Adyen Refusal Code 8: Invalid Card Number
The specified card number is incorrect or invalid. The shopper should check and re-enter their card details.
What it means
Adyen refusal code 8 indicates that the primary account number (PAN) provided in the authorization request is structurally incorrect or cannot be recognized as a valid account. This is a front-line data-quality error, meaning the card number failed basic validity checks, such as the Luhn algorithm or length requirements, rather than being blocked for risk or insufficient funds.
Classification & retryability
Common causes
- The customer made a typo when manually entering their credit or debit card number during checkout.
- The provided primary account number (PAN) fails basic structural validation, such as the Luhn check-digit algorithm or minimum length requirements.
- A recurring payment request was sent with a missing or mismatched token (recurringDetailReference or storedPaymentMethodId) and shopper identifier.
- The card issuer or network cannot recognize the account number, returning a raw error code like ISO 14 (No such number).
How to resolve it
Resolving refusal code 8 requires correcting the invalid payment data before attempting another transaction. For one-time purchases, the shopper must be prompted to verify and re-enter their card number or provide an alternative payment method. For recurring or tokenized transactions, merchants must verify that the stored payment method ID is correctly paired with the corresponding shopper reference.
For merchants
Do not blindly retry the same card number or token, as this is a hard decline caused by invalid data. Inspect your API requests for recurring transactions to ensure storedPaymentMethodId or recurringDetailReference are correctly passed and matched with the correct shopperReference. If the stored token is inherently flawed, remove the invalid card-on-file and prompt the customer to update their billing details.
For customers
Carefully check the credit or debit card number entered during checkout and type it again, ensuring there are no missing or incorrect digits. If the card number is entered correctly but still fails, try a different payment method or contact your card issuer to verify the account status.