Why do my customers’ payments fail, and how can I fix it?

There are several reasons why a charge might fail, often categorized by specific response codes. Understanding these reasons is key to recovering lost revenue:

• Insufficient Funds: The most common cause. The customer’s bank account lacks the necessary balance. You should ask the customer to top up their account or use a different card.

• Incorrect Card Information: The customer may have mistyped the PAN (card number), expiration date, or CVV. Using 4Geeks' hosted payment pages helps minimize this by validating input formats automatically.

• Declined by Issuer (Do Not Honor): The customer’s bank blocked the transaction for unspecified security reasons or because it fits a fraud pattern. The customer must contact their bank to authorize the transaction.

Blocked Payments (Fraud Prevention): 4Geeks Payments includes Fraud Prevention tools. If a transaction is flagged as high-risk (e.g., suspicious IP address), it may be blocked automatically to protect you from chargebacks.

Invalid Billing Address (AVS Mismatch): If the ZIP code provided doesn't match the one on file with the card issuer, the transaction may be rejected.

How to prevent and fix this:

• Enable 3D Secure: This shifts liability and often reduces declines by verifying the user's identity via their bank app.

• Check the Logs: View the specific decline code in your Transaction History.

• Reprocess Carefully: If a payment fails, do not spam the retry button, as this can look like a brute-force attack. Contact the customer and ask them to update their details or clear the issue with their bank.