Why a checkout failed or a card was declined

Most failed checkouts are not a problem with your store. Your admin shows the reason for every one, and whose side it was on, so you know what to tell the customer.

1. Open Abandoned in your admin menu.
2. Near the top, Why checkouts failed, last 7 days sorts every failed checkout into the boxes below. Click a box to list just those checkouts, or use the Whose side filter.
3. Each failed checkout shows what happened, Whose side it was on, the details, and What to tell the customer. Click Gateway reply and what the shopper saw for the payment company's own words and the exact message the customer got.

Customer's bank

The card bank (or Credova, for financing) said no. Your store and the checkout worked. This covers a general decline, the bank asking the cardholder to call, a card flagged as lost, stolen or fraud, not enough funds or credit, a spending or activity limit, a bank that blocks purchases from gun stores, a closed card, and a bank that did not answer. Ask the customer to call the number on the back of the card, or use a different card.

Customer's entry

Something the customer typed or did: a wrong security code, a billing address or ZIP that does not match the bank's records, a mistyped or expired card, the same order sent twice, split payment amounts that did not add up, a checkout page left open too long, a missing field, the terms box not ticked, or your store picked as the transfer dealer on a shipped order. The line under each one says what to ask them to fix.

Store setting

A rule or setting on your side stopped it: the pause after several declines in a row (use Reset attempts under Paused at checkout), a blocked internet or email address, a fraud filter or a held payment in your payment gateway, a card brand your merchant account does not take, Test Mode left on, a merchant account setup problem, an item that sold out during checkout, a state you do not ship to, or online ordering switched off. Card processor setup problems need a call to your merchant service provider.

System

The card processor had a temporary problem, or something went wrong in our software or the gateway login. We are emailed automatically every time this happens, so you do not need to report it. Ask the customer to try again in a few minutes or take the order by phone.

Not sure

Rarely, an older failure was saved without enough detail to tell. Those show Not sure with the text that was saved, instead of a guess.

Note: Customers never see these details, only the bank's general message, so people testing stolen cards learn nothing from your checkout. After four declines in an hour, checkout pauses that customer; see "A shopper is paused at checkout after card declines" to let them back in.