Visanet Rejection (Acquiring side of processing)

This is the first in a series of educational articles connected to common issues encountered during Visanet processing. The first article is regarding Visanet Rejection situations.

Whilst the word "reject" is commonly used in day-to-day life, for Visanet processing it has a particular purpose, which is to signify that Visanet has rejected the processing of the message due to incorrect data.

Let's walk through the scenario

A reject on the acquiring side means the transaction fails at the first stage after the acquirer sends it to VisaNet. It never reaches the issuer host for authorization. VisaNet returns a reject code with the message that is rejected back to the source, and the acquirer cannot try again until the cardholder initiates a new attempt.

Major Format arrived with his clipboard showing VisaNet Reject Code 27 ("Invalid Track 2 data") as the cause. He reminded everyone to follow the technical specifications.

Understanding the Impact

A reject on the acquiring side means the transaction fails at the first stage after the acquirer sends it to VisaNet. It never reaches the issuer host for authorization. Unlike a simple retry, there is no immediate fix and resubmit. In practice, data-quality problems can persist for days, weeks, or even months until the acquirer corrects the message formatting.

The worst part is that cardholders cannot get their goods or cash. Satisfaction drops and the issuer's brand may take the blame, because cardholders usually do not realize the acquirer was at fault.

For a review of your host system for reject issues — or any other problems that cause cardholder declines — contact Payment Authorization Expertise.