Why are my profiles disabled and showing red

Modified on Tue, 09 Jan 2024 at 10:39 AM


When a card is disabled due to error it will not be used to process transaction during Auto Pay. You can still manually attempt to process transactions with these cards, however, it is not recommended to do so if the reason it is disabled is due to too many sequential declines.


Merchant account providers may disable or block a card on for your merchant account if you have too many declines on a card or cards without a successful transaction. It's important not to retry the card too often - see more details in the last section of this article on this.  


Benji Pays automatically disables your cards should you be getting close to the threshold to help avoid this issue, however if you manually attempt to process the card after we've disabled it, you may make the problem worse, extending the length of time your merchant account or gateway provider will block you from using that card.


The reason you may receive multiple "Profile Disabled" messages for each invoice is that the system attempts to process the invoice using each of the saved payment profiles, one at a time. So if you have multiple Payment Profiles saved for a customer you will see multiple  "Profile Disabled" Transaction results.  

Why do profiles get disabled "due to error"


Payment profiles are auto disabled for many reasons including:

  • Too many subsequent declines on a card.  
  • Decline result indicates the card is now invalid or should not be retried
  • An error applying your payment in your accounting system.



How can I find out why the card is disabled?


To view the transaction history for a customer, click the clock icon on the profiles row.






You will be taken to the transaction history page for that profile, click on the result pills to view the details of that transaction.







What should I do when a card is error disabled?


If you are certain that the card is actually valid and you have reviewed the history (see above), you can edit and enable the card for auto processing. 

Note that you risk your gateway (Moneris, Elavon etc) blocking this card for you if you have too many Declines without an approval for the card.  See more in the section below.




If you are not sure that the card is still good, review the transaction history by clicking the clock icon and then the result pill to see the detailed transaction messages.  They will generally give you a good idea on what happened.  See above.



You will very likely need to request a new card  from your customer using credit card icon on the error disabled profile.






You will then see a window that allows you to send your customer a Payment Info Request to replace the problematic card.  Send your customer the Payment Info request and when they fill out the request, the profile will be re-enabled and be ready for Auto Processing.



What could happen if I keep retrying a disabled card or payment profile?


Note that you risk your gateway (Moneris, Elavon etc) blocking this card for you if you have too many Declines without an approval for the card.  See more in the section below.

My customer spoke with their bank and everything is fine with the account. Why is the charge declining?


This may be due to card brand rules regarding the number of times a merchant can retry a card that is declining before that card is blocked for the merchant for a period of time.


The card brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express etc.) all have their own rules as to how many subsequent declines a merchant can have for any given card before that merchant should be blocked from using that card again for a period of time. This is to prevent fraud.


Each payment gateway enforces these rules a little differently, but in general, if you have 10 or more subsequent declines in a 30 day period, the card will be blocked for your merchant account until 30 days have passed with no declines.


You may also be blocked if you have too many retries in a single day, this could be a low number, for instance 4 times in a few minutes may raise a block.  


Benji Pays does not control these blocks and can not unblock your merchant account.  You can contact your merchant account provider (Moneris, Elavon etc.) and ask them to help, but they may not be able to remove the block.


Benji Pays automatically disables payment profiles after you reach 8 subsequent declines.


You may still attempt that card, however note that you may cause it to be blocked.  


If you are getting many subsequent blocks, ask your customer for a new card, or wait a few days before retrying before re-enabling the card for auto processing.


Here are some examples of the difference between a Moneris transaction declined by the card holders bank, vs one declined by Moneris Velocity Control Fraud Protection.  You may see similar differences in these transactions in other gateways.


In Benji Pays




In the Moneris Gateway






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