Hold code 07 is a common terminal message you may receive when accepting credit card payments for your business. Many customers prefer to complete their purchases with a credit or debit card. Accepting this method of payment is a necessity these days to provide your customers with modern and convenient payment options. However, not all credit card transactions go through successfully. When a transaction declines, your terminal will return one of many decline codes. Receiving one of these codes isn’t the end of the world, but does require some action on your part as a merchant. Read on to find out what hold code 07 means and how to resolve it.
Why am I Receiving This Code?
When you receive hold code 07 from a failed transaction, this response is from the cardholder’s issuing bank. The response you receive may have further details such as “Hold-call” or “Pick up card (special condition).” This means the cardholder’s issuing bank is preventing the transaction because the account is suspected of fraud.
What is a Hold Code?
Ahold code is a response a terminal sends that indicates potentially fraudulent use of a credit card. In the event that you receive a hold code when you attempt a credit card transaction, it means you cannot complete the sale using the payment method.
If you receive a code like this, you should not proceed with the transaction and decline services to the customer. If you receive a hold code for an in-person transaction, take the credit card from the customer. Then, call the credit card issuer to report the hold code and keep the card until you receive further instructions.
The specific number associated with the hold will provide some additional insight into why the payment can’t go through. Hold code 07 is one of the specific numbers you may receive on your card reader.
How to Handle a Hold Code 07
Hold 07 indicates fraudulent activity. Therefore, you should not attempt to use the card to retry the transaction. When the card is physically present, you should not return the card to the customer. Instead, you should keep the card and use the phone number that’s on the back of the card to contact the card issuer. When reporting the issue to the card issuer, be sure to mention you received a hold code 07 as the decline reason.
If you receive the hold code 07 error for a card that you don’t physically have, you can find out what the issuing bank’s phone number is using the first six digits of the card number. This is called the BIN and you can find it by entering those digits in a search engine. Whichever option you choose, it’s important not to accept or retry a payment from this particular customer until the issuing bank has sorted out the situation.
