Stripe payment failures

The first thing you'll want to do is to check the logs of your payment. For a scheduled payment that failed, you'll have access to this log via the invoice itself! If you head to Customers > The profile of the customer who had a failed payment > Invoices (tab) you can see a history of all the invoices that the customer has, and they'll be marked with the relevant status - look for the one that is unpaid and click on it's Linked transactions, then click on the resultant arrow facing right to view the log.

Or navigate to Logs > Transactions to view a history of all your company transactions, including those from a new customer having issues signing up. Once you've found the individual transaction you want to see, click on the '>' arrow to view the log.

This will open the transaction log's details in a menu from the right-hand side of the screen, where you'll be able to see all of the information we have received about the transaction from your payment gateway.

To find out more on the reason why the payment failed or declined, click on the Payment gateway response code section to open it. You will be shown the error code and any additional details we've received.

Now we'll go through some of the most common reasons for failure, and how you can help resolve them!

Amount_too_small : Specified amount is too small

In this scenario, it means the amount you're trying to charge the customer does not meet the minimum requirement for Stripe to process the payment. The minimum amount is $0.50 or the equivalent charge currency. You will need to up the cost of your payment to meet the minimum allowed.

Api_key_expired: The API key has expired

In this scenario, it means that the information provided to Billsby to integrate your Stripe account is either outdated or was inputted incorrectly. if you receive this error, all you need to do is re-integrate your gateway! You can do so by following these steps:

• Navigate to Settings > Configuration > Payment Gateways:
• Press the + button on your chosen payment gateway
• Fill in the relevant details and press Add New Gateway (Rename the new payment gateway as New Payment Gateway)
• Make sure to save changes.
• Navigate to Settings > Configuration > Currencies
• Assign the currency to the new payment gateway
• Go back to the payment gateway page and delete the old payment gateway

Authentication_required: The payment requires authentication

In some circumstances, a transaction may need additional authentication from the customer in the form of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). SCA is a requirement for authenticating online payments that were introduced in connection with the EU’s revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2).
Essentially, it requires banks to request additional forms of validation to confirm that your customers are who they say they are, through two-factor authentication.
It has been created to make online payments within Europe more secure, reducing the chances of payment fraud.

SCA will be required where the merchant’s payment services provider and the customer’s bank or card provider are both located in the European Economic Area (EEA). If either is located outside the EEA, the payment services provider is required to use its ‘best efforts' to apply SCA - but it won’t be mandatory.

Please contact our Support team so that we can help you enable SCA on your Stripe payment gateway.

Expired_card : The card has expired

This means that the customer's card has expired. If they're an existing customer, they need to update their payment card on file. They can update their own payment details using our self-service account management modal, or you can send them a Payment details request. If this is a new customer trying to checkout for the first time, they may want to use a different card or check that the expiry date they used is correct.

Generic_decline : Generic card decline

This is one of the most common decline codes - but it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your set-up like some previous errors. In this scenario, the customer's card-issuing bank declined the transaction for some unknown reason to us or Stripe. You'll want to get the customer to contact their bank for further resolution.

Incorrect_zip : The address is incorrect

You may get the error that the billing address isn't correct. It's important to note that the address you or the customer provides to Billsby must be the Billing Address assigned to the card - This may mean that the customer's card is registered at a separate address, and as such when you're re-entering the address you'll want to use that address rather than the one the customer is currently living at. Additionally, it could mean the address has been entered incorrectly on certain lines.

Insufficent_funds: The card has insufficient funds.

This means that the card the customer used has insufficient funds to complete the transaction. Your customer may want to try an alternative payment method, such as using another card, or re-try the payment again once the current card has enough funds for the purchase.

Invalid_cvc: The CVC number is incorrect

This means that the CVC the customer entered is incorrect. They will need to check the card information used and try again with the correct CVC number.

Other issues

In the event that none of these errors match your error, please refer to Stripe's Error codes or Declined codes documentation to find any additional information on why your payment might have failed.
You can also reach out directly to Stripe's support team, who will be able to help you resolve any issues with your account.

If you need more help with interpreting your transaction log, please get in contact with our Support team with:

• The last 4 digits of the card
• The last name of the customer on the card
• The Post/ZIP code

And we can help you figure out what's going on and how to resolve it!