DebiCheck Statuses and Reason Codes Explained
Every DebiCheck message — a mandate initiation, an amendment, a collection — comes back with a status, and most negative outcomes carry a reason code explaining why. Reading these correctly is the difference between fixing a problem quickly and resubmitting requests that were always going to fail.
Statuses split naturally into two groups, mirroring the two halves of DebiCheck: mandate statuses and collection outcomes. If the distinction is new to you, start with mandates vs collections.
What are the DebiCheck mandate statuses?
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Pending authentication | The consumer's bank has sent the request; awaiting a response | Wait, or prompt the customer to check their bank's channels |
| Authenticated | The consumer approved; the bank stored the mandate | Begin collections per the mandate terms |
| Rejected | The consumer declined the request | Contact the customer before re-initiating |
| Expired | The authentication window lapsed with no response | Re-initiate, often via TT2, or confirm the customer's cellphone number at their bank |
| Suspended | The consumer blocked collections at their bank | Engage the customer; the suspension can be lifted |
| Cancelled | The mandate has been permanently ended | Stop collections; a new contract needs a new mandate |
These statuses map onto the stages described in the mandate lifecycle.
What are the common collection outcomes?
Once a mandate is authenticated, each collection returns its own outcome:
- Successful — funds were debited from the payer's account.
- Unpaid / declined — the collection failed, with a reason code such as insufficient funds, account closed, account frozen, or payment stopped.
- Rejected before processing — the collection did not match the stored mandate (wrong amount, wrong frequency, suspended or cancelled mandate) and was never presented to the account.
- In tracking — the collection is monitoring the account for available funds for a specified period of up to ten days; it will debit as soon as funds are available.
See unpaids, returns and disputes for how to respond to each.
How do reason codes work?
Banks return a reason code with each negative status, identifying the cause per message. The exact code sets are defined in the banks' technical specifications and can differ slightly between real-time API and host-to-host file interfaces, but the causes fall into consistent categories:
- Consumer action — rejected, suspended or cancelled by the payer.
- Timing — the authentication request or mandate action expired.
- Account issues — insufficient funds, account closed, account dormant or frozen, invalid account details.
- Mandate mismatch — the collection did not match the registered mandate's amount, frequency or timing.
- Technical — malformed messages, duplicate references or invalid fields in the request itself.
Kwik normalises the raw bank codes into consistent statuses across banks and interfaces, so your reconciliation does not need to handle each bank's variations. For the industry-wide view of reason codes across payment types, see the reason code directory.
How should a business respond to each category?
- Consumer action codes are conversations, not retries. Contact the payer to understand why they rejected or suspended the mandate.
- Timing codes usually mean the payer never saw the request — confirm their cellphone number is current at their bank and re-initiate.
- Account issue codes may resolve with tracking or a retry on a better date — see collections, tracking and retries. Codes like "account closed" will not resolve; get new account details instead.
- Mandate mismatch codes mean your collection data has drifted from the registered mandate. Amend the mandate before collecting at the new terms.
- Technical codes point to integration issues — validate your messages against the bank's specification, or let your payments provider handle this layer.
Related topics
Mandate Lifecycle
Follow a DebiCheck mandate from initiation and authentication through amendments, suspensions and cancellation, with the statuses used at each stage.
Amounts and Frequencies
How instalment, maximum collection and first collection amounts work in DebiCheck, plus allowed frequencies, adjustment categories and rate changes.