C
Checkout.com20005
Declined - Do Not Honour
Soft Decline
Temporary failures that may succeed on retry
Retryable
This decline may succeed on retry
Description
The issuer has declined the transaction without providing a specific reason. This is the most common decline code and covers a wide range of issuer-side rejections.
Recommended Action
Retry with exponential backoff. If repeated failures occur, ask the customer to contact their bank or use a different card.
Common Causes
- Failed CVV or Address Verification Service (AVS) checks
- Bank's internal fraud rules flagged the transaction
- Temporary hold placed on the customer's card
- Multiple declined attempts triggered a purchase session lock
- Seller and issuer located in different countries
Recovery Tips
- Retry after a few hours — the hold may be temporary
- Send a dunning email asking the customer to contact their bank
- Request the customer try a different payment card
- Consider adding 3D Secure authentication to improve approval rates
Quick Reference
Code
20005
Category
Soft Decline
Retryable
Yes
Source
Checkout
Related Decline Codes
20001Retryable
Refer to Card Issuer
The issuer has declined the transaction and asks the cardholder to contact them. This is a generic referral response.
20002Retryable
Refer to Card Issuer - Special Conditions
The issuer has declined the transaction under special conditions. The cardholder should contact their bank.
20009Retryable
Request in Progress
The transaction is currently being processed. A duplicate request may have been submitted.
20015Retryable
No Such Issuer
The card cannot be processed through the debit network. The transaction should be routed to the card's signature network instead.
Automate Payment Recovery for Checkout
Slicker automatically handles decline codes like 20005 by intelligently retrying at the optimal time based on the decline reason.