Payment can fail in two different scenarios, when you are manually paying from the payment gateway (Authorization failure) or when we automatically charge your account from the recurring payment record (Purchase failure). Both of these scenarios can return many failure reasons, here is a list of the ones we encounter most often.
NOTE: When paying manually you will see the reason given by your bank to reject a payment in the transaction email automatically sent to your designated “invoice contact” when the failure occurs. If it’s a failure on a recurring payment please ask about it in the Payment Notification ticket that was raised on your account.
Email example:
Failure Reasons
Note: The “reason for failure” on the notification is the text supplied by YOUR bank at the time of the payment failure.
FAILURE REASON | EXPLANATION |
The external processing gateway has reported a limit has been exceeded or Your request has been declined because Strong Customer Authentication is required | These two failure messages have muscled their way to the top of the list due to compulsory PSD2 regulation we have come to note that these two messages tend to mean the same thing, that the PSD2/SCA two-factor authentication has not been completed by you (the purchaser), or it wasn't passed by your bank. |
The card has been declined due to insufficient funds. (Error code 3022 - Sub code 1059) | This one is pretty straight forward, the request to charge your bank has been declined due to the credit on the account or card being lower than the credit needed to pay the bill. Please remember that some times the limit on your card is completely different to the actual balance on your bank account, but will regardless return this same error message. |
Your request has been declined by the issuing bank. (Error code 3009 - Sub code 1100) | Your bank refused authorization on this transaction for one of the following reasons: there is a bank policy regarding online transactions. For example, some banks regard Internet transactions as "high risk" and may have a policy against them; or there is a bank security policy that has declined the transaction based on a preset anti-fraud algorithm. Please speak to your bank instruct them that we are a trusted merchant, and request to know if there are any restrictions on your card pertaining to online transactions. |
You submitted an expired credit card number with your request. (Error code 3006 - Sub code 1085) | This happens when you have attempted payment with an expired credit card. Please check that the card isn’t expired, if it isn't then check that you entered the details correctly, so please retry. |
You submitted a request that is not parseable. (Error code 5023) | The address introduced with the card details is too long or contains characters the database doesn’t recognize, like unusual special characters. Please retry the transaction with a simplified version of the address and eliminate special characters. |
The bank has requested that you retrieve the card from the cardholder - it may be a lost or stolen card. (Error code 3016 - Sub code 1004) | This transaction failed because the card is set as lost or stolen. Please do not retry the transaction until you have spoken to your bank to clear it up. |
Your request has been declined because the request type is not permitted on the card. (Error code 3040 - Sub code 1106) | Your bank is stating that the card in question can not make a purchase on this specific card type. This may be due to the card being a bank debit card. Please speak to your bank. |
You submitted an invalid card number or brand or combination of card number and brand with your request. (Error code 3002) | On entering the card details, the wrong card type was selected, or the wrong card numbers where entered. Please try again taking special care with the card numbers and making sure you select the correct card type from the drop down. (Mastercard, VISA, etc.) |
If you come across an Authorization failure message you don’t see here and need further assistance, please speak to your bank, and if needed add a comment in the Payment Notification ticket on your account, or raise a chat with our CS team.