Authorize.net declining many purchases

[MichaelB]

I was wondering if anyone else had this problem recently. We seem to be getting the same error codes each time

2	General decline by card issuing bank or by Merchant Service Provider
3	Referral to card issuing bank for verbal approval

[Alupis]

It happens.

General decline can mean a lot of things - everything from the card has no available funds, to the card is not activated, to a policy decline (like bank doesn't allow online purchases, etc..)... it could even mean the moon is out of alignment for all the merchant can tell.

In the end, it means the card was declined and it's not the fault of the credit card processor nor the website. The customer should be directed to contact their card issuer to resolve the problem... or try another card.

[MichaelB]

Thanks for responding to my post. It seems all of our declined purchases are because of an AVS problem. And since then I have found out that 30% off all attempts to purchase are declined because of the AVS with only 2% bank declined. Do you know what could be causing this AVS problem?

[DeanP]

Do you know what could be causing this AVS problem?

There's only one thing that causes AVS problems: the customer is submitting billing address information that doesn't match what is on file with the card's issuing bank.

After that, the issue can be further complicated by your own payment gateway settings. E.g., whether or not you allow mismatches or partial mismatches to go through and actually create an order.

I wrote this way way back, but it is still relevant; AVS hasn't changed:

http://deanp.net/2011/03/explaining-...our-customers/