Payment Failures

Card declines happen at the bank level — not with SplitGive or Stripe. Common reasons your card may be declined:

• Insufficient funds: Your account doesn't have enough balance or available credit to cover the donation amount plus any fees.
• Online transaction block: Some banks block international or online transactions by default. Contact your bank to authorize the charge or temporarily lift the restriction.
• Fraud prevention: Your bank's fraud detection flagged the charge as unusual. This is common for first-time transactions with a new merchant. Contact your bank to confirm the charge and try again.
• Card expired or wrong details: Double-check the card number, expiry date, and CVV you entered. Even a single incorrect digit will cause a decline.
• Prepaid or gift cards: Some prepaid cards are not accepted for recurring or online transactions. Try a different payment method.

3D Secure (3DS) is an additional authentication step required by some banks. When triggered, you'll see a popup or be redirected to your bank's website to confirm the payment with a code or biometric.

• If the popup appeared and you completed it: Your donation should have gone through. Check your email for a receipt. If you don't see one after a few minutes, check your spam folder.
• If the popup was blocked: Your browser may have blocked the 3DS popup. Disable any popup blockers for this page and try again.
• If authentication failed: The code you entered may have expired or been incorrect. Start a new donation and complete the authentication promptly when prompted.
• If you were redirected but the page didn't return: Close the tab and return to the donation page. In most cases the payment status is resolved in the background — check your email for a receipt before trying again to avoid a duplicate charge.

Before contacting support, check the following:

• Is it a pending authorization? Some banks show a temporary hold before the charge is captured. This should clear within 1–3 business days if the payment was declined.
• Did you retry the payment? If you submitted the donation form multiple times thinking it failed, you may have multiple charges. Check your email for multiple receipts. If you were charged more than once, contact support with the details.
• Does the amount include fees? If you chose to cover processing fees, your total will be slightly higher than the donation amount. Check your receipt for a full breakdown.

A "pending" donation is normal in some scenarios:

• Card processing delay: Most card payments are confirmed within seconds, but some take a few minutes. Refresh the page or check your email for a receipt.
• Pledge created instead of immediate charge: If any recipient on the page hasn't connected their Stripe account, your donation becomes a pledge. This is expected behavior — see pledge troubleshooting.