Do Not Try Again

Why it happens

Because the specific cause behind this code isn't surfaced, it's hard to say with certainty why any individual `do_not_try_again` decline occurred. What's clear is what the network wants you to do about it. On a recurring billing product, this typically shows up on a renewal for a card where the network has decided, for reasons internal to its own risk or compliance systems, that further attempts against this specific card and transaction combination should stop.

How to fix it

By the network's own instruction, no. Foxhound's decline classifier explicitly recognizes this code and places it in the fraud and hard-decline bucket, the same bucket used for an explicitly reported lost or stolen card: it is never retried, automatically or otherwise. Given the network's explicit instruction, best practice is still to treat this as a permanent decline regardless of how any given system classifies it. Don't schedule further manual retries against the same card for this transaction either. Reach out to the customer directly and ask for an alternate payment method rather than waiting for a scheduled retry to clear things up, since nothing about this code suggests a retry will ever succeed.

Questions

• Does Stripe explain what triggered a `do_not_try_again` decline?+

  No. Stripe's official definition is generic ("declined for an unknown reason"), but the code's name itself is the network's explicit instruction not to attempt the charge again.

• Does Foxhound automatically stop retrying this code?+

  Yes. Foxhound's classifier places `do_not_try_again` in its fraud and hard-decline bucket, so no automatic retry and no silent background attempt ever runs against it.

• Is there anything a merchant still needs to do manually for this code?+

  Not for the automated retry risk specifically, since Foxhound already blocks it. It's still worth watching the account: a `do_not_try_again` decline is a strong enough signal that direct outreach for a new payment method, rather than waiting on the standard dunning sequence, tends to resolve it faster.

• Is this the same as a card being reported lost or stolen?+

  Not necessarily. It's a network-level instruction not to retry, which can stem from several underlying causes the merchant isn't shown, not only lost or stolen card scenarios.

• Will repeated automatic retries against this code cause problems?+

  They can. Retrying against a network instruction not to try again risks the same kind of scrutiny that repeated attempts on any hard-blocked card can draw.