Did you know that credit cards were initially designed to act as loyalty cards? This concept was first introduced by The Diner’s Club, meant to be used in their restaurants across New York City. With its explosion in popularity coupled with its widespread use worldwide, credit card declines are a common occurrence. Hence, what are the different types of credit card declines?
Expired Card
Card networks will be unable to process cards that have passed their expiry dates printed on them, requiring their owner to provide an updated expiry date to process their payment. This error constitutes a large proportion of credit card declines.
Invalid Card
When the card is rejected with an “Invalid Card” message, it means that the particulars of the card were incorrectly entered. Every card contains a set of identification numbers, in which the system of the merchant would apply a checksum formula to validate the identity of the card itself. The incorrect input of card numbers would result in this error message.
Normal Decline
An error message consisting of these words usually refers to a decline in the transaction from the bank itself. This usually occurs due to credit limits placed on cards or insufficient credit available on the cards themselves.
Call For Auth
An error message with these words does not entail a complete rejection of the payment itself. This error message occurs usually when the bank itself is unsure about the transaction itself and wants the merchant to call in to verify the transaction itself. An approval code would be given over the phone if it passes the appropriate authentication checks and the transaction will still be able to go through.
Pick Up Card
This error message refers to the bank’s suspicion of fraud in the transaction. Usually occurring when the card is removed from circulation due to it being reported lost or stolen, it warns the merchant to seize the card as the individual attempting to make the transaction is in fact participating in a criminal act.
Suspected Fraud
If an error message appears suspecting customer fraud, the bank of the card’s issue has highlighted the transaction to be irregular. Often due to an act of fraudulence, this error message may also appear due to an exceedingly large purchase outside of the customer’s typical spending habits, hence not necessarily amounting to an act of fraud and seizure of the card the “pick up card” error message would require. If the customer contacts the bank to verify the transaction itself, the transaction can still be carried out.
Managing Declines
When faced with these error messages, do not try to process the card again and again as this may result in the card being flagged for suspicious activity. Simply request an alternative form of payment. With some cards enacting restrictions to decline international transactions or restrictions on the types of transactions made, avoid repeatedly processing the card and advice the customer to contact the bank for assistance.
Payment Made Easy
Credit card declines are a common occurrence in the daily operations of most businesses. At Millennium Payment Systems, we provide our merchants with the most advanced and cost-effective payment processing services in the market. Contact us to find out how we can maximize your company’s potential!