Why are cards being declined but still charged on my website?

[LeonardoM]

So my friend went to my website and went to purchase an item but it said his card was declined but was still charged. I check abandoned checkouts and orders and it was in the abandoned checkout because he said he gave up. Then he sent me the money and I went to go and buy one for him and my card was also declined and I was charged when I have more than enough money to buy the item. Is there an answer as to why both our cards were declined but still charged?

[Greta]

Hi, @LeonardoM!

I'm sorry to hear you're having an issue processing payments on your store, I'm happy to help. The following information is relevant if you're using Shopify Payments. If you're using a third-party payment provider, just let me know which one and I can look into why that may be happening. 

With regards to the card being declined and the order not going through, but there still being a charge on the customer's card, it may be an authorization charge. When a transaction is attempted, Shopify sends a request to the credit card company to see if X amount of funds are available, and if they are, the authorization charge is made into a bill of sale. If a bill of sale isn't submitted, the authorization simply disappears after a certain amount of time. Each bank is different, but on average this is between 1-4 business days. Shopify does not have the ability to reverse or remove authorization requests, as these are generated by the cardholder's bank. If the charge doesn't disappear after a few days, I recommend contacting your bank to see why the charge is still there and they will have all the information you need.

As for why the card was declined when there is enough money on it to cover the order, this can happen for a variety of reasons. When we submit a charge to a customer’s bank, they have automated systems that determines whether or not to accept the charge. These systems take various factors into account, such as their customer’s spending habits, account balance, and card information like the expiration date and CVV. Since these signals are constantly changing, a previously successful card might be declined in the future. For more information, you can look at the order timeline on the abandoned checkout to see if we've received an error code from the bank. 

If this issue persists, I recommend contacting our live support team through the Help Center. They can have our Shopify Payments team verify that everything is working correctly with your account. We're available 24/7 via live chat, callback, and email!

I hope this helps — please let me know if you have any more questions. 

[popoffworldwide]

Hi Greta

I have just experienced the same exact issue with a customer of mine.

Order checkout - card declined but charged on their end.

I submitted a ticket but thats pretty frustrating as a store owner.

Thanks for quick resolving that this issue doesn't persist in the future

Julian

[Greta]

Hi, @popoffworldwide!

Thank you for sharing your experience, I definitely understand that this can be frustrating. 

If your customer received an authorization charge on their card, this is standard procedure and unfortunately Shopify doesn't have any control over it. I recommend your customer contacts their bank to ensure the authorization charge is reversed (although this is done automatically by the bank after a few business days). Their bank will be able to answer any further questions they may have.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can help you out with!