In April 2021, Visa introduced rules for decline code reasons. These reasons are grouped into different categories.
Category 1 - Issuer Will Never Approve
Codes in this category indicate that the card is invalid, never existed, or blocked.
Authorization Codes
03 - Invalid merchant
04 - Pickup card
07 - Pickup card, special conditions
12 - Invalid transaction
15 - No such issuer
41 - Pickup card lost card
43 - Pickup card stolen card
57 - Transaction not permitted to cardholder
62 - Restricted card
78 - No account
93 - Transaction cannot be completed
R0 - Stop payment order
R1 - Revocation of authorization order
R3 - Revocation of all authorization
Retry Strategy
Do not attempt to reauthorize these transactions. Cardholders can be advised to contact their bank for further information.
Requirement and Fee Implication
Any reattempts on transactions that decline with one of the above codes will receive a fee from Visa. The fee is $0.10 per reattempt and will display on your statement with a "VS RAF Excessive Reattempts Domestic*" description. An additional $0.05 per transaction will apply for cross-border transactions and show on statements as "VS RAF Excessive Reattempts Cross-Border."
Category 2 - Issuer Cannot Approve at this Time
Codes in this category can indicate several reasons that the issuer cannot authorize the purchase at the time. However, they may authorize it at a later time. Examples might include credit risk, issuer velocity controls of the consumer, or temporary system outages.
Authorization Codes
19 - Reenter transaction
51 - Insufficient funds
59 - Suspected fraud
61 - Exceeds withdrawal amount limits
65 - Exceeds withdrawal frequency
75 - Allowable PIN-entry tries exceeded
86 - ATM malfunction
91 - Issuer or switch is inoperative
96 - System malfunction
N3 - Cash service not available
N4 - Cash request exceeds issuer limit
Retry Strategy
Attempts can be made to reauthorize these transactions.
Requirement and Fee Implication
No more than 15 continuous reattempts are allowed within 30 days for codes in this category. Any further attempts are defined as excessive reattempts and will be assessed a fee from Visa. The $0.10 charge for reattempts over 15 will display on your statement with a "VS RAF Excessive Reattempts Domestic*" description. An additional $0.05 per transaction will apply for cross-border transactions and show on statements as "VS RAF Excessive Reattempts Cross-Border."
Category 3 - Issuer Cannot Approve based on Details Provided
Codes in this category indicate that the issuer cannot approve based on the details provided, such as an incorrect Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2) or expiration date.
Authorization Codes
14 - Invalid account number
54 - Expired card
55 - Incorrect PIN
82 - Negative Online CAMCardholder
N7 - Decline for CVV2 Failure-Visa
Retry Strategy
Attempts can be made to reauthorize these transactions. Before another attempt, obtain additional or updated information from your customer based on the response.
Requirement and Fee Implication
No more than 15 continuous reattempts are allowed within 30 days for codes in this category. Any further attempts are defined as excessive reattempts and will be assessed a fee from Visa. The $0.10 charge for reattempts over 15 will display on your statement with a "VS RAF Excessive Reattempts Domestic*" description. An additional $0.05 per transaction will apply for cross-border transactions and show on statements as "VS RAF Excessive Reattempts Cross-Border."
Category 4 - Generic Response Codes
All other Response Codes, many of which are technical and limited value/meaning to merchants. Issuers will be subject to enforcement actions when not following rules to use codes in Categories 1-3 and limiting codes in Category 4.
Authorization Codes
All others
Retry Strategy
Attempts can be made to reauthorize these transactions.
Requirement and Fee Implication
No more than 15 continuous reattempts are allowed within 30 days for codes in this category. Any further attempts are defined as excessive reattempts and will be assessed a fee from Visa. The $0.10 charge for reattempts over 15 will display on your statement with a "VS RAF Excessive Reattempts Domestic*" description. An additional $0.05 per transaction will apply for cross-border transactions and show on statements as "VS RAF Excessive Reattempts Cross-Border."
Reporting and Reconciliation
To view authorization declines in Merchant Manager:
- Go to Transactions. Select the filter icon and select Transaction Type. Set it to Authorization. Then click Add Filter.
- Select the filter icon again and select Status. Set it to Declined. Then click Add Filter.
- Select the date range filter.
- Set the To date to the third Tuesday of the billing month.
- Set the From date 30 days before the To date.
- Download the report, create a pivot table of the account number, and count the number of declines.
Any declined cards greater than 15 times will experience the fees.
*Domestic transactions are defined as where the issuer and the merchant are in the same country.
