Merchant advice codes and Visa category codes
The Merchant Advice Code (MAC) or Visa Category Code (VCC) can be part of the data that you receive in a transaction response for a recurring payment.
The main purpose of these codes is to help you to know if you can retry a declined transaction or not.
Visa table of Visa Category Codes (VCC)
| Description | Visa Category Code (VCC) | In BillPro |
|---|---|---|
| Approved | 0 | Approved |
| Issuer will never approve | 1 | Hard-declined |
| Issuer cannot approve at this time | 2 | Soft-declined |
| Data quality issues / revalidate data | 3 | Soft-declined |
| Generic response codes | 4 | Soft-declined |
If the transaction is hard-declined, you cannot retry it. If the transaction is soft-declined, you can retry it up to 15 times within 30 days of the soft decline.
MasterCard table of Merchant Advice Codes (MACs)
| MAC Code | Description | In BillPro |
|---|---|---|
| 00 | Approved | Approved |
| 01 | Updated/additional information needed | Soft-declined |
| 02 | Try again later | Soft-declined |
| 03 | Do not try again | Hard-declined |
| 04 | Token requirements are not fulfilled for this token type | Soft-declined |
| 21 | Payment cancellation | Hard-declined |
If the transaction is hard-declined, you cannot retry the transaction. If the transaction is soft-declined, you can retry the transaction up to 15 times in 30 days.
In addition to these codes, the scheme response code can give you more details about why the transaction failed. If there is no merchant advice code or scheme response code and the transaction is declined, it is possible that the transaction was soft-declined, or it may have failed at the payment gateway. For more details, see Display related transactions for an order.
Updated 5 months ago
Display transactions related to an order and recover failed billing events