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How to Handle Declined Credit/Debit Card Payments
How to Handle Declined Credit/Debit Card Payments

How to handle credit or debit card payments that do not go through

Serena Edwards avatar
Written by Serena Edwards
Updated over a week ago

When Auto-Pay runs, we understand how important it is to see which payments succeeded and which did not.

What does "Decline" mean?

A "Declined" credit card payment means Enrollsy's automatic payment system attempted to authorize the card with the credit card company. If auto-pay runs and invoices remain unpaid, the payment is declined.

The credit card company declined the payment and responded with an error message (i.e., "Non-Sufficient Funds"). It works the same way as if you run your credit card at the grocery store, declining right then and there.

There will be no record of the payment in the Customer's transaction history in the "BILLING" tab on their account if the payment was unsuccessful.

After the initial decline, the system will automatically rerun the payment later that evening. This process will continue the following day, both in the morning and evening. Autopay is scheduled to run once or twice a week for previous invoices; declined credit card payments will also be included.

Email Notifications

When the card declines, the Admin users who have the setting "Receive failed customer payment emails" turned on will receive an email notification of all declined credit card and ACH payments during Auto-pay.

If you have access to manage Admin Users, you can change this setting by going to My Company > Users > Admins or clicking here to edit Admin email notifications.

We will be working on a notification of declined credit card payments that will show up in the Notification Center, as well as emails that will go out to both Customers and Admin users.

How to Remedy Declined Payments

You will need to instruct the Customer to log in to their account, update their payment credentials, and try the payment again. If the Customer doesn't update their information, Admins can contact the Customer and replace the card on file over the phone or in another way.

Once the card is updated, the Admin or the Customer can post another payment.

Fees

If you use CardConnect our your payment gateway, when a payment declines, you are charged an authorization fee plus any pass-through fees the card brands assess during a decline. The cost to you is typically less than 20¢ on the high end.

If you would like to pass this fee through to your customers, you will want to create a charge item and call it something like "Failed Payment Fee." Then, you can add that fee to the account when a payment is declined.

NOTE: If you use EnrollsyPay for credit card transactions, Till Payments does NOT charge an authorization fee for declined cards. If you are interested in applying for EnrollsyPay, please let us know via the chat button within Enrollsy.

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