insufficient Funds | Not enough available balance or credit | The customer has to act. |
Invalid Card Security Code | The CVC is wrong or wasn't captured. Common when migrating card details from a processor that didn't store CVC | Bad data. Re-collect and retry. |
Invalid Expiration Date | The expiry entered doesn't match the card | Bad data. Re-collect and retry. |
Invalid PIN | PIN validation failed. Method Pay processes keyed-in (card-not-present) transactions only, so this is unexpected | Do not retry — escalate. |
Lost Card | The card has been reported lost | Do not retry. Do not re-collect. |
No Card Number On File With Issuer | The issuer doesn't recognize the card number — usually a typo, or a closed or reissued account | Bad data. Re-collect and retry. |
No Such Card Issuer | The card number doesn't route to a known issuer, usually a mistyped first six digits | Bad data. Re-collect and retry. |
Over Limit | The amount exceeds the card's credit or spending limit | The customer has to act. |
Processing Error | A temporary system error during processing | Safe to retry. |
Retry | A transient issue — the safest code on this list to retry | Safe to retry. |
Retry With 3DS | The issuer will only approve this payment with 3D Secure authentication | Can't be actioned without platform enablement. |
Risk Decline | Blocked by risk screening rather than by the card issuer | Do not retry. Do not re-collect. |
Stolen Card | The card has been reported stolen | Do not retry. Do not re-collect. |
Unexpected Payin Token | A technical issue with the payment session — the token was reused, expired, or didn't match | Safe to retry. |
Unsupported Card Type | The card brand or type isn't supported | The customer has to act. |
How many times should you retry?
Retry once: Retry, Processing Error, Unexpected Payin Token, 3DS Challenge Failed, and Do Not Honor after your customer has authorized it with their bank.
Retry only after something changes: any code caused by incorrect details, or Insufficient Funds and Over Limit once your customer has resolved it on their side.
Never retry: Fraudulent Card, Lost Card, Stolen Card, Risk Decline, Invalid PIN.
Repeated attempts on a declined card can look like card testing to the issuer. That can escalate a single failed payment into wider declines on your account.
What to say to your customer
Issuers don't share the real reason behind most declines, and flags are sometimes wrong. Don't tell your customer their card came back as fraudulent, lost, or stolen.
A neutral line works for every code on this list: "That card didn't go through — do you have another one you'd like to use, or are you able to check with your bank?"
One thing to know about failed payments
A payment method is only saved and tokenized when a payment succeeds. If a first payment fails, there's no card on file for that customer — so you'll need to collect details again on the next attempt.
When to contact support
Contact your Method Pay support contact if you see Invalid PIN, Unexpected Payin Token, Risk Decline, a repeating Processing Error, or a cluster of Fraudulent Card, Lost Card, or Stolen Card codes in a short time frame.