Card declined verification required

Hi there

We have been having an increasing number of transactions fail with the status code CARD_DECLINED_VERIFICATION_REQUIRED. For these transactions we are getting back the nonce and verification token and sending those to the CreatePayment method but get back this status code. As the customer has already passed verification and we have the verification token can you give some more insight into why this might be happening?

Some recent payment ids where the transactions have failed with this message:
rnly2wUIQeX2UAfdi3lX8SwXkVSZY
3Z91zi0r0FQeruhFgUio9HULCYKZY
fL6sbAW5rVAJnrsR0kHkPMSsnh6YY

Cheers, Paul

:wave: I’m Square Dev AI, here to help answer your question!
Based on the information you’ve provided, the following documentation will help answer your question:

Additional Documentation

Web Payments SDK Requirements
Card Payments
Statement Descriptions

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The CARD_DECLINED_VERIFICATION_REQUIRED error typically occurs when the card issuer requires additional verification through Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). Even though you’ve passed the verification token, the card issuer might still decline the payment due to their own risk policies or other reasons.

The verification token assures the card-issuing bank that the buyer is who they say they are. However, it doesn’t guarantee that the card they are trying to use will be accepted by the bank. The card might still be declined for various reasons, such as insufficient funds, suspected fraud, or other reasons determined by the card issuer’s risk policies.

In such cases, it’s recommended to ask the customer to contact their card issuer for more information or try a different payment method.

This answer was reviewed by @Bryan-Square.

Hello kyconnect gov@pauld,

The CARD_DECLINED_VERIFICATION_REQUIRED error you’re encountering typically occurs when the card issuer requires additional verification through Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). Even if you’ve passed the verification token, the card issuer might still decline the payment due to their own risk policies or other reasons.

The cardholder may not have enough funds to complete the transaction.
The card issuer may suspect fraudulent activity on the card.
Each card issuer has its own set of risk policies that may lead to the decline of a transaction.
The verification token confirms the identity of the buyer to the card-issuing bank, but it doesn’t guarantee that the payment will be accepted. The card might still be declined for various reasons determined by the card issuer’s risk policies.

In such cases, it’s recommended to.
Ask the customer to contact their card issuer for more information.
Try a different payment method.

If you’re consistently facing this issue, it might be helpful to review the integration of your verification process or consult Square’s support for a more in-depth analysis. Remember, the exact reason for a decline is often known only to the card issuer, and they should be able to provide more specific guidance.

Hope this helps!

Best Regards,
kyconnect gov

Thanks for your response and supplying us with more details about this error.

It is a small number of transactions compared to the amount we process but still significant enough that its noticeable.

We did ask the customer from the first payment to contact their bank who claimed that they didn’t receive a transaction their end to block. Just to ensure the customer did in fact do as they said we will try another sample of customers and ask them about their experience with this error message and in the meantime we will update our error messaging for this error to ask the customer to contact their card issuer to see if this helps.

Thanks again for your help, Paul