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Response Code Reference
Searchable reference of ISO 8583 DE 39 response codes with their Visa and Mastercard meanings — Visa decline categories and reattempt limits, and Mastercard Merchant Advice Codes.
Follows ISO 8583:1987 DE 39 · Visa decline categories · Mastercard Merchant Advice Codes (DE 48 SE 84)Visa reattempt rules May 2025 (15 → 20 in 30 days, CIT/MIT counted separately)·verified Oct 2026· double-checked Oct 2026— ISO, Visa and Mastercard meanings, Visa categories 1–4 and MACs cross-checked against acquirer-published tables; single-source items marked on the page
Try it as a puzzle: diagnose three real-world declines from the logs →
Showing 62 of 62 codes
| Code | Category | Name | Description | Retry (Visa rule) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
00 | Approval | Approved or completed successfully ISO 8583 | Transaction approved. | — |
08 | Approval | Honour with identification ISO 8583 | Approved, but the merchant must check the cardholder’s identification. | — |
10 | Approval | Approved for partial amount ISO 8583 | Partial approval (mostly prepaid and debit): the response carries the lower approved amount and the rest must be collected another way. | — |
11 | Approval | Approved (VIP) ISO 8583 | Approved for a VIP cardholder. | — |
85 | Approval | No reason to decline Visa, Mastercard | The answer to an account verification (zero-amount authorization), address or CVV2 check, or a Visa credit voucher / merchandise return — the account is valid. Not an approval of an amount. | — |
01 | Referral / Pick-up | Refer to card issuer ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | Issuer asks for a voice referral. Most e-commerce merchants treat it as a decline. | Limited |
02 | Referral / Pick-up | Refer to card issuer, special condition ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | Voice referral for a special condition set by the issuer. | Limited |
04 | Referral / Pick-up | Pick up card ISO 8583 · Visa category 1 | Retain the card if it is safe to do so (Visa: pick up card, no fraud). | Never |
07 | Referral / Pick-up | Pick up card, special condition ISO 8583 · Visa category 1 | Retain the card if it is safe to do so (Visa: fraud account). | Never |
03 | Decline | Invalid merchant ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | The card acceptor is not recognised or not set up for this service. | Later |
05 | Decline | Do not honour ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | Generic decline with no reason given — the most common decline. Visa counts it as a generic (category 4) code, so limited reattempts are allowed. | Limited |
12 | Decline | Invalid transaction ISO 8583 · Visa category 1 | The transaction type is not valid or not supported for this card. | Never |
13 | Decline | Invalid amount ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | The amount is invalid (Visa: invalid amount or currency conversion field overflow). | Limited |
14 | Decline | Invalid card number (no such number) ISO 8583 · Visa category 1 | The issuer has no such account. Visa puts it in category 1 and category 3: never reattempt, and it also counts in data-quality monitoring. | Never |
15 | Decline | No such issuer ISO 8583 · Visa category 1 | The issuer identification (BIN) does not belong to an issuer. | Never |
41 | Decline | Lost card, pick up ISO 8583 · Visa category 1 | Card reported lost. | Never |
43 | Decline | Stolen card, pick up ISO 8583 · Visa category 1 | Card reported stolen. | Never |
46 | Decline | Closed account Visa · Visa category 1 | The account is closed. Reserved in ISO 8583:1987; Visa-defined. | Never |
57 | Decline | Transaction not permitted to cardholder ISO 8583 · Visa category 1 | The card is not allowed to do this type of transaction. | Never |
58 | Decline | Transaction not permitted to terminal ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | The terminal or merchant is not allowed to do this type of transaction. | Limited |
59 | Decline | Suspected fraud ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | The issuer suspects fraud. | Later |
62 | Decline | Restricted card ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | The card is restricted, e.g. not valid in this country or region. | Later |
63 | Decline | Security violation ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | A security check failed. The ISO meaning is generic; networks and hosts use it for different checks. | Limited |
79 | Decline | Life cycle decline Mastercard | Mastercard decline reason for card life-cycle problems (for example a closed or expired account); read the Merchant Advice Code with it. | Follow MAC |
