Managing Failed Transactions

When processing Credit Card transactions we generally get a real-time response (except for EziDebit Scheduled Credit Card gateway).  It is very rare for a transaction to fail after the initial approval (this is usually a Charge Back which your merchant account provider will contact you about directly).  However, for Bank Account debits (Direct Debit, ACH, PAD etc.) we don't get an initial approval when we process the transaction.  We presumptively treat the payment as successful, but it may still fail later.

For selected gateways we have an automated way of handling post-processing failures.  This applies to the following gateways:

• EziDebit Scheduled Credit Cards (NZ & AU)
• EziDebit Direct Debits (NZ & AU - except EziDebit 3-3 interface)
• Forte ACH (US)
• Forte PAD (CA)
• Stripe ACH (US)
• SagePay (ZA)

For all other gateways please check our article What to do When a Payment fails (after processing).

Temporary Payment Failures

For the gateways listed above we get notified of (or we go out overnight and look up) any settlement issues.  You can choose how we respond to the temporary payment failures (such as insufficient funds).  You make this setting in the Payment Gateway definition screen (Edit, Organisation Settings, scroll to the Payment Gateways section, click the edit icon to the right of the gateway in question).  If you have multiple gateways set up you need to do this for each gateway instance.

Here are the options you can choose:

On notification of a failed payment what should we do?

• Do Nothing - we will keep the payment record in place and take no action.  However, the invoice will be reprocessed automatically if the payment record is removed.
• Suspend Invoice (default) - we will remove the payment record (if we can) and suspend the invoice - when you un-suspend the invoice it will be available for re-processing.
• Re-process in selected day - (makes another question available to specify the number of days) - we will remove the payment record and will set an installment to collect the payment again x days from the failure date.

Who should we notify when a payment fails?

• No-One - we won't send any emails about this failure
• Admin (default) - we will send an email to all users in your organisation settings designated to receive payment alerts, but not the customer (this email is written to the customer, you can choose to forward it directly if necessary)
• Customer - we will send an email to the customer in your name advising them of the situation.  If the payment is set to reprocess we will advise them.  If set to suspend or take no action we ask them to contact you.
• Both - we send admin payment alert users and the customer the email.

At this stage you can't change the text in this email.  To ensure that your email is properly formatted you should upload your logo and enter your contact details in Edit, Organisation Settings, Organisation Profile.

Permanent Payment Failures

If a payment fails with a permanent failure (such as account closed, mandate cancelled, etc.) we will remove the profile from our system and send you (users with payment alerts) an email advising you of this.  You should contact the customer to make other payment arrangements.