Decline Reason Codes tell a story – but which one?
I love a good story. My favorite stories seem fictional until that one moment when it’s revealed that it was all based on a true story. That tends to make the entire story hit differently. But what about the stories that are the other way around?
Decline reason codes for card processing can sometimes feel like that kind of ‘other way around’ approach to storytelling. The easiest place to see that is the rare but ever popular ‘NSF’ auth response for a transaction credit. So fun and so fictional-feeling! So how can these all seem spot on and wrong at the same time? It’s just easier, that’s how.
There are ISO Standards for card response codes – Specifically Data Element 39 of ISO Standard 8583. There are also EMV / Network Enhanced Response Codes. And some vendors have internal codes on top of these standards. Other systems are still using codes from prior ISO versions (and/or grouping like kinds together) to avoid expensive or difficult system updates. Yet other vendors are compressing codes and sub-codes into a single field for convenience. In more situations, there is not a real code that says what needs saying – so let’s pick…um…this one? Up next is layering and re-compressing all of these codes as they pass through the payments chain. Now – what story is being told, by whom, and how does a merchant react? Are you inside the box or pawing at the outside?
Or is it time for a Decline Code Analysis?