Each transaction has a response code that displays why a transaction was declined or approved. From the transactions page, you are able to click on specific transactions to view the details.
Here are some code types:
- Approved - transaction was successfully charged.
- Soft decline (20,000 range) - is executed by a credit card processor when the issuing bank refuses the transaction, typically a temporary issue.
- Hard decline (30,000 - 40,000 range) - is a message communicating that the consumer’s credit or debit card is not authorized to make the payment. This is usually linked to fraud.
By clicking on the Transaction ID link, (as shown below) the page is re-directed to the details of the transaction.
When viewing the details of any transaction, the status is shown at the top right of the page. A status of "DECLINED" will show in red text and a status of "CHARGED" will show in green text. The field to focus on is the "Response code", this shows the code for the transaction with the explanation of why the transaction failed.
Within the Payment Card and Failed Payment Recovery Industry, there are many transaction codes that occur. Listed below are some of the most common error codes we see.
Charged Transaction
With this response code the transaction was approved.
| Response code | Reason |
| 10000 - Approved | The transaction was successful. |
Declined Transactions due to Cardholder’s Account
For declined transactions with the following codes, the underlying reasons for declining are due to the cardholder’s account, the credit card issuer, or the merchant account declining this particular transaction.
| Response code | Reason |
| 20003 - Declined - do not honor | The cardholder has been declined at this time. |
| 20012 - Re-enter transaction or transaction has been expired | The transaction did not process and needs to be reattempted. |
| 20022 - Bank decline | There is an issue with the cardholder’s account and the bank has declined this card at this time. |
| 20023 - The card has been declined due to insufficient funds | There is an issue with the cardholder’s account balance and the bank has declined for this card at this time. |
| 20043 - Transaction cannot be completed | This transaction failed at this time. This issue is likely tied to the cardholder's account. |
| 30006 - Restricted Card - Pick Up | The cardholder has had this card stolen/lost or the issuing bank has closed their account. This transaction cannot be completed. |
| 30008 - The bank has requested that you retrieve the card from the cardholder - it may be a lost card | The cardholder has had this card lost or stolen. This transaction cannot be completed. |
| 30009 - The bank has requested that you retrieve the card from the cardholder - it may be a stolen card | The cardholder has had this card lost or stolen. This transaction cannot be completed. |
| 30012 - Invalid card number | The card number used on this transaction is not valid. This transaction cannot be completed. |
| 30029 - Transaction not permitted to that cardholder | The type of transaction being attempted is not allowed by the cardholder's account. The customer would need to contact their credit card issuer in order allow this type of transaction. This transaction cannot be completed. |
| 30031 – Suspected fraud | This cardholder is suspected of fraud. This transaction cannot be completed. |
Declined Transactions due to Merchant Gateway
For transactions with the following codes, they were declined due to an issue with the Merchant gateway that was used. On the same detailed transaction page, we can see another field “Payment gateway” which will tell us which payment gateway on FlexPay was used in this transaction.
| Response code | Reason |
| 20002 - Invalid or inactive merchant | There is an issue with the merchant gateway account used. You should contact your gateway provider for assistance. |
| 20057 - Your merchant account authentication failed | There is an issue with the merchant gateway account used. You should contact your gateway provider for assistance. |
| 20075 - Transaction limit for merchant exceeded | Your Monthly transaction limit for this merchant account has been exceeded. |
| 50130 - No gateways are configured to process the submitted card type | There is an issue with all your gateways for this specific company. Or certain card types are not enabled on the gateways to transact. Contact us for assistance in setting up your gateways properly at [email protected] |
Transactions previously created on an external CRM or FlexPay are failing
If you manually created a transaction on an external CRM or FlexPay itself you may see one of the following response codes if it was incorrectly input.
| Response code | Reason |
| 20046 - System error | A general error occurred with this transaction. Retrying the transaction may result in it processing. |
| 20047 - Other / Unidentified response | This is a general error response code. Retrying the transaction may result in it processing. |
| 20076 - Transaction required data are missing or invalid | A field is missing from this transaction. You may have not filled in the customer name, etc. Retrying the transaction may result in it processing. |
| 30016 - Error / Invalid parameters in the request | A field in this transaction was incorrectly entered. There may be issue with the external CRM used with creating this transaction when it was sent to FlexPay. This transaction cannot be completed. |
| 50129 - Field 'MerchantTransactionId' must be unique | When the transaction was created it was made with the same “Merchant transaction Id” as another transaction. Make this unique each time you create a transaction. This transaction cannot be completed. |