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Troubleshooting Declined Transactions
A decline always has exactly one cause, and every cause has a fix you can apply yourself. Work down this table — it is ordered by how often each one actually happens.
Causes and fixes
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Card frozenoptional | most common | You (or the co-pilot, at your request) froze it. Cards -> Unfreeze, retry. |
| 3-D Secure approval pendingoptional | large purchases | The purchase is waiting for you in Approvals. Approve with your passkey within the challenge window or it declines automatically. |
| Per-purchase limitoptional | single payment too big | Raise the per-purchase limit in card settings, retry, then set it back. |
| Daily limit reachedoptional | cumulative | Wait for the midnight UTC reset, or raise the daily limit for today. |
| Channel disabledoptional | wrong context | An online-only card used in person (or vice versa). Enable the channel in card settings. |
| Insufficient balanceoptional | check funding | The card spends your stablecoin balance. Top up, or change the card's asset priority if funds sit in a different token. |
Finding the cause fast
The declined transaction appears in your history with the reason in its subtitle. Faster still: ask the co-pilot "why did my card decline?" — it reads the card's state (frozen, limits, spent-today) directly. Pending 3-D Secure challenges live in Approvals, and enabling notifications means the approval prompt reaches you while you are still at the checkout.
When it is the merchant, not you
If the card is unfrozen, within limits, on the right channel, and funded — and the decline persists — the refusal is coming from the merchant's side. Retry once; if it repeats, open a ticket in the cards category with the merchant name and timestamp and we can see the authorization attempt from our end.
Declines cost nothing
Related: Freezing & Unfreezing, Managing Virtual Cards.