Adyen · Decline codes
What does Adyen refusal reason 2 “Refused” mean?
Checked
Adyen refusal reason 2, "Refused", means the transaction was refused and no more specific reason could be given. It is Adyen's generic bucket: the issuer said no without explaining, as with the classic 05 Do not honor. The shopper should try another card or call their bank. One later retry can work, but Visa caps generic declines at 15 reattempts in 30 days.
- Type
- Soft decline (generic)
- Who declined
- The shopper's card issuer
- Retry
- Once, later. Generic Visa declines fall in category 4: at most 15 reattempts in 30 days.
- Shopper action
- Try another card or ask the bank why it declined.
- Merchant action
- Offer another payment method; do not loop retries.
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC does not connect to Adyen; its checkout runs on Stripe and PayPal. A generic issuer refusal such as 05 Do not honor arrives there as Stripe's do_not_honor, and PlatformDTC retries a renewal once, 48 to 72 hours later, then asks the customer for a new payment method.
Why it happens
Adyen translates each scheme's raw response into a refusalReason. Anything that cannot be mapped to something more specific, or that the issuer sent as a plain refusal, ends up as Refused.
Adyen's raw responses page describes 05 Do not honor as "a generic refusal that has several possible causes": funds, a fraud score, a block on online use, and so on. Only the bank knows which.
What the shopper can do
Check the card details and try a different card or a wallet. If you want to keep using this card, the bank's number on the back of the card is the way to find out why.
What the store can do
Show a friendly "try another payment method" message. Adyen advises not exposing refusal details to shoppers, so keep the wording generic.
For developers
resultCode "Refused", refusalReasonCode "2". Enable raw acquirer results in your Customer Area to receive additionalData.refusalReasonRaw (for example "05 : Do not honor"), which tells you the Visa retry category.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does Adyen just say "Refused" (code 2)?
- Because the issuer gave a generic refusal, or one Adyen could not map to a more specific reason. The raw response, if enabled, shows the issuer's actual code.
- Can I retry an Adyen refusal 2?
- Once, after a pause, is reasonable. Visa allows up to 15 reattempts in 30 days for generic declines, and retrying in quick succession rarely helps.
Sources
Related
- 27 — A specific refusal Adyen could not reliably map to one of its named reasons.
- 3 — The issuer referred the payment: it wants the cardholder (or merchant) to contact it first.
- 12 — The card does not have enough money or credit for this amount.
- 4 — Something failed on the acquirer's side, not with the shopper's card.
- 5 — The card is blocked and cannot be used.
- 6 — The card's expiry date has passed.
- 7 — An amount mismatch occurred while the payment was being processed.
- 8 — The card number is wrong or does not exist.