Why transactions do not complete.
WHAT THE COMMON CAUSES ARE
Insufficient funds Card expired or blocked Limits exceeded Authentication not completed Issuer declining for risk reasons Technical failure at any participant Customer abandonment during authentication
WHAT A SOFT DECLINE IS
A refusal that may succeed on retry: temporary limits, transient issuer problems.
WHAT A HARD DECLINE IS
A refusal that will not succeed: closed account, stolen card.
WHY THE DISTINCTION MATTERS
Retrying a hard decline damages your standing with the issuer.
WHAT TO DO
Read the response code, and retry only soft declines.
WHAT RETRY STRATEGY WORKS
Spaced attempts, limited in number, at times more likely to succeed.
WHAT TO NEVER DO
Retry immediately and repeatedly.
WHY
It appears as attack traffic and may block the card entirely.
WHAT AUTHENTICATION ABANDONMENT MEANS
The customer starting a verification step and not completing it.
WHAT CAUSES IT
Slow redirects, unclear instructions, network failure, and messages not arriving.
WHAT TO MEASURE
Completion rate at each step, not only final success.
WHERE MOST LOSS OCCURS
Between initiation and authentication completion.
