Adyen Refusal Code 6: Expired Card
The card used for the transaction has expired and is therefore unusable. The shopper should use a different, valid card.
What it means
Adyen refusal reason code 6 indicates that the credit or debit card used for the transaction has an expiration date in the past. Because the card is no longer valid, the issuer or network completely blocks the authorization, often mapping from ISO 8583 response code 54. This acts as a definitive hard decline, meaning the payment cannot proceed with the currently provided card credentials.
Classification & retryability
Common causes
- The shopper attempted to check out using a card whose expiration month and year have already passed.
- A recurring subscription payment was processed using an older card-on-file that has recently expired.
- The customer manually entered their card details incorrectly, typing a past date for the expiry.
How to resolve it
Resolve this decline by collecting updated payment information. Do not attempt to retry the transaction using the exact same card number and expiration date, as it will continually fail as a hard decline. Instead, prompt the shopper to provide their new expiration date or an entirely different payment method.
For merchants
For active checkouts, surface a clear, user-facing error message instructing the user that their card has expired. For recurring or card-on-file billing, trigger an automated 'update your payment method' email or SMS workflow. To proactively prevent code 6 declines in the future, implement Adyen's Account Updater service and leverage network tokenization to automatically keep card-on-file expiration dates current without customer intervention.
For customers
Review the physical card to confirm the expiration date. If the card is expired, use a newly issued replacement card with an updated expiration date, or provide a completely different valid payment method to complete the purchase.