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Card declined or checkout problems

Updated 2 min read

If your card is declined, nothing has been charged and your campaign hasn't changed. Stripe's page shows a message under Card information, for example "Your credit card was declined. Try paying with a debit card instead." You stay on Stripe's page and can try again straight away.

What to do

  1. Check what you typed: the card number, expiry date, the 3-digit code and the name on the card.
  2. Try another card. Stripe accepts Visa and Mastercard, credit or debit.
  3. Ask your bank. Only your bank can say why it declined a payment. Common reasons are a daily spending limit, an online-payment block, or a security check on a larger payment than usual.
  4. Pay by bank transfer instead. Select the back arrow at the top left of Stripe's page to return to your campaign, select Pay, and choose Pay Now by EFT. See Pay by bank transfer, step by step.

Other problems

Pay Now by Card is greyed out. Your campaign is more than $5,000 including the platform fee, so card isn't available, and the option says so. Pay by bank transfer, or with Pay Later if it's offered. See Choosing how to pay.

A red "Error" message appears when I select Pay Now by Card. Stripe's page couldn't be opened. Reload your campaign page and try again. If it keeps happening, contact your agent.

I left Stripe's page before paying for a change my agent proposed. Select Approve & pay again. A new Stripe page opens and the one you left is closed, so you can't pay for the same change twice. See Approving extra items, supplier swaps and additional funding.

"Approval failed: We couldn't open the card payment page". Try again in a few minutes, or choose Pay Now by EFT in the review panel instead. If it keeps happening, contact your agent.

"Approval failed: Your card payment for these changes has been received". You've already paid for these changes. Refresh the page in a minute. You don't need to pay again.

I paid, but the page doesn't say PAID yet. If you saw Your card payment has been received, the payment went through. The page shows PAID once Stripe has finished processing it, usually within a few minutes. Open your link again later.

I was charged twice. Contact your agent with the date and amount of each charge from your card statement.