Having a credit card payment declined is frustrating for customers and businesses. Customers who are unable to complete a purchase might feel disappointed or embarrassed and waste time searching for another payment method. For business owners, a credit card decline can result in losing the sale, or, even worse, losing any future business from that customer, due to the negative experience.

Credit cards are a major part of everyday life. In 2025, 82% of US adults had a credit card. While it's not possible for businesses to entirely avoid credit card declines, understanding why they happen can help businesses create a simpler payment process for their customers. Here's what you should know about credit card declines and how you can reduce them for your business.

Key takeaways

• Credit card declines happen when the authorisation process fails somewhere between the vendor, the payment processor, and the card issuer, and issuers assign each decline a specific code that indicates the reason.

• Declines fall into two categories: soft declines, which are temporary and worth retrying, and hard declines, which are permanent and should prompt customers to use a different payment method.

• Businesses can lower their decline rate by strengthening fraud protection, accepting digital wallets, collecting accurate billing information, and simplifying the checkout experience.

What is a credit card decline?

Credit card declines occur when customers are unable to complete a credit card payment, due to one or more failures in the authorisation process. This can happen because of problems with the vendor, the payment-processing platform, or the credit card issuer.

What are credit card decline codes?

The credit card issuer approves or declines the card transaction. When a charge fails, the issuer sends an error code to the business. These credit card decline codes can help businesses understand why a payment hasn't gone through.

Each code, which is a short numeric or alphanumeric identifier, corresponds to a specific reason for the decline, such as insufficient funds, an expired card, or suspected fraud. These codes give businesses a starting point for figuring out what went wrong and how to respond.

Common credit card decline codes

Below is a list of credit card decline codes for the most common scenarios that result in a rejected payment:

• Code 51 - Insufficient funds: The cardholder does not have enough money to cover the transaction in the account associated with the credit card. For credit cards, Code 51 typically means the cardholder has reached their credit limit. For debit cards, it means the available balance is too low to cover the transaction.
  
• Code 65 - Exceeds withdrawal limit: The transaction exceeds a withdrawal, spending, or activity limit set on the card, often a daily or per-transaction cap, or a maximum number of transactions allowed in a given period. Depending on the issuer, this can overlap with credit limit or balance issues, but it's primarily a frequency or amount ceiling.
  
• Code 54 - Expired card: The credit card is expired and is no longer a valid payment method.
  
• Code 14 - Incorrect card number: This error code typically occurs during online transactions, when the card number entered does not match the real credit card number (likely due to human error).
  
• Code 63 - Security violation: The transaction failed a security check during authorisation. A CVC mismatch is a common trigger for this code, but Code 63 can also reflect an AVS (billing address) mismatch, a failed 3D Secure authentication, or another security-credential issue, so it's broader than a CVC error alone.
  
• Code 41 - Lost card, pick up: The cardholder has reported the card as lost, and all transactions have been frozen to prevent fraudulent charges.
  
• Code 43 - Stolen card, pick up: The cardholder has informed the issuer that the card has been stolen, so future transactions will be denied.
  
• Code 05 - Do not honour: The issuing bank has declined the transaction without providing a specific reason. Unlike codes such as 51 or 54 that point to a precise cause, Code 05 is a generic catch-all decline.
  

In addition to the common codes listed above, there are other credit card decline codes for when a charge fails. We have compiled a complete list of error codes for Stripe customers here.

How card authorisation works

When a customer pays with a credit card, the business's point-of-sale (POS) software receives the card details and sends them to the issuing bank to get the transaction request approved. This is done through credit card networks, such as Visa and Mastercard. Once the issuing bank receives the request, they will verify that the card is valid and that the cardholder has sufficient funds left to cover the amount of the sale.

If everything looks good, the issuing bank will approve the transaction and send an authorisation code to the business. If the transaction is rejected, the bank will send an error code and the credit card will be declined.

Card authorisation is not the same as settlement, although the two are sometimes conflated. Authorisation is the real-time approval step described above, when the issuing bank confirms the card is valid and reserves the funds, but no money has moved yet. Settlement is the separate process that happens later, typically one to three working days after the transaction, where those funds are transferred from the cardholder's bank to the business's account. A decline happens at the authorisation stage, before settlement is reached.

What businesses should do when a credit card is declined

Credit card declines can be a challenge for business owners, whether they're selling online, in person, or both. Depending on the error code, business owners can take the following actions when a credit card decline occurs:

• Ask the customer to try using the card again, in case the decline was caused by human error. This is a helpful tactic when the decline code is associated with incorrect information, such as a mismatch of CVC code, PIN, postcode, or card number.

• Recommend to the customer that they use another payment method. This is the best solution when the decline code indicates a card has been reported lost or stolen, or if there are insufficient funds to cover the transaction.

