This article describes a change in how CyberSource soft declines are handled in Payment Center.

What is a soft decline?

According to CyberSource, 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.

Previous behavior

Previously, Payment Center treats soft declines as successful payments, with a note on the payment record indicating it's a soft decline (the actual note comes from CyberSource).

The following then need to happen:

  1. In CyberSource, you need to review the soft decline and either continue to process the sale, or reject the sale.
  2. After you process/reject the sale in CyberSource, go to Payment Center and do the following:
    • If you processed the sale, then there is nothing to do since the payment was already marked as successful.
    • If you rejected the sale, then update the payment in Payment Center to indicate that the sale is not successful.

New behavior (starting Spring '21)

With the new behavior, if a soft decline happens, Payment Center will mark the payment as "Authorized - PENDING REVIEW", still with a note indicating it's a soft decline.

The following then need to happen:

In Payment Center:

  • If you decide to process the sale, then simply capture the payment by hitting the Capture button.
  • If you decide to reject the sale, then simply void the payment by hitting the Void button.

Notice that with the new behavior, you don't have to go to CyberSource to process or reject the sale, you can instead do them in Payment Center.