Braintree · Decline codes
What does Braintree 2000 “Do Not Honor” mean?
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Braintree 2000 “Do Not Honor” means the shopper's bank refused the charge and gave no reason. It is a soft decline: a later attempt can pass, but only the bank knows why it said no. The shopper should call the number on the back of the card or use another card. Braintree places it in Visa category 4, so keep retries under 15 in 30 days.
- Type
- Soft decline
- Who declined
- The shopper's bank
- Retry
- Yes, later. Visa category 4: at most 15 retries in 30 days
- Shopper action
- Call the bank or pay with another card
- Merchant action
- Ask for another card; do not hammer the same card
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC does not connect to Braintree. On its Stripe checkout the same refusal arrives as do_not_honor: renewals get one retry 48–72 hours later, then the subscriber is asked for a new card, and the shopper sees a plain hint at checkout. A raw Visa 59 hidden under that label is never retried.
Why it happens
Do Not Honor is the bank's catch-all. Fraud models, spending patterns, a blocked card or a temporary hold can all sit behind it, and Braintree's docs say only the customer's bank can confirm the real reason.
What the shopper can do
Call the bank using the number on the card and ask why the payment was refused, then try again, or pay with a different card or PayPal.
What the store can do
Show a friendly message and offer another way to pay, such as PayPal or a second card. For subscriptions, space retries out over days instead of minutes; repeated attempts raise your decline ratio, which Braintree puts at about 10% as a normal level.
For developers
Braintree returns processor_response_code 2000 with processor_response_text “Do Not Honor” and processor_response_type “soft_declined” on the Transaction object. Braintree maps it to Visa category 4 (generic response): at most 15 retries in 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I retry Braintree 2000?
- Yes, it is a soft decline. Braintree maps it to Visa category 4, which allows up to 15 retries in 30 days. Spacing them out works better than retrying the same minute.
- Why won't the bank say why it declined?
- Do Not Honor is a generic answer by design. The shopper has to call the bank to hear the reason.
Sources
- Declines: authorization decline codes — Braintree (PayPal)
- Transaction response object — Braintree (PayPal)
- Mapping to Visa system integrity fee categories — Adyen
- Decline codes — Stripe
Related
- 2046 — The bank (or PayPal/Venmo) declined the payment.
- 2038 — The bank declined without a specific reason.
- 2001 — The card did not have enough money or credit for this amount.
- 2002 — The charge is bigger than the account's withdrawal limit.
- 2003 — The card hit its activity limit (too many or too large purchases).
- 2004 — The card has expired.
- 2005 — The card number is wrong or not a valid card.
- 2006 — The expiry date entered is wrong.