---
title: "When a Card is Declined"
subtitle: "What to do if your bank declines a Luma ticket purchase."
slug: "card-declined"
url: "https://help.luma.com/p/card-declined"
tags: ["Troubleshooting"]
---

Luma processes payments through Stripe and sees above-industry-average card acceptance. Even so, a small percentage of transactions are declined. Almost all declines come from the cardholder’s bank — not from Luma or Stripe — so we can’t see why a specific bank blocked a charge or override the decision.

Below is guidance you can follow if your card was declined.

## Common Reasons a Card is Declined

- **Incorrect card details** — a typo in the card number, expiration date, CVV, or billing address.
- **Insufficient funds** or the card is at its credit limit.
- **Expired card.**
- **Bank anti-fraud filters** — banks may block charges that look unusual, especially international purchases, larger-than-normal amounts, or payments to a merchant the cardholder hasn’t used before. This is the most common cause for guests in regions like Italy, France, and parts of Latin America.
- **Online or international payments not enabled.** Some banks (and most prepaid or virtual cards) require you to explicitly opt in to online or cross-border transactions.

## What to Try

**1. Double-check the card details.**
Re-enter the card number, expiration, CVV, and billing address. Small typos are the single most common cause of declines.

**2. Try Apple Pay or Google Pay.**
Wallet payments use a tokenized card number and often clear bank anti-fraud filters that block raw card entries. If Apple Pay or Google Pay is available at checkout, try that next.

**3. Try a different card.**
A different card — ideally from a different bank — often works on the first try.

**4. Contact your bank.**
If the same card keeps failing, your bank is the only party that can unblock it. Call the number on the back of the card and:

- Ask them to authorize the transaction. Have the merchant name (from the statement descriptor on previous attempts) and approximate amount ready.
- Confirm international and online purchases are enabled on the card.
- Ask if there’s a temporary block from a fraud alert that needs to be lifted.

Many banks also let you manage these settings yourself in their app — look for “card controls,” “international payments,” or “travel notice.”

**5. Retry the purchase.**
Once your bank confirms the card is cleared, return to the event page and try again.

## For Hosts

**Check your Stripe dashboard for decline details.** Because Luma processes charges directly on your connected Stripe account, every failed attempt appears in your Stripe dashboard with the specific decline reason from the card network (e.g. `insufficient_funds`, `do_not_honor`, `card_declined`). Open [dashboard.stripe.com](https://dashboard.stripe.com) → **Payments** to see what Stripe received. This is more detail than is exposed in Luma and can help you advise individual guests.

If multiple guests from the same region report declines, consider:

- **Customizing your Stripe statement descriptor** so it reflects your event brand in a recognizable, localized way. See [How to Set Up Your Stripe Account](/p/how-to-set-up-your-stripe-account) for the steps. A recognizable descriptor reduces bank anti-fraud blocks and makes guests less likely to dispute charges they don’t recognize.
- **Enabling additional payment methods** for your audience’s region. See [Payment Methods](/p/payment-methods) for the full list of supported options like Bancontact, iDEAL, Przelewy24, and others.

Luma doesn’t support every regional payment method (Satispay, Bancomat Pay, and PayPal aren’t available, for example), but feedback on what your audience needs is welcome.