Card issuer response codes (ISO 8583) · Decline codes
What does card decline code 54 mean?
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Code 54 is an ISO 8583 issuer response code for an expired card: Visa says "expired card or expiration date is missing", Mastercard "expired card". The card is past its date, or the date sent was missing or wrong. Visa puts 54 in Category 3, "data quality, revalidate payment information", allowing reattempts up to 20 in 30 days only with corrected details. The shopper should enter the new card's details.
- Type
- Hard decline (data)
- Who declined
- The card's issuing bank
- Visa category
- Category 3 (data quality, revalidate payment details): up to 20 reattempts in 30 days
- Retry
- Only with updated card details
- Shopper action
- Enter the replacement card's expiry date or a new card
- Merchant action
- Ask for updated details; use card updater services
- PlatformDTC renewal (fixed or Smart retry)
- Never retried; customer asked to update the card
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC files a raw 54 as expired. On either retry schedule, fixed or Smart retry, a renewal is not retried with the old details; the subscription is held past due and the customer receives a one-click update-card link, with an email saying the card has expired. A Visa checkout declined 54 is never moved to a backup processor, because the same card would fail anywhere.
Why it happens
Cards expire every few years. Subscriptions keep the old date until the customer updates it, so a saved card can start failing with 54 once its date passes.
What the shopper can do
Enter the new expiry date from the replacement card, or a different card.
For developers
On Stripe the raw issuer code arrives in charge.outcome.network_decline_code (here "54"), next to Stripe's own decline_code. Read it together with the card brand: the same two characters can mean different things on Visa and Mastercard. Mastercard sends 54 with MAC 01 (new account information available, a card updater may have it) or MAC 03 (do not try again). Mastercard also has 79 MAC 01 for lifecycle expiries.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I just add a year to the expiry date and retry?
- No. Visa forbids changing data elements to force an approval, and the bank will decline a wrong date anyway.
- Why does a new card work when the old one gave 54?
- The replacement has a new expiry date and often a new number. Only the customer or a card updater service can supply them.
Sources
Related
- 14 — Invalid account number: no such card number exists at the bank.
- N7 — Decline for CVV2 failure: the security code didn't match.
- 46 — Closed account: the card's account has been closed. Never retry it.
- 55 — Incorrect PIN: the PIN entered was wrong or missing.
- 57 — Transaction not permitted to cardholder: this card isn't allowed to make this purchase.
- 58 — Transaction not allowed at terminal: the merchant setup can't accept this transaction.
- 59 — Suspected fraud: the bank's fraud system declined the payment.
- 61 — Exceeds approval amount limit: the payment is over a limit the bank set on the card.