This page contains an overview of the possible scenarios where a capture can fail because it was rejected by a card scheme and what, if anything, you need to do in each case. There are five possible scenarios:
- Technical issue
- Shopper cancelled the payment
- Incorrect request
- Account configuration error
- Capture expired
Because captures and refunds are treated in the same way by card schemes, these scenarios apply equally to failed refunds.
When a capture fails, we inform you of this with a CAPTURE_FAILED webhook. The webhook event does not contain the reason why the capture failed.
To find out why the capture failed, see the Payment details page in your Customer Area. There, you will see an error message explaining why the capture failed and what you need to do.
Technical issue
The most common reason for failed captures is a technical issue with the capture request, as indicated by the following error message:
Capture rejected by card scheme because of a technical issue.
What you need to do
You do not need to take any action. Adyen will try to fix the issue and re-capture the transaction. If the transaction is re-captured, the status of the payment becomes SentForSettle, and you receive a webhook event with:
eventCode: CAPTUREsuccess: truereason: Transaction Recaptured
If the transaction is not re-captured within 10 days, contact our Support Team.
If you are using Pass-through payout, these errors will result in a settlement delay — the funds will only be paid out to you after we've successfully captured the payment.
Shopper cancelled the payment
If you are accepting recurring payments such as subscription payments or automatic top-ups, it might happen that the shopper cancelled their payment through their bank before you captured the payment. You will then see the following error message:
Capture rejected by card scheme because the shopper cancelled the recurring payment through their bank.
What you need to do
There is nothing that either you or Adyen can do to re-capture the transaction. Consider reaching out directly to the shopper.
Incorrect request
A capture can fail if the capture request contains incorrect information, or is missing some information. For example, airlines require you to pass passenger name, so submitting an invalid passenger name might lead to a failed capture.
The error message contains the raw error message sent by the card scheme:
Capture rejected by card scheme:
raw error message from the scheme(incorrect request).
What you need to do
Contact our Support Team, providing:
- The PSP reference of the capture request.
- The error message.
We will fix the issue and re-capture the payment for you.
Account configuration error
In some cases, a capture fails because something is configured incorrectly on your Adyen account. This affects all payments processed through your account, so you will probably see the same error for multiple transactions.
The error message contains the raw error message sent by the card scheme:
Capture rejected by card scheme:
raw error message from the scheme(account configuration error).
What you need to do
Contact our Support Team, providing:
- The PSP reference of the capture request.
- The error message.
After you receive confirmation that we have corrected your account configuration, you can re-capture all payments that failed because of this issue.
Capture expired
Sometimes, a capture fails because you submitted the capture request too late. In this case it is no longer possible to re-capture this authorisation. If you still want to get the funds for this payment, a new authorisation is required.
The error message contains the raw error message sent by the card scheme:
Capture rejected by card scheme:
raw error message from the scheme(capture expired).
What you need to do
If you want to re-authorise this payment, contact our Support Team.
To avoid this error in the future, make sure that you capture payments within the scheme expiry time. For an overview of expiry information from major card schemes, refer to Authorisation validity.
Alternatively, you can extend the authorisation by making an /adjustAuthorisation request, providing a modificationAmount that is the same as the original authorised amount.