Troubleshoot Payment Gateway Configuration Issues

If you're having trouble charging cards, work through the checks below to find the cause. In many cases, the error message displayed (such as "Credit Card Invalid") doesn't reflect the real problem, which is often a Payment Gateway misconfiguration in Advanced Billing rather than an issue with the card itself.

Verify your gateway credentials and API login

Double-check the gateway credentials you've entered into your Advanced Billing Site settings. For instance, Authorize.net and PayPal Website Payments Pro have different login and password for their API than for your regular, human login. This is a common and easy mistake.

Match your site mode to your gateway mode

Make sure your Advanced Billing Site is in the same mode as your gateway account. For instance, an Advanced Billing Live Site must be connected to a gateway in "Live" or "Production" mode. Conversely, an Advanced Billing Test Site must be connected to a gateway in "Test" mode.

Confirm the gateway's card storage feature is turned on

Contact your gateway provider and make sure their card storage solution is enabled for your account. For Authorize.net, this is called "Customer Information Manager" or CIM and can be enabled via their administrative interface for an extra monthly fee. For all other supported gateways, this is called something like "Tokenized Billing" or "Vault Storage," etc.

If you just added CIM to Authorize.net recently (within the last 24 hours), it may not work yet. Several merchants have reported that things started working fine about 24 hours after turning on the CIM option in Authorize.net.

Try a charge directly in your gateway, without using Advanced Billing

Log in to your gateway provider's administrative interface and attempt to run a charge using the same information. If the charge does not go through, contact your gateway provider directly. An issue may exist between your gateway and merchant account providers.

Try multiple credit cards

Try more than one credit card, and more than one type of card. If only one customer is having problems, then you know the problem lies with their card or something about them. For instance, if you are in the USA and they are in Australia, maybe their credit card bank is blocking because they think it's strange or unusual, or maybe your Payment Gateway is blocking (see below).

Check your payment gateway's address-verification and anti-fraud settings (AVS)

Your Payment Gateway, such as Authorize.net, has many settings that allow or block transactions. Various settings tell the gateway how to react if there is a billing address mismatch with your customer's credit card, or if the customer's card-issuing bank does not support address verification, or if their card bank is outside the USA, or if the card bank is simply in a different country than the merchant (you), etc. These settings inside your gateway account are meant to protect you from fraudulent charges. You need to log into your Payment Gateway website and adjust these settings as you learn your customer profile and behavior. It's a balance between making it easy for your customers and preventing fraud.

Confirm your merchant account accepts American Express

Note that most merchant accounts are not set up to accept American Express unless you specifically ask for it, and you usually have to fill out separate paperwork. Your Payment Gateway accepts the transaction, but then your merchant account returns some sort of error.