Every percentage point of approval rate is revenue you already earned: the customer chose to pay, and something along the chain said no. Here are the levers that move approvals the most, roughly in the order we look at them.
1. Read your declines before you fix anything
Group your declines by response code, issuing country, card brand, card type (debit, credit, prepaid) and BIN. The pattern usually points to the fix. A spike in 05 Do not honour from one country tells a different story to a spike in 51 Insufficient funds. See our guide to decline codes and retries.
2. Send complete, consistent data
Issuers approve what they can recognise. Send the cardholder name, billing address, email, IP, device data and a stable customer ID where the scheme and acquirer support them. Missing or inconsistent fields raise risk scores.
3. Use 3-D Secure where it helps, not everywhere
3DS2 shifts fraud liability and is required for most customer-initiated payments in the EEA and UK. Outside those regions, forcing a challenge on every payment can cost more conversions than it saves. Use frictionless flows, request exemptions (low value, transaction risk analysis, trusted beneficiary) where you qualify, and step up only when risk is high.
4. Switch on network tokens
Network tokens replace the card number with a scheme-issued token that stays valid when a card is reissued. Issuers see them as lower risk, and they cut failures from expired or replaced cards, which matters most for stored cards and subscriptions.
5. Keep stored cards up to date
Account updater services refresh expiry dates and replaced card numbers before you charge them. Combined with tokens, this removes a whole class of avoidable declines.
6. Get your MCC and descriptor right
The merchant category code tells the issuer what you sell. A wrong MCC can trigger blanket declines or, worse, scheme penalties. The descriptor is what the customer sees on their statement: make it recognisable to cut both declines and “I don’t know this charge” disputes.
7. Process locally where you can
Domestic transactions are approved more often than cross-border ones. Local acquiring in your biggest markets, and settling in the customer’s currency, often gives the single biggest lift.
8. Route by performance
Acquirers perform differently by card brand, country and vertical. Smart orchestration sends each payment to the route most likely to approve it, and moves traffic when a route degrades.
9. Retry intelligently, within the rules
Some declines are worth retrying, on another route or at another time. Others never are. Card schemes limit retries and fine merchants who exceed them, so build retry logic on response codes, not hope.
10. Offer an alternative
Some cards will never be approved for some purchases. When a card fails, offer a local method or pay by bank on the same screen instead of a dead end.
Want a second pair of eyes on your decline data? Talk to our team.