Soft vs. Hard Decline (Payments)

A soft decline is a temporary payment failure (e.g., insufficient funds), while a hard decline is a permanent failure (e.g., card expired).

What is the difference between a Soft and Hard Decline in Payments?

Soft declines occur due to temporary issues, while hard declines indicate permanent transaction failures.

Understanding declines helps optimize payment retries.

Key differences between soft and hard declines:

  • Soft declines may succeed on a retry (e.g., insufficient funds, temporary network issues)
  • Hard declines require user intervention (e.g., stolen card, expired card)
  • Payment processors like Stripe and PayPal handle retries differently

    • Businesses use automated retry logic for soft declines while requiring updates for hard declines.

    Related terms
    Multi-TenancyBubble Stripe PluginSWIFT Banking SystemDunning EmailsACH Payment
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