Payments
Do not honor (decline code 05)
Updated
Do not honor, response code 05, means the card-issuing bank declined the payment without giving a reason; it is the most common generic decline.
Do not honor is the bank saying no without saying why. Behind it can sit a risk model that disliked the payment, a card blocked for online use, a balance problem the bank chose not to name, or a cardholder setting. The merchant cannot tell which.
Visa places 05 in category 4, "generic response codes", which permits up to 20 reattempts in 30 days. That does not make 20 attempts wise: if the cause is a fraud rule, every retry asks the same question again. Stripe reports this code as do_not_honor and tells the customer to contact their bank.
On PlatformDTC, a renewal declined with do_not_honor gets one more attempt 48 to 72 hours later, and a second refusal asks the customer for a new payment method. PlatformDTC also reads the raw issuer code under Stripe's label: a Visa 59 (suspected fraud) that arrives as do_not_honor is treated as never-retry.
Frequently asked questions
- What should the customer do after a do not honor decline?
- Call the bank on the back of the card. The bank knows the real reason, and it can often lift a block on online payments or approve the charge, after which the payment can be tried again.
- Should I retry a do not honor decline?
- Once or twice, spaced out, then ask for another card. Visa allows retries for code 05, but if the bank's fraud model caused it, repeating the same request rarely changes the answer.