Decline code

Every failed payment comes back with a decline code that explains why. Codes fall into broad groups: hard declines that need a new card, soft declines that may succeed later, retryable declines, and fraud flags.

Reading the code is what separates useful retries from noise. Retrying a hard decline wastes attempts and can hurt your standing with the issuer; retrying a soft decline is often all it takes to recover the payment.

churnguardian maps each Stripe decline code to a recovery strategy. See the full list on our Stripe decline codes reference.