Checkout.com · Decline codes
What does Checkout.com 20005 “Declined - Do not honour” mean?
Checked
Checkout.com 20005 "Declined - Do not honour" is the bank's generic no: the issuer refused the payment without saying why. Checkout.com tells the shopper to try a different card or contact the bank, and points merchants to recommendation codes for retry advice. It is a soft decline and falls in Visa's generic category 4.
- Type
- Soft decline (20xxx)
- Who declined
- The shopper's card issuer
- Retry
- Possibly. Visa category 4 (generic): at most 15 retries in 30 days
- Shopper action
- Use another card, or call the bank to ask why
- Merchant action
- Offer another payment method; retry a saved card at most once after a pause
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC can run a store's own Checkout.com account at checkout and reads 20005 as a refusal another processor may approve. If the store picked PayPal card payments as its backup, the shopper is offered PayPal card fields on the spot; the card-testing guard and the store's block rules still run first. A subscription renewal declined with 20005 gets one more try 48 to 72 hours later with Smart retry on; if the bank refuses again, the customer is emailed a link to add a new card.
Why it happens
Do not honour covers anything the bank chooses not to explain: fraud models, spending patterns, account status, or a merchant it does not recognise.
What the shopper can do
Try another card or PayPal. If this card should work, a quick call to the bank usually clears it.
What the store can do
Do not keep re-submitting the card. Visa allows up to 15 retries in 30 days for generic codes, but each refusal hurts your approval rate with that bank.
For developers
The payment comes back with status Declined, response_code 20005 and a response_summary such as "Declined - Do not honour" (Checkout.com notes the text can vary by endpoint). Checkout.com's Visa table puts this code in category 4, which it pairs with recommendation code 02 (try again later); read processing.recommendation_code on the response.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is Checkout.com 20005 so common?
- It is the catch-all issuers use when they decline without a specific reason; Adyen's Visa mapping calls 05 the most frequent refusal reason.
- Is 20005 the same as Stripe's do_not_honor?
- Yes in meaning: both are the issuer's unexplained refusal. Stripe documents do_not_honor as declined for an unknown reason.
Sources
- API response codes — Checkout.com
- Visa response codes — Checkout.com
- Recommendation codes — Checkout.com
- Mapping to Visa system integrity fee categories — Adyen
- Decline codes — Stripe
Related
- 20003 — The payment failed for a technical reason on the merchant or acquirer side, not because of the card.
- 20002 — The bank declined under its own special conditions and refers the shopper back to it.
- 20001 — The bank declined and wants the shopper to contact it before it will approve.
- 20012 — The bank says this transaction type is not allowed for the card. Visa says never retry it.
- 20013 — The amount sent with the payment was invalid for the bank or the network.
- 20014 — The card number does not exist at the bank. Usually a typo. Visa says never retry it.
- 20019 — The bank could not process it this time and asks for the payment to be sent again.
- 20030 — The payment message had a format the network or bank could not read.