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What are payment method decline codes?

If a payment is rejected, some processors surface the decline reason of the underlying card network or payment method. Where possible, Primer maps these decline reasons to our unified mapping standard. Additionally, to facilitate precise decline analysis across your payment stack, Primer exposes the underlying decline code in a unified way across all supported processors.

Payment method decline codes

Below are the fields we expose on the Payments API when a payment is not successful: These fields are returned in the output of the Payments App in Workflows, as well as the API response and the payment status webhook. For example:
JSON
What is the difference between the payment and transaction fields?A Primer payment can have multiple processor transactions.
  • The payment fields represent the latest/final values
  • The transaction fields represent the values for that specific processor transaction
For example, if a payment is first declined on Stripe then successfully authorized on Adyen using fallback, the payment level reflects the final successful transaction, while the transaction fields shows all attempts.
These fields are also available in the output of the Payments App in Workflows, enabling you to run specific actions based on the underlying decline reasons.

Supported processors and card networks

The result codes are exposed for payments made with Visa and Mastercard on the following processors:
  • Stripe
  • Braintree
  • Adyen
Please reach out to us directly via our Service Desk if you need support for additional processors.

Card network decline codes

Mastercard

Visa