83 | Decline | Fraud / security decline Mastercard | Mastercard decline reason for fraud or security; with MAC 01 a retry with EMV 3DS may succeed, with MAC 03 do not retry. | Follow MAC |
93 | Decline | Transaction cannot be completed — violation of law ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | Completing the transaction would break a law or regulation. | Later |
B1 | Decline | Surcharge amount not permitted on Visa cards Visa · Visa category 4 | U.S. acquirers only: a surcharge was included where it is not allowed. | Limited |
N3 | Decline | Cash service not available Visa · Visa category 2 | The issuer does not offer cash (or cash back) on this card. | Later |
R0 | Decline | Stop payment order Visa · Visa category 1 | The cardholder told the issuer to stop this recurring or instalment payment. | Never |
R1 | Decline | Revocation of authorization order Visa · Visa category 1 | The cardholder revoked the authorization for further payments to this merchant. | Never |
R3 | Decline | Revocation of all authorizations order Visa · Visa category 1 | The cardholder revoked all recurring authorizations on the card. | Never |
51 | Balance/Limits | Not sufficient funds ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | Balance or credit limit is not enough for this amount. | Later |
52 | Balance/Limits | No checking account ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | No checking (current) account linked to the card. | Later |
53 | Balance/Limits | No savings account ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | No savings account linked to the card. | Later |
61 | Balance/Limits | Exceeds withdrawal amount limit ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | An amount limit was exceeded (Visa: exceeds approval amount limit). | Later |
65 | Balance/Limits | Exceeds withdrawal frequency limit ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | Too many transactions in the period. Mastercard also uses 65 in the EEA and UK as a soft decline asking for strong customer authentication — retry with 3-D Secure. | Later |
75 | Balance/Limits | Allowable number of PIN tries exceeded ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | Too many wrong PINs; the PIN is blocked until the issuer resets it. | Later |
N4 | Balance/Limits | Cash request exceeds issuer or approved limit Visa · Visa category 2 | The cash or cash-back amount is above the issuer’s limit. | Later |
54 | Card Error | Expired card ISO 8583 · Visa category 3 | The card is past its expiry date, or the expiry date is wrong or missing. | Fix data |
55 | Card Error | Incorrect PIN ISO 8583 · Visa category 3 | Wrong or missing PIN; the try counter is not yet exhausted. | Fix data |
70 | Card Error | PIN data required Visa · Visa category 3 | The issuer needs PIN data that was not in the request, e.g. a contactless tap that needs online PIN. Used in some European markets; resubmit with PIN. | Fix data |
6P | Card Error | Verification data failed Visa · Visa category 3 | Cardholder verification data in the request did not match. | Fix data |
78 | Card Error | Blocked, first used Visa · Visa category 2 | A new card was used before it was activated (unblocked). | Later |
82 | Card Error | Negative CAM, dCVV, iCVV or CVV results (Visa) · Policy decline (Mastercard) Visa, Mastercard · Visa category 3 | Visa: the chip cryptogram (CAM) or the CVV, dCVV or iCVV check failed. Mastercard: a policy decline — read the Merchant Advice Code. | Fix data |
86 | Card Error | Cannot verify PIN Visa · Visa category 2 | The PIN could not be verified, e.g. the PIN verification service is unavailable. | Later |
N7 | Card Error | Decline for CVV2 failure Visa · Visa category 3 | The CVV2 (card security code) did not match. | Fix data |
P5 | Card Error | PIN change / unblock request declined Visa · Visa category 4 | The issuer declined a PIN change or PIN unblock request. | Limited |
1A | Authentication | Additional customer authentication required Visa | Soft decline in the EEA and UK (PSD2 strong customer authentication): resubmit after 3-D Secure. Visa lists it with the category 3 codes in Europe. | With SCA |
06 | System | Error ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | Unspecified error. | Limited |
19 | System | Re-enter transaction ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | Try the transaction again. | Later |
30 | System | Format error ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | The message is malformed — a field is missing, too long or has the wrong format. Fix the request rather than retrying it. | Limited |
68 | System | Response received too late ISO 8583 | The response timed out; send a reversal so the cardholder is not charged for a transaction the merchant thinks failed. | — |
