A customer payment has been declined

We see this from time to time and it's actually a pretty simple one, but the reason depends on whether it is you (the Gift Up! account holder) that is having the issue when you are testing (for example), or your customers.

Situation 1) You (the Gift Up! account holder) keep getting "card declined" when you try to place a real order.

When you've just set up your account it is quite normal to place a test transaction to test out the functionality of Gift Up! as if you were a real custom. 

Unfortunately, by doing this you will be browsing your checkout back and forth, placing potentially a few transactions, and generally displaying pretty usual behaviour as far as your payment processor is concerned. 

This behaviour is tracked by your payment processor (be it Stripe or PayPal) and they sometimes interpret your behaviour as suspicious and can decline transactions on the basis that it looks like fraudulent activity.

How to tell why it was declined

1. Triple check that the card details were entered 100% correctly. Although bear in mind that several attempts to get a declined card working may indeed place a block on your card, so be careful. 
2. Ask your card issuer. It is worth checking with your card issuer if they have declined the transaction as it can and does happen frequently for reasons known and unique to you.
3. Log in to your Stripe/PayPal dashboard and view the transaction. They are very informative as to why the transaction was declined, whether it was them that blocked the transaction from getting to your bank (suspicious behaviour), or if it was the bank that declined.

What we can say is that as Gift Up! we do not get to see any card details and ALL payment data is entirely handled by your payment processor. There is nothing we can do to affect whether a card gets declined or not. 

What can I do about it now?

We have a few suggestions for getting an order placed to test it out.

1. Wait a couple of hours. We do notice that sometimes when you try again later on, your card and the payment auto-magically works. So we do recommend waiting a few hours.
2. Try another card.
3. Try another computer / device.
4. Try another internet connection (like switching to a mobile phone data signal or switching wifi network).

Sometimes cards are declined after suspicious behaviour and your computer/browser/internet connection combination gets marked for a period of time as "at-risk", so changing one or all of these things can work.

Situation 2) A customer has tried to place an order, but keeps getting the card declined.

Again, we must stress that as Gift Up! we do not get to see any card details and ALL payment data is entirely handled by your payment processor. There is nothing we can do to affect whether a card gets declined or not.

However, quite typically the reason that a particular customer has had a payment declined is because the bank has declined the transaction. 

What you can do

1. Log in to your payment provider's dashboard and view the transaction. They are usually very informative as to why the transaction was declined (Stripe are especially good in this regard), whether it was your payment provider that blocked the transaction from getting to your customer's card issuing bank (due to suspicious behaviour), or if it was your customer's card issuing bank that declined the transaction (far more common). 
2. Inform your customer the result from the above, then to try another card, wait a couple of hours or triple check that the details are entered correctly. 
3. Connect an alternative payment processor to your account (like Stripe) and ask them to pay with that.

We know this is frustrating, but there is literally nothing we can do. Nor is there much you can do.

We take orders for thousands of gift cards every day, and it is simply a fact that a small percentage get declined for reasons that are hard to determine and almost always are down to the card issuer simply saying "no".