Card Payments Declined with: NOTAUTHED / 2000: The Authorization was Declined by the bank on Specific Merchant Accounts

Solution

Issue

Certain card payments are declined on specific merchant accounts/routes, while payments succeed on an alternative merchant account.

What you see (exact receipt wording)

• Merchant response Code: NOTAUTHED
• Message from Merchant: 2000 : The Authorisation was Declined by the bank.

Impact

Agents cannot take card payments reliably on specific sales/payment-line routes. Payments may need to be rerouted (for example, processed via an alternative working merchant account) to complete transactions.

What this error means

A NOTAUTHED / 2000 : The Authorisation was Declined by the bank. result indicates:

• The payment platform submitted an authorisation request and received a bank-style decline response.
• This differs from a platform connectivity issue where the Virtual Terminal shows an explicit “ERROR” status (often associated with a gateway/API-link failure).

Investigation / Troubleshooting method

1) Confirm it is a bank decline (not a platform “ERROR”)

Check the Virtual Terminal result/receipt:

• If it shows NOTAUTHED and “Declined by the bank”, treat it as an authorisation decline decision.
• If it shows Transaction Status = ERROR (or similar), troubleshoot as a gateway/communication issue instead.

2) Collect “traceable” examples (minimum set)

Gather at least 3 recent failed examples per affected merchant route, plus at least 1–2 successful examples from the working merchant route for comparison. For each example, capture:

• Date/time (include timezone if possible)
• Amount
• Order/reference
• Merchant account identifier(s) (affected vs. working)
• Transaction ID / reference shown on the receipt
• The exact response text/code shown (for example, NOTAUTHED, 2000 ... Declined by the bank)
• Payment line/service identifier (if applicable)

Do not share full PAN/card number or CVV. Use only masked/last-4 if already present.

3) Provider validation (when applicable)

If your payment flow includes an upstream provider (for example, BCH), raise a provider case including:

• The failed and successful examples
• The affected vs. working merchant identifiers
• A request to confirm whether the provider sees any processing fault vs. a bank decline

In this scenario, BCH confirmed they are not the bank and cannot determine the reason for the decline; the customer must speak to their bank/acquirer.

Resolution

Required action: Bank/acquirer must trace and explain the declines

Because the receipts show NOTAUTHED / 2000 : The Authorisation was Declined by the bank., the next step is to work with the bank/acquirer to obtain the underlying decline reason/sub-code.

Provide the bank/acquirer with:

• Affected merchant account IDs: <affected_merchant_id_1>, <affected_merchant_id_2>, …
• Working merchant account ID: <working_merchant_id>
• For each failed attempt:
  • Date/time
  • Amount
  • Transaction ID/reference
  • Merchant account ID used

Ask the bank/acquirer to:

1. Locate each authorisation attempt and confirm it is visible in their acquiring logs.
2. Provide the underlying decline reason/sub-code for each attempt (not just “declined”).
3. Confirm which merchant account they traced (ensure they checked the affected merchant IDs, not only the working one).
4. Check whether there are merchant-account-specific controls (risk rules, CNP/telephone payment enablement, velocity limits, category restrictions, fraud screening) that differ between the affected merchant accounts and the working merchant account.

If the bank says “we can’t find anything”

Request written confirmation of:

• Which merchant IDs they checked
• Which date/time window they searched
• Whether they checked acquiring-side logs for the merchant account(s)
• What additional identifier they require to trace the attempts (transaction ID, acquirer reference, etc.)

Use that information for next-step guidance.