Explanation:
The Afterpay payment option can fail at the checkout due to API errors or certain customer behaviour.
The most common API errors encountered at the checkout are the below:
- Error #401: unauthorized
- Error #422: precondition failed
Action:
Error 401:
If an HTTP 401 API Error is being experienced, please check the following settings:
- Merchant ID and Secret Key for the Afterpay account in the Afterpay plugin settings.
- WooCommerce Store Currency matches the Afterpay account region (AUD = Afterpay AU) - If there is a mismatch between the Afterpay account region and the store currency, the Merchant ID and Secret Key will not authenticate for the correct Afterpay region.
Error 422:
Please find below an example of how this API error appears at the checkout.
Sorry there was a problem preparing your payment; Error #422: billing.postcode Postcode is required., billing.countryCode Valid Country Code is required., billing.line1 address line one is required.
This error means that the below fields are missing from the checkout, that are required for Afterpay to function:
- Billing Postcode
- Billing Country Code
- Billing Address Line 1
Please add the above fields back into the checkout to resolve this challenge.
Note: The above fields may have been removed or replaced by a plugin. If the Checkout Field Editor for WooCommerce plugin is being used, please ensure the above checkout fields are enabled in the plugin settings.
If assistance is required, please contact your web developer to add the missing fields back into the checkout.
Customers are also approved/declined based on a number of factors:
Order Pre-Approval
- During Afterpay’s purchase flow there are a set of checks that make up pre-approval, prior to approving a customer’s order transaction.
- The checks encompass various limits and behavioral factors – around both responsible service offering and fraud prevention.
- Whilst Afterpay sets a maximum order limit it does not mean every customer order will be approved for this amount.
Customer Approval
- Both customer tenure with Afterpay and their count of successfully repaid orders increase the likelihood that a customer will be approved for a given order.
- The rules and approval process help Afterpay responsibly offer the service to the customer.
- On each failed order attempt, the system will provide the customer with an error message
- Please note that in some cases the reasoning for an order decline may be personal in nature and therefore it is always best practice to have the customer contact Afterpay directly.