Card and Merchant Codes
Authorization Code
An authorization code is a short approval identifier returned when a card issuer authorizes a transaction.
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Card and Merchant Codes Terms
MCC, POS entry modes, AVS/CVV, 3-D Secure, decline concepts, and merchant acceptance codes — not proprietary network manuals.
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35 published definitions in this topic.
Card and Merchant Codes
AVS Response
An AVS response is the issuer’s match/partial/no-match result for address verification.
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Card Decline Code
A card decline code is a response label or value indicating why an authorization was not approved.
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Card Tokenization
Card tokenization replaces a primary account number with a surrogate value to reduce exposure of raw card data.
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Card-Not-Present Transaction
A card-not-present transaction is a payment taken without the physical card at a terminal—typically online, mail, or phone.
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Card-on-File Credential
A card-on-file credential is a stored payment credential a merchant or wallet keeps for future charges.
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Card-Present Transaction
A card-present transaction is a payment where the physical card (or device token) is used at the acceptance device.
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Chip Transaction
A chip transaction is a card-present payment authenticated with an EMV chip (contact).
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Contactless Transaction
A contactless transaction is a tap/NFC payment using a card or device wallet at a terminal.
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Device Primary Account Number
A DPAN is a device-specific token PAN used by mobile wallets instead of the card’s funding PAN.
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Do Not Honor
Do not honor is a common issuer decline type meaning the issuer will not approve the authorization for unspecified or policy reasons.
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Duplicate Transaction
A duplicate-transaction response indicates the issuer or switch sees the request as a repeat of a prior authorization.
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E-Commerce Indicator
An e-commerce indicator (ECI) signals how an online card payment was authenticated or initiated.
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EMV
EMV is the global chip-based payment-card specification managed by EMVCo.
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Expired Card Decline
An expired-card decline means the authorization used an expiration date the issuer treats as invalid or past.
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Fallback Transaction
A fallback transaction occurs when a chip card is accepted by stripe or keyed entry because chip reading failed.
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Funding Primary Account Number
An FPAN is the underlying funding primary account number—the “real” card account behind tokens and wallets.
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Generic Decline
A generic decline is a non-specific refusal that does not reveal a detailed issuer reason to the merchant.
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Incorrect PIN
Incorrect PIN means the personal identification number entered failed issuer verification.
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Invalid Amount
Invalid amount means the authorization amount is not acceptable under issuer or network edits.
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Invalid Transaction
Invalid transaction declines indicate the authorization request is not allowed for that card, merchant, or message format.
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Lost Card
A lost-card decline means the issuer has the card status flagged as lost.
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Magnetic-Stripe Transaction
A magnetic-stripe transaction captures card data by swiping the card’s magstripe.
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Mail-Order Transaction
A mail-order transaction is a card-not-present payment authorized from an order placed by mail.
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Manual Card Entry
Manual card entry means the PAN and related data are typed rather than read from chip, tap, or stripe.
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MOTO
MOTO means mail-order / telephone-order—card-not-present payments taken remotely by post or phone.
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Network Transaction ID
A network transaction ID is a card-scheme identifier for a transaction used in clearing, tokens, or lifecycle messages.
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Pick Up Card
Pick-up-card is an issuer decline type instructing the merchant to retain the card when safe and permitted.
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PIN Tries Exceeded
PIN tries exceeded means too many invalid PIN attempts locked further PIN use until reset.
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Point of Sale Entry Mode
Point-of-sale entry mode describes how card data was captured for an authorization (chip, swipe, tap, keyed, etc.).
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Recurring Payment Indicator
A recurring payment indicator marks an authorization as part of a repeating billing series.
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Restricted Card Decline
A restricted-card decline means the card product or account is limited from that merchant, region, or transaction type.
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Reversal Response Code
A reversal response code is the result returned when an authorization reversal or void message is processed.
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Stolen Card
A stolen-card decline means the issuer has the card status flagged as stolen.
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Telephone-Order Transaction
A telephone-order transaction is a card-not-present payment authorized from an order taken by phone.
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