76 | System | Unsolicited reversal Visa | V.I.P. could not match a reversal request to an original message (older wording: unable to locate previous message, no match on the retrieval reference number). Reserved in ISO 8583:1987. | — |
91 | System | Issuer or switch inoperative ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | The issuer cannot be reached and stand-in did not apply; retry after a delay. | Later |
92 | System | Financial institution or intermediate network cannot be found for routing ISO 8583 · Visa category 4 | No route to the issuer (Visa: destination cannot be found for routing). | Limited |
94 | System | Duplicate transmission ISO 8583 | The message duplicates one already received. | — |
96 | System | System malfunction ISO 8583 · Visa category 2 | Generic technical error; retry later. | Later |
N0 | System | Force STIP Visa · Visa category 4 | The issuer cannot authorize and asks Visa to stand in (STIP). Some processors pass it on as “unable to authorize”; it is not an approval. | Limited |
Y1 | EMV terminal | Offline approved EMV | Set by the chip terminal (tag 8A), not by the issuer: approved offline. | — |
Z1 | EMV terminal | Offline declined EMV | Set by the chip terminal (tag 8A): declined offline. | — |
Y3 | EMV terminal | Unable to go online, offline approved EMV | Set by the chip terminal (tag 8A): could not reach the acquirer and the card approved offline. | — |
Z3 | EMV terminal | Unable to go online, offline declined EMV | Set by the chip terminal (tag 8A): could not reach the acquirer and the card declined offline. | — |
Visa decline categories and reattempts
Visa groups decline codes into four categories. Categories 2–4 share one limit per card at one merchant: 15 reattempts in 30 days, raised to 20 from May 2025 and counted separately for cardholder-initiated (CIT) and merchant-initiated (MIT) transactions (Visa Rules, as published by acquirers). Reattempts beyond it, and any reattempt after a category 1 code, are charged.
| Cat. | Meaning | Rule | Codes in this table |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Issuer will never approve | Do not reattempt. Visa charges a fee for every reattempt. | 04 07 12 14 15 41 43 46 57 R0 R1 R3 |
| 2 | Issuer cannot approve at this time | Reattempt later, within the shared limit. | 03 59 62 93 N3 51 52 53 61 65 75 N4 78 86 19 91 96 |
| 3 | Issuer cannot approve with these details (data quality) | Fix the card or authentication data first, then reattempt within the shared limit. | 54 55 70 6P 82 N7 |
| 4 | Generic response codes (all other codes) | Reattempts allowed within the shared limit. | 01 02 05 13 58 63 B1 P5 06 30 92 N0 |
Visa lists 14 in both categories 1 and 3, and 1A and 70 as category 3 in Europe; acquirer tables can differ slightly. Check your acquirer’s current table before building retry logic on it.
Mastercard Merchant Advice Codes (DE 48 SE 84)
Mastercard sends a Merchant Advice Code with many declines. Never retry after MAC 03 or 21. Acquirers publish Mastercard’s excessive-attempt thresholds as 10 attempts in 24 hours and 35 in 30 days for one card at one merchant in most regions; they vary by region (for example 7 in 24 hours in Latin America).
| MAC | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
01 | New account information available | Get the updated card details (e.g. Automatic Billing Updater) before retrying. |
02 | Cannot approve at this time, try again later | Retry later. |
03 | Do not try again | Never retry this card for this payment; Mastercard can charge a fee for retries after MAC 03. |
04 | Token requirements not fulfilled for this token type | Resubmit with the token data the token type requires. |
21 | Payment cancellation | The cardholder cancelled the recurring payment; do not retry (same fee rule as MAC 03). |
22 | Merchant does not qualify for product code | The merchant is not eligible for the card product used. |
24 | Retry after 1 hour | Sent with insufficient-funds declines (51). |
25 | Retry after 24 hours | Sent with insufficient-funds declines (51). |
26 | Retry after 2 days | Sent with insufficient-funds declines (51). |
27 | Retry after 4 days | Sent with insufficient-funds declines (51). |
28 | Retry after 6 days | Sent with insufficient-funds declines (51). |
29 | Retry after 8 days | Sent with insufficient-funds declines (51). |
30 | Retry after 10 days | Sent with insufficient-funds declines (51). |
40 | Consumer non-reloadable prepaid card | Informational: the card is a non-reloadable prepaid card. |
41 | Consumer single-use virtual card number | Informational: the card number is a single-use virtual card. |
43 | Consumer multi-use virtual card number | Informational: the card number is a multi-use virtual card. |
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