PayPal Preapproval card checking?

Question

Does the PayPal Classic API for Adaptive Payments do any checking on credit cards that get preapproved?

My customers preapprove their card and then when I use the preapproval id to charge them I sometimes get the error:

This transaction cannot be processed. Please enter a valid credit card number and type

Is there anyway to ensure the credit card entered is valid when they create the preapproval in order to avoid this error?

Answer 1

I believe you're looking at the error# 580036 - which is generic decline error message. This means that PayPal has tried to contact the issuing bank to collect the funds, but the payment was declined. To list a couple of reasons:

• Usually because there aren't enough funds available
• it may be down to security algorithms within the bank.
• Certain card issuers will decline certain Merchant Category Codes (e.g. Adult Content) depending on the card being used (e.g. Business Credit Cards)

When you create a Pre-Approval, you're creating a payment agreement with the PayPal Account, but there is no direct contact with the issuing bank at this point. As such, if the Pre-Approval fails at this point, the merchant needs to get in touch with the buyer and either agree on a new form of payment or clear the issues on the account.

The credit card linked to the respective PayPal account is valid nonetheless.