Payment error PAY017 — our payment provider blocked the charge (not a bank decline)

In short: our payment provider (Stripe) stopped this charge before it reached the customer's bank, so it isn't a bank decline and it isn't a fault in Bike Reservation Manager. No money has been taken and the booking is untouched.

When you charge a customer's card in the Back Office and Stripe's own checks block it before the bank is asked, you'll see a message ending with the reference (pay017). This is different from PAY016, where the bank itself refused the card.

What the message looks like

There are two versions, depending on why the provider blocked the charge:

• "This payment was flagged as high-risk and blocked by our payment provider before it reached the bank, so no payment was taken. Don't re-run the same card straight away — an immediate retry can trigger the block again. Try a different card, or take the payment another way."
• "This payment was blocked by our payment provider before it reached the bank because it was unlikely to be approved, so no payment was taken. Don't re-run the same card straight away. Try a different card, or take the payment another way."

The first is a genuine fraud-risk block; the second is a payment the provider judged unlikely to be approved. Either way, nothing was charged.

Why it happens

Stripe runs fraud and risk checks on every charge. When one trips those checks it's blocked at Stripe, so the bank never sees it — which is why "the bank declined this" would be the wrong thing to tell the customer. A card that works fine in person can still be blocked online, and a legitimate customer is occasionally caught by a risk rule.

What to do next

1. Don't immediately re-run the same card. An instant retry of a blocked card often trips the same block again.
2. Try a different card, or take the payment another way (for example, in person on your own card terminal).
3. If the same customer is repeatedly blocked and you're confident the payment is genuine, contact us — a Stripe risk rule may need reviewing for your account.
4. 
   

What the customer sees online

This code only ever appears in the Back Office. On your online booking page a blocked payment shows a plain "we couldn't process this payment, please try a different card or another payment method" — the risk detail is never shown to the customer.