Visa reason code 11.2: declined authorization

What Visa 11.2 means

Visa’s rule: an authorization request received a decline or pick-up response, and the merchant completed the transaction anyway. When the bank files, it must certify that the cardholder’s account was flagged as credit problem, closed or fraud on the dispute date.

So this isn’t a customer complaint about you. It’s the bank saying it never agreed to pay.

What the customer told their bank

Often nothing. Many 11.2 disputes start with the bank, not the cardholder. The account was closed, over limit or flagged, the bank declined the charge, and the charge went through anyway.

The time limit

The cardholder’s bank has 75 calendar days from the date the transaction was processed. That’s shorter than the 120 days most Visa codes allow.

Your own deadline is shorter. Fraud and authorization codes have no separate “dispute response” step in Visa’s rules. Your bank (the acquirer) answers with a pre-arbitration attempt, and it has 30 calendar days from the dispute to do it. Your processor keeps part of that time, so the due date on your notice is the one that counts.

What kind of proof matters

Your authorization log. Visa’s rules make an 11.2 invalid when an approval was obtained after the decline for the same purchase, unless the earlier response was a pick-up. Records of the approval code, date and amount are what count.

One common mistake

Forcing a declined sale through, or running an offline “force” after a decline because the customer swore the card was fine. If a card declines, ask for another card or run a new authorization and get a real approval.

Dispute Daddy reads your notice, lines up the reason the customer gave against your own records, and builds the response. You review it, approve it and submit it. See how the Dispute Daddy Method works.