This article defines which card decline Result keywords should be blocked immediately vs blocked conditionally, using estimated 30-day recovery rates. The goal is to reduce wasted retries on dead cards while protecting recoverable revenue.
Key Rules
- Immediate Block (1 strike): terminal, structural failures with near-zero recovery
- Conditional Block (5 consecutive): structural-sounding declines with measurable recovery
- Do Not Disable / Do Not Count: processor/system errors that should not impact token status
🔴 Immediate Block (1 Strike)
| Keyword | Est. 30-Day Recovery | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| stolen | <0.1% | Fraud flag. Replacement required. |
| lost | <0.1% | Fraud flag. |
| pick up card / pickup card | <0.1% | Confiscation instruction. |
| card blocked, prior cat-1 decline | <0.5% | Fraud escalation. |
| no such issuer | <0.1% | BIN invalid. |
| invalid card number | <0.1% | Nonexistent PAN. |
| invalid pan | <0.1% | Network-level invalid. |
| card number invalid | <0.1% | Same as above. |
| card not found | <0.1% | Issuer cannot locate account. |
| invalid bin | <0.1% | Invalid BIN structure. |
| revoked card | <0.5% | Permanently revoked. |
| terminated card | <0.5% | Permanently terminated. |
| fraud account | <0.5% | Explicit fraud state. |
🟡 Conditional Block (Disable After 5 Consecutive)
| Keyword | Est. 30-Day Recovery | Why Not Immediate |
|---|---|---|
| invalid account | 2–6% | Sometimes mapping noise. |
| no such account | 1–5% | Similar to above. |
| closed account | 3–8% | Small recovery exists. |
| service not allowed | 5–12% | MCC / recurring block. |
| transaction not permitted | 6–15% | Policy block that can lift. |
| card type not allowed | 5–10% | Routing / MCC dependent. |
| card not accepted by merchant | 4–9% | Merchant config issue possible. |
| customer requested stop | 2–7% | Stop orders can be reversed. |
❌ Do NOT Disable / Do NOT Count
| Keyword | Est. 30-Day Recovery | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| invalid trans | 10–40% | Processor/system issue. |
| invalid parameter format | 20–50% | Integration error. |
| reserved for private use | 5–25% | Placeholder ISO mapping. |
Implementation Notes
- Result-field matching: use case-insensitive substring matching.
- Conditional disable: requires 5 consecutive failures for the same token after a match.
- Backstop: keep the existing 30 consecutive failures rule as a final safeguard.
- Recovery rates: estimates are directional; validate against your own historical data by measuring approvals within 30 days after first occurrence per token.
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