A buyer could not complete the payment

At a glance

If a buyer tells you they could not pay, the charge almost always stopped at their bank or at Stripe, the payment processor. There is no setting we can flip on our side to "let that purchase through."

What works best: they talk to their bank, double-check the card details, and try again - or they use a different card.

Why this happens

Card payments go through several automatic checks. If any of them decline the charge, the purchase does not complete. The most common causes:

The buyer's bank did not authorize the charge. This is the most frequent reason. Banks block charges they do not recognize - especially online purchases, with a new merchant, or in another currency. It does not mean the ZebraSnap account is misconfigured, and it does not mean we are rejecting that person: the bank simply did not let the charge through. They can call their bank (or use the app), confirm the charge is legitimate, and try again.

Stripe flagged the payment as risky. Stripe has automatic fraud filters. Sometimes a real payment looks suspicious and they block it. Those rules belong to their engine. We cannot change them, and we cannot mark a buyer as "trusted."

A card detail does not match. Expiration date, security code, postal code: one extra digit and the bank declines the charge. It happens more often than it seems. Checking the details, or trying another card, is usually enough.

The order is below the minimum amount. Card checkouts must total at least US$0.50 (converted from your album's currency). Below that, the buyer sees: "This order is below the minimum amount we can charge. Please ask the photographer to raise the price." This one is on your side: raise your prices so the order clears the minimum. See Commissions and fees.

What you can tell them

You can copy something like this:

The payment did not go through. Most often the bank blocks it for security, or a card detail does not match. We recommend calling your bank to authorize the charge and trying again, or using a different card. ZebraSnap cannot unblock that payment from our side.

You can also send them My payment was declined, the buyer-facing version of this article.

If you sell in Mexico and have OXXO or SPEI, mention it: paying in cash or by transfer is sometimes easier than retrying the same card. See Pay with cash at OXXO or by SPEI transfer.

If you get paid with dLocal Go, your buyers pay on dLocal Go's checkout page with the local methods for your country, so a declined payment there is handled by dLocal Go and the buyer's bank. They can also try another method on that page. See Sell with local payment methods using dLocal Go.

What we can and cannot do

• We cannot force through a charge that the bank or Stripe declined, and we cannot adjust Stripe's filters.
• We can check whether the payment reached processing or never completed, if you write to us with the buyer's email.

If they already talked to their bank, checked the details, and still cannot pay, contact us with the email they used at checkout. We will look at whether anything else is going on with the order.