Merchant advice codes and Visa category codes
The Merchant Advice Code (MAC) or Visa Category Code (VCC) can be part of the data you receive in a transaction response for a recurring payment.
The main purpose of these codes is to help you determine whether you can retry a declined transaction.
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 was hard declined, you cannot retry it. If it was 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 was hard declined, you cannot retry it. If it was soft declined, you can retry it 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 3 months ago
Display transactions related to an order and recover failed billing events