Getting charged for a card payment that didn’t even go through can feel confusing. If your transaction was declined, you may wonder: Why am I being charged a fee?
The answer has to do with what happens behind the scenes when you make a card payment.
A declined payment still creates a payment attempt
When you use your Accrue Virtual Card to make a payment, the transaction doesn’t simply go from your card to the merchant. It passes through a payment network and other providers that work behind the scenes to process the transaction. Once a payment attempt reaches the network, there is a cost associated with processing that attempt.
That cost can apply even when the transaction is ultimately declined.
The important information is that the fee isn’t charged by Accrue. Our card provider charges it when a payment attempt is declined.
Here's an example:
Let’s say you have an Apple Music subscription connected to your Accrue Virtual Card.
Your subscription is due for renewal, but your card doesn’t have enough funds when Apple attempts to charge you. Apple sends the payment request. The request reaches the payment network, but because there aren’t enough funds available, the transaction is declined.
You might reasonably think, “Nothing was paid, so there shouldn’t be a charge,” but from a payment-processing perspective, a transaction was still attempted. The payment provider had to process that request before it could return a decline and if Apple automatically retries the payment later, that creates another payment attempt.
This is why multiple declined attempts from recurring subscriptions can result in multiple decline fees.
Why does Accrue charge a decline fee?
Accrue doesn’t set or charge this fee. The fee comes from our card provider to cover the cost of processing a declined payment attempt. We pass that cost on rather than absorbing it into the cost of every card transaction.
We understand that seeing a fee attached to a declined payment can be frustrating, especially when you weren’t intentionally trying to make repeated payments.
That’s also why we want to be transparent about how these fees work.
How we’re helping you avoid unnecessary fees
We don’t want you to incur fees simply because a subscription or merchant keeps retrying a payment.
That’s why we have safeguards around card usage and notify you when we detect declined payment attempts. These alerts can help you see what happened and act before another attempt is made.
For example, if you see repeated declines from a subscription you no longer use, you can cancel the subscription or remove your Accrue Virtual Card as the payment method.
If you still want the subscription, make sure your card is sufficiently funded before the next payment attempt to help prevent another decline.
A few simple habits can help:
Keep enough funds on your card.
Before making a payment or when a subscription is due, check that your card has enough available balance to cover the charge.
Check your recurring subscriptions.
Subscriptions can automatically retry failed payments. Review the services linked to your card and make sure you still need them.
Pay attention to decline notifications.
If Accrue alerts you about a declined transaction, check what caused it. It could be an insufficient balance, an expired subscription, or another issue with the merchant.
Avoid repeated payment attempts when your card isn’t funded.
If a payment has already been declined because of insufficient funds, repeated retries may result in additional processing costs and deletion of your virtual card.
TL;DR
A decline fee is a processing cost associated with attempting a card transaction that is ultimately declined, charged by our partners.
We understand decline fees can be confusing, especially when a transaction doesn’t go through; hence, our goal is to make the process as transparent as possible and give you the information and safeguards you need to avoid unnecessary charges.
So before your next card payment or that subscription you forgot was still active, take a quick look at your available balance.
It could save you from an unnecessary decline.
