Soft Declines


Credit card declines - There is a process that any merchant taking credit card payments from customers over the web should be running on a regular basis. Cybersource has, what they refer to as a "soft decline" for error type 230, meaning the CVN (security code the customer entered is not correct). The order looks successful to the customer paying (if using Cybersource hosted order page and declines), but when you look in the EBC they are in a decline status. This is for type 230 errors only (CVN mismatch).

Most MIT Merchants are using the delivered functionality and that is, the transaction is put into an error status; therefore the transaction is "NOT SETTLED" and requires the Merchant to go in and manually settle it. MIT Merchants need to be reviewing their accounts to ensure that these types of orders are settled or the customer re-entered a valid order. If you have this type of error and are not either getting another valid order or manually settling these, then you will not receive the funds in your bank. Below are the steps you will need to incorporate into your business processes in reviewing your account to ensure your customer has been paid either with another order or you settle the order that was erroneous.

Steps to review:

  1. Sign into the EBC
  2. General Search (change to "Search for reply" and choose "CNV Mismatch", change the "Date Range" to what you need to look at for your transactions).
  3. This will return any of the "soft decline" orders (you will need to determine if you web declines are custom, if these are already being handled by looking up to see if the person entered another order successfully).
  4. Click on the transaction in order to settle it, after you determine you want to settle this and collect the funds.
  5. Click on the "Settle" (Note: This type of error allows you to settle as it has an authorization code. All other errors and declines are hard declines and you are not able to settle without a bank authorization code). See the MIT Merchant website for how to handle "hard decline type 203 if the customer contacts you".