INTERNAL: Receiving a decline code '000005' on a closed American Express account

INTERNAL: Receiving a decline code '000005' on a closed American Express account. 

Description

Why is a closed Amex account getting a decline code '000005'?

Resolution

American Express (AMEX) transactions are routed to AMEX and AMEX responds to the authorizations whether it is approved or declined.  TSYS maps the following AMEX response codes to response code 05:

AMEX Response Code 100 = Deny
AMEX Response code 187 = Deny New Card Issued
AMEX  Response Code 188 = Deny Account Cancelled

If TSYS receives any one of the response codes above from AMEX for the transaction(s) it will generate a response code of 05-decline back to the POS.

• If the AMEX account is closed please remove the card range from MMS.  *This step will enable TSYS Sierra platform to stop the authorization request and not send it to AMEX.
• If the merchant has a live AMEX account and the transaction was in the amount of $.01 or $1.00 it could be that AMEX did not approve the transactions based on the amounts looking suspicious, i.e. fraud attempts