A payment was declined or can't be taken

CIQRA Pay is your store’s payments engine, built on Stripe Connect. When a payment fails or you can’t take money at all, it’s usually one of a small number of causes — some on your side (setup), some on the shopper’s side (their bank).

Things to check

• Is CIQRA Pay onboarding complete? Until onboarding is finished, charges can’t be captured, so no payment will succeed. If your store is brand new or you’ve never taken a live payment, confirm CIQRA Pay onboarding is complete — see Payments — CIQRA Pay.
• Did the shopper’s bank decline the card? The most common single-order failure is a card declined by the shopper’s bank or issuer — insufficient funds, fraud screening, or an expired card. CIQRA can’t override that; ask the customer to try another card or check with their bank.
• Is the payment currency enabled? If the currency the shopper is paying in isn’t enabled for your store, the charge can’t be taken. Confirm the currencies you sell in are enabled.
• Is there a risk or reserve hold? New accounts can carry a risk/reserve hold as a standard safeguard, which can affect capture or payouts. If onboarding is complete and cards are still failing across the board, this is worth ruling out with support.

Tip

A quick way to tell “my store” problems from “their card” problems: if every payment fails, look at onboarding, currency, or a hold. If one shopper’s card fails but others succeed, it’s almost certainly their bank.

Caution

Refunds go back through CIQRA Pay to the original payment, so you don’t refund customers by hand outside the platform. See Handle returns and refunds.