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Why was this transaction declined?

Credit card transactions may be declined for a variety of reasons, across the entire chain of organizations involved in the behind-the-scenes credit card processing.

Step 1:

First, check to see if other credit cards are processing. In the Account section, run a Journal report restricted to credit card transactions only, then look at the most recent transactions to see if there are successful credit card payments during the affected time.

Step 2:

If other cards are processing, it is best to login to your Payment Gateway account to see the reason why the credit card transaction was rejected. The reasons may include:

  1. The "Test" Mode setting in your payment gateway account must be set to OFF to process live transactions (if applicable for your gateway).
  2. Cardholder has reached their overall credit limit or their daily limit.
  3. Cardholder has entered the incorrect data (card #, expiry date, CVV2 security code, card type, cardholder name)
  4. The address on the card does not match the billing address submitted in the billing information of the registration. If the address is outside the US and/or Canada, the transaction may be automatically rejected as the address cannot be matched by US and/or Canadian banks. In this case you may need to change the settings on your Payment Gateway to disable AVS (Address Verfication Software) checking.
  5. Debit cards will only process when they have also been set up to be used as a credit card.
  6. Some business credit cards may be restricted to certain expenses, such as travel or lodging, but restricted from other industry categories, such as retail and other online services vendors.
  7. The credit card may not be enabled for internet transactions.

If all credit cards are being declined and are not showing up in your Payment Gateway rejection reports:

  1. The payment gateway password / transaction key which you provided to GiftTool has either changed or is incorrect. Please contact GiftTool at 1-877-665-8665 (Select Option 2 for Support) as soon as possible.  [For security reasons, never send your payment gateway access information by email.]
  2. The payment gateway may be setup to block IP Addresses, preventing a connection with the GiftTool servers. Please change the settings to allow the following GiftTool server IP addresses: 66.207.199.234
  3. You may have exceeded your monthly volume limit with your internet Merchant Service Provider (MSP). Please contact your MSP/Gateway provider to check and adjust your monthly volume limits. Once these changes are made, transactions should process normally.
  4. NOTE: The "Test" Mode setting in your payment gateway account must be set to OFF to process live transactions (if applicable for your gateway).

If a refund won’t process:

  1. For recent transactions, a refund cannot be issued if the original transaction remains unsettled. Wait until the original transaction has settled before trying again.
  2. Make sure the expiration date is still valid. If the expiration date on the card has passed, it will not allow a refund transaction (even if the charge went through earlier when the expiration date had not been reached).
  3. Your payment gateway may deny refunds for transactions older than 3 or 6 months.
  4. A charge equal to or less than an amount of a refund transaction may have already been settled to the customer's account.
  5. Some business credit cards may be restricted by denying refunds.

For Paymentech Orbital:

  • If you have recently setup the connection to Paymentech Orbital and have not successfully processed ANY credit card transactions, please make sure you have contacted Paymentech to associate your Orbital account with the following GiftTool server IP address:  66.207.199.234

For all other Payment Gateways:

  • Please refer to their help documentation when logging into your gateway account.



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