Many individuals experience a declined transaction and assume it is an issue on their end, whereas cards can get declined for many other reasons than fund issues.

1. Declined transactions come in two different forms – hard and soft declines.

• A hard decline occurs when the issuing bank does not approve the transaction and a reattempt will not remedy the situation. (What is an issuing bank? An issuing bank is the bank that supplies your credit card such as Visa or American Express.) 

• A soft decline is when the card-issuing bank approves the purchase amount, but the decline stems from another part of the transaction. Examples of a soft decline could be a card reader issue, or a POS software issue. 

It is important to create a streamlined system for your business on how to troubleshoot or address different declined transaction situations in order to provide excellent customer service.

Here are a few ways where you can help remedy this uncomfortable situation – 

2. Make sure the card is valid 

Occasionally, a customer’s credit card is expired, and the transaction will not go through. If the transaction is declined, but the card is valid, you can have the customer use another form of payment to expedite the process and advise them to call their issuing bank to identify the root cause of the declined transaction.

3. Double-check the customer’s information

If you manually entered the credit card information for your customer, make sure that you entered the correct card number, billing address, and zip code. The information must exactly match the cardholder’s account information in order for the sale to go through. It is important to note that you should never write down your customer’s credit card information on anything other than your terminal as writing it down elsewhere can expose your customer to fraudulent activity.  

Quick tip - when entering the card information make sure that you are entering the correct CVV number. For example,  American Express has a four-digit CVV on the front, whereas Visa and Mastercard have a three-digit CVV on the back of the card. This will prevent your customer’s card from getting declined.

4. Check for fraud 

If a customer chooses to pay with a credit card, ask them for a form of identification to confirm their identity. Another reason a card can be declined is if the issuing bank deems the transaction suspicious. Transactions can look suspicious when the transaction is made in a new location, such as when the customer is traveling, or when the customer is attempting a large transaction that is unusual for their buying habits. 

Our team is ready to assist you! Call or text us at 866-444-8585 or send us an email at support@tcbpay.com.