PayPal · Decline codes
What does PayPal processor response code 0500 mean?
Checked
PayPal processor response code 0500 (DO_NOT_HONOR) means the card's issuing bank refused the payment without saying why. PayPal's label gives no further reason, and only the bank can explain it. The shopper should contact their bank or use another card; the merchant can retry once after a pause, but should not keep retrying the same card.
- PayPal label
- DO_NOT_HONOR
- Type
- Soft decline
- Who declined
- The card's bank (via PayPal)
- Similar Visa code
- 05 (Don't honor): Visa Category 4 (generic): reattempts allowed, up to 20 in 30 days
- Retry
- Once, after 2–3 days; a second refusal means ask for another payment method
- Shopper action
- Call the bank or pay with another card
- Merchant action
- One retry after 2–3 days at most; then ask for another method
- PlatformDTC renewal (Smart retry)
- One retry after 48–72 hours, then an update-card request
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC maps 0500 to do_not_honor: the bank said no without a reason. With Smart retry on, a renewal gets a single retry after 48–72 hours, then the customer is asked for another way to pay. The merchant dashboard reads "The bank declined the payment without giving a reason."
Why it happens
"Do not honor" is the bank's catch-all refusal. The bank knows the reason (a fraud score, a block the cardholder set, a spending rule) but does not pass it on to PayPal or the store.
What the shopper can do
Call the number on the back of the card and ask why the payment was refused.
Or pay with another card or your PayPal balance.
What the store can do
Show a clear "try another card" option straight away.
On renewals, one well-timed retry is the most that tends to help; after that, ask the customer to update their payment method.
For developers
PayPal returns 0500 in processor_response.response_code on the capture (purchase_units[].payments.captures[]) or authorization of a card payment. PayPal's own name for it is DO_NOT_HONOR.
Visa has a similarly named raw response code, 05 ("Don't honor"); in the Visa Core Rules (24 October 2026, Table 7-2) that code is category 4 (generic): reattempts allowed, up to 20 in 30 days. PayPal's code list doesn't map its codes to Visa's, so treat this as context, not a translation.
Keep the raw code with the order. PayPal's label is the only official meaning, and the exact code tells support which branch of PayPal's table fired.
Frequently asked questions
- Should I retry a 0500 decline?
- Once, after a pause of a couple of days. PayPal doesn't say why the bank refused, and sending the same card again and again tends to raise your decline rate with that bank.
- Does 0500 mean the card is stolen?
- No. PayPal has separate codes for lost or stolen cards (9520) and suspected fraud (9500). 0500 carries no reason at all.
Sources
Related
- 5100 — Generic decline: the card was refused and no reason was given.
- 9540 — Refused card: the card was refused for this payment.
- 0100 — Referral: the card's bank wants the cardholder to contact it before it approves.
- 10BR — Issuer rejected: the card's bank turned the payment down.
- 0580 — Unauthorized transaction: the payment isn't authorized for this card.
- 0960 — System malfunction: a technical fault stopped the payment, not a bank refusal.
- 1310 — Invalid amount: the payment amount was refused as invalid.
- 1320 — Invalid currency code: the currency of the payment can't be used here.