IN THIS ARTICLE:
Learn about various Result Codes/Error Messages that are returned when a credit card transaction is declined and what they mean.
Hard Declines
A hard decline is when the issuing bank does not approve the payment and are permanent authorization failures that should not be retried. These failures may be caused by:
- Stolen Card
- Invalid Card
- Closed Account
When a hard decline occurs, the problem originates with the issuing bank or the processor.
The problem with hard declines is that retrying the card number doesn’t work, even if the decline happens on a renewal. With hard declines, the only guaranteed way to prevent losing the payment is to have the customer fix the problem. Which most likely means they’ll have to give you a new credit card.
Soft Declines
A soft decline occurs when the issuing bank approves the payment, but the transaction fails at some other point in the process. Some typical reasons for a soft decline are:
- Insufficient Funds
- Processor Declined
- Card Activity Limit Exceeded
- Expired Card
- The Purchase is Unusual
- The Billing Address and the IP Address Do Not Match
- The Card is Being Used Abroad
The good news about soft declines is that the transaction failure is temporary. So, you can retry the card in one or two days after the decline occurs and hope for valid authorization.
Table of common Result Codes
(*) denotes that this error code will result in the payment method being flagged as Invalid.
| Result Code | Result Message | Response Type | Description |
| 100 | Transaction was approved | Info | An authorized transaction is a debit or credit card purchase for which the merchant has received approval from the bank that issued the customer’s payment card. |
| 200/652 | Transaction was declined by processor | Decline |
A processor decline indicates that the customer's bank has refused the transaction request. Sometimes you can tell why it was declined by reading the response code, but only the customer's bank can confirm the specific reason. The most common reasons for declines are: Incorrect credit card number or expiration date. (For WorldPay customers, this may be displayed as "Processor Error 652.") |
| 201 | Do not honor | Hard Decline | The DO NOT HONOR or Invalid Service Code messages indicate that the customer card's issuing bank will not validate the transaction and provide an authorization code. Essentially, it mans that the credit card being used for the transaction has been completely rejected by the issuing bank. |
| 202 | Insufficient funds | Soft Decline | Insufficient funds is a situation when your account does not have enough money available to cover a payment. For example, you might write a check or sign up for automatic electronic payments to your electric company. |
| 203 | Over limit | Soft Decline | Over-limit. Being over-limit, or overlimit, refers to a cardholder account that has surpassed its credit limit with a transaction. When cardholders attempt to make purchases that will put them over their credit limit, the card issuer may decline the transactions or may charge consumers hefty over-limit fees. |
| 204 | Tranaction not allowed | Hard Decline | The message Transaction Not Allowed indicates a rejection on the side of the credit card provider for unspecified reasons. It doesn't necessarily mean that there is an issue with the card, but it does indicate that the bank will not approve this transaction. You will need to contact your bank for more information. |
| 220 (*) | Incorrect payment information | Hard Decline | The information provided is either expired or invalid |
| 221 (*) | No such card user | Hard Decline | The card number entered is incorrect |
| 222 (*) | No card number on file with issuer | Hard Decline | Whichever issuers the client is using(visa,ms,disc,amex) does not have this number on file |
| 223 (*) | Expired card | Hard Decline | The expiration date on the card has passed |
| 224 (*) | Invalid expiration date | Soft Decline | The expiration date entered does not |
| 225 | Invalid security code | Soft Decline | 3 digit code provided does not match the code of the card provided |
| 226 | Invalid PIN | Soft Decline | The PIN provided does not match the PIN associated with the card provided |
| 240 | Hard DeclineCall Issuer for further information | Hard Decline | the card issuer whether that is Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or AMEX should be contacted for further assistance |
| 250 (*) | Pick up card | Hard Decline | This message means the card issuer is alerting you that a transaction is being attempted on a card the issuer would like back. In this case the card holder may have lost the card, it has been stolen or the issuing bank has closed the account. |
| 251 (*) | Lost card | Hard Decline | A lost card should be reported and canceled |
| 252 (*) | Stolen card | Hard Decline | A stolen card should be reported and canceled |
| 253 (*) | Fraudulent card | Info | Credit card fraud is a wide-ranging term for theft and fraud committed using or involving a payment card, such as a credit card or debit card, as a fraudulent source of funds in a transaction. The purpose may be to obtain goods without paying, or to obtain unauthorized funds from an account. |
| 260 | Declined with further instructions available (See response text) | Decline | A notice that the transaction has been declined along with a further instructions will be provided upon notice |
| 261 (*) | Declined-Stop all recurring payments | Soft Decline | The transaction was declined. To process a transaction, you must stop all recurring payments. |
| 262 (*) | Declined-Stop this recurring program | Soft Decline | The transaction was declined. To process a transaction, you must stop this recurring program. |
| 263 | Declined-Update cardholder data available | Hard Decline | The transaction was declined. To process a transaction, you must update cardholder data. |
| 264 | Declined-Retry in a few days | Soft Decline | The transaction was declined. To process a transaction, you must retry in a few days. |
| 300 | Transaction was rejected by gateway | Hard Decline | Gateway rejections are blocked by your gateway settings, while declined transactions are blocked by the customer's bank. ... A gateway rejection indicates that the transaction did not pass the duplicate transaction checking settings, AVS/CVV rules, or risk threshold rules in your Braintree Control Panel. |
| 400 | Transaction error returned by processor | Hard Decline | A processor decline indicates that the customer's bank has refused the transaction request. Sometimes you can tell why it was declined by reading the response code, but only the customer's bank can confirm the specific reason. The most common reasons for declines are: Incorrect credit card number or expiration date. |
| 410 | Invalid merchant configuration | Info | The merchant information that was inputted is incorrect in some type of capacity |
| 411 | Merchant account is inactive | Info | The merchant login ID or password is invalid or the account is inactive. If you are using Authorize.net as a gateway then usually this means the account set up is not finalized or the merchant account is not set up completely. Usually a call to authorize.net or signing in to your Authorize.net account will fix it. |
| 420 | Communication error | Info | Communication errors can result from poor line conditions such as static or noise, call waiting on the recipient line, lack of available memory on the remote machine, power interruption on either end of the transmission, a busy signal on the recipient line, or incompatibility between the two machines. |
| 421 | Communication error with issuer | Info | There was an issue contacting the issuer of the card and another attempt to contact this issuer is recommended |
| 430 | Duplicate transaction at processor | Info | a charge was ran twice and may need to be voided, refunded depending on the curcumstances. Duplicate transaction times can be shortened if requested. |
| 440 | Processor format error | Info | The processor encountered a processor format error. |
| 441 | Invalid transaction information | Hard Decline | Invalid transaction. This code is often returned from the issuer when they do not accept the transaction. This can possibly be when a transaction for the same amount and merchant is attempted multiple times quickly for the same card. The card holder should contact their issuing bank. |
| 460 | Processor feature not available | Info | The feature requested is not currently available, but may be requested, and may have steps taken to make available |
| 461 | Unsupported card type | Hard Decline | An invalid card number means that the card is likely closed at the card issuing bank and is effectively an invalid card. If the cardholder says that the card is not closed, then the cardholder should contact the card issuing bank to resolve the issue. |