Decline

A decline refers to a situation where an issuing bank rejects a transaction request. Declines can either be categorized as either temporary, “soft” declines, or permanent, “hard” declines.

Reasons for soft declines include insufficient funds, a merchant entering the wrong payment details, billing address errors, or network outages. Hard declines occur when fraud is detected or when a cardholder attempts to pay with an expired or inactive card.

To prevent declines, merchants should double-check for data entry errors before submitting a transaction for processing. Cardholders, meanwhile, can curb declines by ensuring that their accounts have sufficient funds. Buyers experiencing persistent payment declines can reach out to their issuers or attempt the transaction using another payment method.