Frequently Asked Questions

Credit card decline reasons are not always obvious. Here's a quick guide with what to look for.

There are several reasons why a credit card can be declined using the Payment for Stripe app. The reasons are generally surfaced in the app after a charge with a descriptive label outlining the reasoning. There are two possible reasons why a credit card payment can fail:

• Payments declined by the card issuer
• Blocked payments (Stripe Radar, fraud, etc)

Payments declined by card issuers

Card issuers have automated systems that determine whether the charge should be authorized or not. The algorithms look at various signals instantaneously, from spending habits, account balance and credit card information, as well as location of the charge. Unfortunately, not all of the information that led to the decline is shared with Stripe, and subsequently to the Payment app. In rare cases, card issuers may also provide helpful explanations, but generally, card decline reasons can be hard to track down.

In some cases, the type of restrictions on the credit card can also cause certain declines. For example, using an FSA/HSA card to create a charge for a non-medical payment.

In addition, geographic location can also play a role in declined or failed payments. If credit cards are issued in a different country than your Stripe account, you may be at a higher risk of fraud, and thus risk a higher rate of failed payments.

Payments blocked by Stripe Radar

Every Stripe account comes with automated fraud verification for every single charge made on the Stripe network. The reason this is helpful is simple: Stripe processes billions of dollars in transactions every single day, scanning and identifying trends that give your Stripe account real time feedback on fraud across a variety of mediums. In addition, the Radar prevention tool can also be used to scale up and down your protection, ultimately putting you in control of how finicky your payment protection should be.

How can card declines be avoided?

One of the easiest ways is by using a PCI-compliant card reader, such as Stripe Terminal. Not only does using a card reader give you an abundance of new ways to collect payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay, but you'll also be able to accept chip-enabled cards; further preventing fraud. Although manually inputting card numbers is supported by the Payment app, they are still treated by payment gateways and issuers like an online purchase would be, as there is no evidence that the card was “present” at the time of the transaction.

In some cases, it may also be helpful to provide additional information with the charge. At the very least, including a billing zip or postal code to be validated with the credit card can help exponentially, but other information including name on the card and billing address can also be validated and checked against known fraudulent transactions. Lastly, providing a billing email address also allows Stripe Radar to check to see if that email address has been used across the Stripe network (globally) for other types of fraud.

What are the bank decline codes?

The list above is directly from Stripe. For a complete list, as well as suggested next steps, please visit: https://stripe.com/docs/declines/codes

Reduce fraud and look more professional with a pre-certified PCI-compliant card reader from Stripe Terminal.

What is PCI Compliance?

Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is an official policy, created by the major credit card companies and PCI Security Standards Council to ensure the overall security of credit card transactions. The guidelines refer to both technical and operational standards that all businesses must follow to protect consumer credit card data provided by cardholders.

Why is PCI Compliance Important?

PCI compliance helps you, as a merchant, as well as payment gateways, to avoid fraudulent activity and to reduce cardholder data breaches.

Are you responsible as a merchant?

The short answer is no. Stripe assumes this risk on your behalf, as they are the ones that store all cardholder data.

• Build and Maintain a Secure Network and Systems
• Protect Cardholder Data
• Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program
• Implement Strong Access Control Measures
• Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

In addition to the aforementioned benefits, there are also varying levels of PCI compliance based on the number of transactions processed yearly.

Is Stripe Terminal PCI Compliant?

The BBPOS Chipper 2X BT from Stripe Terminal is pre-certified with Stripe, meaning that there is nothing additional your business will have to do to become PCI compliant. Because the connection from Stripe Terminal only communicates with Stripe, you do not need to store any cardholder information on your own servers. Everything is stored securely at Stripe, with the brightest minds in the industry protecting the data.

Are the Payment for Stripe apps PCI compliant?

The Payment for Stripe apps are Verified Stripe Partners, which have already integrated with Stripe Terminal. In essence, this means that the Payment for Stripe apps, while using all of the proper tooling and software development kits from Stripe, are also pre-certified to be PCI compliant. The Payment for Stripe apps do not store any cardholder data, as all information is just passed along to Stripe using the highest security standards available.

In addition, when manually keying in cardholder information, the Payment for Stripe app has also completed a PCI-DSS Self Assessment (the most recent standard from May 2018) to the satisfaction of both Stripe and the major credit card companies. Since Payment for Stripe does not store any cardholder data, there is no risk of a data breach.

The only company you have to worry about having your cardholder's financial information is Stripe.

Learn more about the Stripe Terminal Card reader for the Payment app: Card Readers

Don't let a lack of Stripe Account Verification disrupt your business and cash flow.

When creating a Stripe account, you, as the business owner or representative, will need to provide several layers of documentation before your account is enabled, which unlocks the ability to take payments and have payouts to your bank account.

Since the Payment app is a Stripe Verified Partner, and utilizes the Stripe Connect Platform for apps, extensions and integrations, you may be required to provide additional information before being able to use the Payment app.

The information that you may need to provide depends on several factors, including:

• Capabilities required for the account
• Base country of the account

Stripe will send you an email notification if your Stripe account requires further verification. In some countries, Stripe is required to collect, verify and maintain the identify information for individuals associated with a Stripe account. These requirements are imposed by financial partners and regulators, intended to promote transparency and prevent bad actors from criminal acts.

Lack of identity verification may result in your Stripe account being permanently closed.

Minimum Verification Requires

For the United States, verification attempts may take minutes (if automated) or hours to complete, if a manual review is required. If Stripe is unable to verify the information, your account may not be able to collect payments or make payouts to your bank account.

For companies, LLCs and partnerships looking to have card payments and transfer capability, the following items may be necessary:

• Business type
• Merchant category code
• Business URL
• Company name
• Company address
• Company phone
• Company tax ID
• Company rep
• Name
• Date of birth
• Address
• Tax information (last 4 of SSN)
• Title
• Email
• Phone
• Owners
  • Name
  • Email

Address Verification

For card payments to be enabled, a validated city, state and ZIP code for your company address is required. If the address cannot be verified before 30 days or $1,500 USD in payments, your card payments may be disabled. Below is a list of acceptable documentation to verify your business address:

• Rental or lease agreement
• Utility bills
• Federal or state tax returns
• Articles of Incorporation
• Other government-issued business documents

Manual Verification

In some instances, Stripe may be unable to collect and verify the proper information to verify your Stripe account. In these scenarios, you may be asked to upload additional information like a government issued photo ID to verify manually.

Please note, the verification requirements may vary by country and/or region. You can see a list of additional requirements on Stripe's website.

How long does Stripe Account Verification typically take?

Reviews of your Stripe account can vary, but typically take up to 1 business day for the Stripe Compliance team to review and complete. To ensure expedition of processing your requests, make sure you upload all documents at one time, via your Stripe Dashboard. Incomplete documentation will certainly delay the process.

Where can I upload my verification documents?

Since the business documents you are uploading may be highly sensitive in nature, Stripe will only accept documents when uploaded through your Stripe Dashboard. This means that you should log in to your Stripe account, and follow the links below. Stripe will NOT accept documents submitted via email, including to support@stripe.com.

• Proof of Identity upload
• Proof of Home Address upload

Learn more about why your payments may be disabled: Blog: Stripe Account Payments Disabled