Decline codes explained: when to retry and when to stop

A decline code is the issuer telling you why it said no. Treat every code the same and you either give up on payments you could have saved, or hammer the issuer with retries that make things worse and can cost you scheme fees.

Soft declines: worth another try

Soft declines are temporary or fixable. Common examples:

Code	Meaning	What to do
05	Do not honour	Generic. Retry later or on another route; consider 3DS.
51	Insufficient funds	Retry later, for example after a likely payday. Do not retry instantly.
91 / 96	Issuer or system unavailable	Retry shortly, ideally on another route.
1A / 65	Authentication required (SCA)	Retry with 3-D Secure.
61	Exceeds amount limit	Ask the customer for another method or a smaller amount.

Hard declines: stop

Hard declines will not succeed no matter how often you try. Retrying them wastes money and can trigger penalties.

Code	Meaning
04, 07	Pick up card
14	Invalid card number
41 / 43	Lost / stolen card
54	Expired card (update the card first)
57	Transaction not permitted to cardholder

Listen to merchant advice codes

Mastercard sends merchant advice codes (MAC) with many declines, such as “do not try again” or “try again after a few days”. Visa sends its own reattempt categories. When the scheme tells you not to retry, don’t.

Respect retry limits

Both major schemes limit how many times you may reattempt a declined card and charge merchants who go over. Visa, for example, caps reattempts per card over a 30-day window. Build these limits into your retry engine and log every attempt so you can prove compliance.

A simple retry policy

1. Never retry hard declines or “do not retry” advice codes.
2. Retry 1A/65 once, with 3-D Secure.
3. Retry issuer-unavailable codes once on a different route within minutes.
4. Retry 51 and generic 05 on a schedule (days, not seconds), within scheme limits.
5. After the last attempt, ask the customer to update their card or switch to another method.

Smart orchestration can apply these rules for you across every acquirer. Questions about your decline mix? Get in touch.