Hey bunqers 🌈,
We understand that encountering a failed online payment can be a bit frustrating. But don't worry, we're here to help!
In this topic, we'll guide you through the steps to troubleshoot and resolve common issues that might cause an online payment to fail. We'll also provide some insights into what different error messages might mean.
Wrong Card details 💳
If you're trying to pay online with your bunq card and the payment is declined, the first thing to do would be checking your card details again and making sure you entered the correct card number, expiry date and you current CVC code, especially if you have the rotating CVC feature on.
You can find your card details here or in the app under Cards > Select the right card > Card details
Merchant is blocked 🚫
If a payment to the same merchant fails more than 3 times within an hour, we'll block all transactions to this merchant for 60 minutes for security reasons. The failures can happen when you filled the card details incorrectly or if the merchant couldn’t process the information properly.
In this situation, you should wait an hour before you try to make another payment to this merchant. Be sure to turn off the rotating CVC feature in your card settings, which allows the merchant to use the correct CVC.
Insufficient balance 💵
When you're trying to pay an amount bigger than the one on your account, the payment won't go through to make sure you don’t fall into debt. In this situation, you should top up your account or link your card to another bunq account to complete the payment.
Card isn't active 💳
In order to be approved, card payments must be done with an active card. This means that if you've just ordered you card and didn't activate it yet or if you card is temporarily frozen, the payment won't go through. In these cases, you should first activate your card before you try to pay again.
No 3DS/Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) 🔓
To keep your online payments safe, 3DS (Strong Customer Authentication, SCA) is required for many card transactions. This means that when you make an online payment, you’ll need to approve it through a push notification in your bunq app.
If your 3DS payment fails, it could be due to:
- Missed approval request: If you don't approve the payment within 15 minutes, it will be declined. Try again and approve it in the app.
- Merchant doesn’t support 3DS: Some stores haven’t fully implemented 3DS. In these cases we deny the payment to ensure that it’s really you paying and ask the store to trigger a security check.
- Network or app issues: Ensure you have a stable internet connection and that your bunq app is updated to avoid authentication problems.
You can read more on this topic here
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