Failed-payment guideStripe decline reason: transaction_not_allowed
transaction_not_allowed means the bank refused this kind of transaction on this card — often recurring or card-not-present. Why retries will not help, and what to ask the customer.
The bank refused this type of transaction on this card. Stripe classifies it with the unknown-reason declines and points the customer at their issuer, but the practical meaning is narrower than a generic decline: something about the shape of the charge, not the balance, was refused. Recurring charges, card-not-present charges and cross-border charges are the usual candidates.
Retrying an identical charge will usually produce an identical refusal, because nothing about the transaction has changed. This is the decline where waiting for Stripe's retry schedule is least likely to pay off.
transaction_not_allowedYour customer's bank sends its own numeric code, which Stripe surfaces separately from its decline_code. The same number means different things on different card networks, and Stripe does not publish a strict one-to-one mapping between them, so treat these as codes commonly seen with this failure rather than as equivalents.
| Code | Network | What the network calls it |
|---|---|---|
57 | Visa | Transaction not permitted to cardholder. |
58 | Visa | Transaction not allowed at terminal. |
62 | Visa | Restricted card (card invalid in this region or country). |
57 | Mastercard | Transaction not permitted to issuer / cardholder. |
5C | Visa | Transaction not supported/blocked by issuer. |
119 | American Express | Not enrolled / permitted. |
Quoted from Stripe's network decline codes reference.
Highly recoverable, but only by changing card — not by retrying. The customer almost always still wants the subscription; their card simply cannot do this kind of charge.
This is the exact template MRRdue's recovery assistant suggests for transaction_not_allowed cases. Copy it, swap the details, and send it from your own address.
Subject: Let's keep your subscription running
Hi Alex, Your $49.00 payment is still pending (your bank doesn't allow this type of payment on that card), and I wanted to reach out personally so nothing gets interrupted on your end. Here's a secure link to update your payment details — it only takes a minute: https://invoice.stripe.com/i/… If something doesn't look right, or you're not sure what changed, just reply here and we'll help you figure it out. Thanks so much, Your SaaS
More variants (and retention-risk templates) in the free recovery email template gallery.
MRRdue imports your failed payments with read-only access, ranks them by recoverable dollars and decline reason, and drafts this email for every case. You stay the sender.