Stripe Generic Decline Code: Meaning, Stats, and How To Fix?
Generic Decline refers to when transactions are refused by banks or financial institutions. You can let the customer know and make it easy for them to enter a new card. It's a soft decline which means you can retry within certain limits.
What Does Generic Decline Code Mean?
A generic decline in Stripe refers to a situation where a payment attempt is declined for an unspecified reason.
This type of decline does not provide specific details about why the transaction failed, making it challenging for both merchants and customers to identify the underlying issue.
The decline code originates from the card issuing bank and is further grouped by card networks. Stripe, Paddle, Braintree further group these codes and return a code to you.
Common Reasons for Generic Decline Error
Insufficient Funds: One of the most frequent causes of declines is that the cardholder does not have enough funds available in their account to complete the transaction.
Incorrect Card Information: Errors in entering card details, such as the card number, expiration date, or CVV code, can lead to declines. This is particularly common in online transactions where manual entry is required.
Fraud Detection Systems: Stripe and card issuers use automated fraud detection systems that may block transactions if they exhibit suspicious behavior, such as high-value purchases or a sudden spike in transaction volume. This can result in a generic decline even if the transaction is legitimate.
Card Not Activated: If a card has not been activated by the cardholder, any attempt to use it will result in a decline.
Expired Card: Transactions attempted with an expired card will be declined. Customers need to ensure their card is valid and up to date.
Technical Issues: Network connectivity problems or temporary outages on the issuer's side can also lead to generic declines. These issues are often resolved quickly but can disrupt transactions.
Multiple Declines in a Row: If a card has been declined multiple times in a short period, the issuing bank may block further attempts to prevent potential fraud, resulting in a generic decline.
Issuer Policies: Some banks have conservative policies regarding online transactions, leading to declines for reasons that may not be explicitly stated. This can include internal risk assessments that vary from one bank to another.
Payment Gateway Restrictions: Sometimes, the payment gateway itself may have restrictions or blocks based on its own fraud detection algorithms, which can lead to declines that are not visible to the merchant or the customer.
Generic Decline Is Rarer
There are efforts made by Visa, Mastercard, and other card networks to encourage more specific decline codes which would help merchants and customers resolve errors faster. There's been a steady industry over the years.
As you can see, generic decline is not in the top 5 decline codes we see often.
If you want to reduce involuntary churn, focusing on Generic decline code will be one piece of the puzzle and there is a lot more that you can do with Churnkey.
The number one question to answer is, "how much are you losing due to involuntary churn like generic decline". Churnkey's free churn metrics can help answer that question and guide your churn reduction strategy.
Types of Generic Declines
Declines can be categorized into two main types:
- Soft Declines: These are temporary holds on transactions, often due to issues like insufficient funds or network connectivity problems. They can sometimes be resolved by retrying the transaction.
- Hard Declines: These are more serious and indicate that the issuer will not authorize the transaction, often due to expired card or other significant issues.
Learn more about types of declines:
Khushi Lunkad
How to Fix Generic Declines?
Even with all the ambiguity around the Generic Decline code, there are multiple ways to manage it if you're a subscription business. Churnkey recovers up to 89% of the failed payments with its failed payment suite of products.
1. Retry The Payment
Context: Generic Decline is a soft decline, which means that it can be retried. If it were a hard decline like 'fraud', you would not be allowed to retry the payment.
Caution: Be aware of retry limits—Mastercard allows 35 attempts and Visa 15 within 30 days. Exceeding these limits can lead to fines as high as $15,000.
Solution:
- Before you retry, double check your Stripe Radar settings. Stripe Radar can block payments and their support might not be able to have visibility into your account to be able to confirm.
- Use Churnkey's Precision Retries, which recover up to 89% of failed payments without heavy engineering resources. We continuously improve Precision Retries to be more precise. It listens to the decline reason provided by the card issuer, and will only retry cards conditionally based on this reason. For instance, we'll retry on insufficient funds, do not honor, generic decline, or try again later, but if we get a decline code like stolen card or card velocity exceeded, Churnkey won't attempt further retries through either precision retries or email-attached auto retries.
2. Request Card Change
Context: Address expired cards or virtual cards by asking customers to enter a different card. This requires customer action but is most likely to succeed simply because a new card is added in.
Caution: Ensure the process is seamless with no logins or multi-step verifications.
Solution: Churnkey provides a frictionless dunning (email + SMS) platform that allows customers to update their cards easily, with options for advanced personalization (plan name, subscription age, trialing, etc.).
3. Leverage Offers and Partial Payments
Context: Sometimes customers will quietly let their cards expire on purpose. Offer discounts and partial payments that auto-apply to their account.
Caution: Manage potential system abuse when offering discounts.
Solution: Implement Churnkey's Dunning Offers to entice customers to update their cards with incentives like partial payments or automatic discount codes. Churnkey has anti-abuse built in.
4. Feature Blocking
Context: Blocked product access can prompt action. Users can escalate this issue to their billing manager.
Caution: Prevent unpaid usage when doing so. Depending on your settings, users may be prevented from accessing certain features.
Solution: With Churnkey, you can dynamically block feature access for past-due accounts. And customers can update their payment details directly inline without navigating elsewhere.
5. Monitor Metrics
Context: Since generic_decline isn't clear why a payment fails, what you can rely on are metrics. Try different offers and keep a close eye on the metrics to see what changes. Use metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your strategies.
Solution: You don’t have time to parse overloaded charts and confusing terminology. Churnkey’s best-in-class analytics speak plainly—helping you and your team track boosted revenue, offer uptake, recovery rates, and more.
Case Studies
1. Veed.io
Veed.io successfully leveraged tailored discounts and pause options, saving nearly 5,000 canceling customers. Utilizing Churnkey's Precision Retries and Dunning Offers, they recovered over 14,000 failed payments, achieving a 35% increase in their save rate. Read Veed.io's case study.
2. Sudowrite
Sudowrite boosted revenue by over six figures within a year across various churn channels by integrating Churnkey voluntary and involuntary suite into their operations. Read Sudowrite's case study.
Common Errors and Misconceptions with Generic Decline
Common errors or misconceptions when dealing with the generic_decline code include:
- Assuming it's a permanent block: Many believe the decline is final, but it can be due to temporary issues like insufficient funds or withdrawal limit exceeded.
- Retrying the transaction repeatedly: This can trigger alerts and further declines. It’s better to stay under the limits, contact the card issuer, or use a different payment method.
- Blaming the merchant: Customers often think the issue is with the merchant, but it's typically due to the card issuer's policies.
- Ignoring the need to contact the bank: Some users don’t realize that contacting their bank can resolve the issue, especially if it's due to security concerns or a need for additional verification.
- Misunderstanding the decline reason: Generic Decline is a general code, and its exact cause isn't always clear, leading to confusion about the appropriate next steps.
FAQs
What does Generic_Decline mean on credit card?
Generic Decline is a decline code used by banks to indicate that a transaction has been rejected. The customer needs to call the bank and learn why their payment is rejected. You could also retry the payment.
What does debit not available generic decline mean?
Typically, generic_decline refers to a declined transaction when the bank or the card issuing network (Visa, Mastercard) rejects a payment. This code usually means the card issuer could not approve the transaction, but the specific reason may vary.
