Braintree · Decline codes
What does Braintree 2046 “Declined” mean?
Checked
Braintree 2046 “Declined” means the shopper's bank, or PayPal or Venmo for those payments, is unwilling to accept the transaction. It is a soft decline. Braintree says card shoppers should contact their bank, PayPal users PayPal Support and Venmo users Venmo Support. It maps to Visa category 2, allowing up to 15 retries in 30 days.
- Type
- Soft decline
- Who declined
- The shopper's bank, PayPal or Venmo
- Retry
- Yes, later. Visa category 2: at most 15 retries in 30 days
- Shopper action
- Contact the bank, PayPal or Venmo
- Merchant action
- Offer another payment method
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC does not connect to Braintree. A reasonless card refusal on its Stripe checkout is do_not_honor or generic_decline: one renewal retry after 48–72 hours, then a request for a new card; at checkout the shopper can be offered PayPal card fields.
Why it happens
A generic refusal. For PayPal and Venmo payments, the wallet provider declined rather than a card bank.
What the shopper can do
Card: call the bank. PayPal or Venmo: contact their support, or pay another way.
What the store can do
Offer a different method. Space out any retries on subscriptions.
For developers
Braintree returns processor_response_code 2046 with processor_response_text “Declined” and processor_response_type “soft_declined” on the Transaction object. Braintree maps it to Visa category 2 (issuer cannot approve at this time): at most 15 retries in 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Braintree 2046 come from PayPal?
- It can. Braintree says card declines go to the bank, PayPal declines to PayPal Support and Venmo to Venmo Support.
- Can I retry 2046?
- Yes, up to 15 times in 30 days under Visa category 2.
Sources
- Declines: authorization decline codes — Braintree (PayPal)
- Transaction response object — Braintree (PayPal)
- Mapping to Visa system integrity fee categories — Adyen
- Decline codes — Stripe
Related
- 2000 — The bank refused the payment without giving a reason (Do Not Honor).
- 2038 — The bank declined without a specific reason.
- 2074 — The card or bank inside the buyer's PayPal was declined.
- 2047 — The card was reported lost or stolen; the bank says keep it.
- 2048 — The amount sent was zero, unreadable or too large.
- 2049 — A SKU value sent with the payment was not valid.
- 2050 — Problem with the card or a temporary issue at the bank.
- 2051 — The card number doesn't match the payment method type.