Definition

A soft decline occurs when a transaction has been authorized by a customer's card--issuing bank but rejected by CyberSource due to a business rule setting. The authorization has completed successfully, placing a hold on funds in the customer's bank account and settlement has not yet occurred. At this point, the merchant may continue to process the sale by requesting settlement, or reject the sale by requesting an authorization reversal, removing the hold on funds in the customer's account.

Examples of soft declines

Reason Code	Reply Flag (rflag)	Status (REST API)	Reason (REST API)	REST: Message (SCMP: r_message)	Explanation
200	DAVSNO	AUTHORIZED_PENDING_REVIEW	AVS_FAILED	Soft Decline - The authorization request was approved by the issuing bank but declined by CyberSource because it did not pass the Address Verification Service (AVS) check.	The authorization request did not pass the Address Verification Service (AVS) check.
230	DCV	AUTHORIZED_PENDING_REVIEW	CV_FAILED	Soft Decline - The authorization request was approved by the issuing bank but declined by CyberSource because it did not pass the card verification number (CVN) check.	The authorization request did not pass the Card Verification Number (CVN), also referred to as Card Verification Value (CVV), check.

Note: Values listed above are only returned by the Credit Card Authorization service which offers AVS and CVN/CVV checks.

In the specific industry context of merchants who process recurring transactions, the term soft decline may also refer to an issuing bank decline resulting from a temporary condition such as NSF (non-sufficient funds). In these cases, the transaction(s) may be resubmitted once the temporary condition is resolved.