• Suggest to the customer that they contact the card issuer to find out why the credit card has been declined. This is the best option if the error codes tell you the card has been declined for an unknown reason.

Soft vs. hard decline

How businesses can reduce credit card declines

While credit card declines cannot be completely eliminated, businesses can decrease the number of failed transactions with a few key strategies.

Reduce fraud-related declines with strong security

Credit card declines happen when issuers detect a potential risk for fraud. Businesses with high chargeback rates – the number of customers contacting the bank to dispute a transaction – will have a higher number of credit card declines, since issuers will consider them higher risk.

To reduce chargeback rates for your business, it's important to establish a robust security system to fight fraud. Stripe Radar uses AI to analyse data and identify suspicious transactions. By interpreting network partner data, customer payment information, and checkout flows, the system can effectively detect high-risk activity without blocking legitimate payments, so your customer sales remain unaffected. Businesses selling internationally should be aware that cross-border transactions tend to see more declines than domestic ones, since issuers often apply extra scrutiny to purchases that don't match a cardholder's typical location or currency.

Not every decline needs a customer to take action. Soft declines, such as insufficient funds or a temporary issuer outage, often succeed if retried at the right time rather than immediately. Smart, automated retry logic can time these retries intelligently while avoiding excessive attempts, which can trigger network penalties or fraud flags. Network tokenisation is another way to cut down on avoidable declines. It replaces a card's actual number with a secure, network-issued token that updates automatically when a card is reissued or replaced, so outdated card details don't cause a transaction to fail.

Accept digital-wallet payments

Digital wallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, use two-factor authentication, which requires a password or biometric ID to complete a transaction. This additional layer of security means payments that use these tools have a higher acceptance rate from card issuers. Businesses that use Stripe can easily accept Apple Pay from customers. Businesses operating in regions where Strong Customer Authentication is required, such as Europe, will also want 3D Secure in place. This adds a similar verification step directly with the card issuer and tends to improve approval rates, since issuers have more confidence in an authenticated transaction.

Offer alternative payment methods at checkout

A card decline doesn't have to mean a lost sale. Giving customers more than one way to pay means they can fall back on another method, such as bank debits, buy-now-pay-later options, or local payment methods relevant to their country, instead of abandoning checkout entirely.

Make sure your billing information is accurate

If your business has an online checkout process, accurate customer data can reduce credit card declines. On your checkout page, try to collect as much billing information as possible (such as billing address and postcode) so that the card issuer can verify quickly that a payment request is legitimate.

For subscription businesses specifically, expired or reissued cards are a common (and often avoidable) source of declines. Visa Account Updater and Mastercard Automatic Billing Updater are card-network services that automatically push refreshed card details, such as a new expiry date or card number, to enrolled merchants whenever a customer's card changes. This means recurring charges keep going through without the customer having to update their payment information themselves.

Simplify checkout to reduce friction

If you want to build a smoother checkout process for your customers, Stripe can help. Our Checkout page is a ready-made interface that makes the process as simple as possible. A number of features are built specifically to prevent the kinds of errors that cause declines: address lookup helps ensure billing details match what the issuer has on file (reducing AVS-related declines), real-time card validation catches typos in the card number or expiry date before the payment is even submitted, and credit card issuer recognition helps format and route the transaction correctly for that issuer.

Stripe also supports in-store payments through Terminal, which can be integrated with your online sales channels. It is compatible with Stripe's suite of products, such as Payments, Connect, and Billing.

Creating a simple, secure payment process is important for protecting your business – and your customers – from the hassle of credit card declines. Stripe's payments platform offers a range of software and APIs to help you grow your sales. Learn more about how Stripe can make a difference for your business.

How Stripe Payment Links can help

Stripe Payment Links is a no-code solution that allows you to quickly create and share secure payment pages online.

Payment Links can help you:

• Get paid faster: Share custom payment links with customers and accept one-time or recurring payments instantly, without invoicing or complex integrations.

• Improve conversion: Boost payment conversion rates with a mobile-optimised design and streamlined checkout experience.

• Save time: Easily create, customise and share payment pages through the Stripe Dashboard – with minimal coding.

• Expand globally: Accept payments from customers worldwide, with Adaptive Pricing localising prices for 135+ currencies and offering local payment methods that are ready to use.

• Access other Stripe products: Integrate Payment Links with other Stripe products – such as Stripe Billing, Stripe Radar and Stripe Tax – to add more payment capabilities.

• Maintain control: Customise the look and feel of your payment pages to match your brand, and track all your payment activities in one place.

Learn more about how Payment Links makes it easy to accept online payments, or get started today.

FAQs about credit card declines