Start with the person at your school who has access to your payment provider’s portal. SchoolsBuddy works with several payment providers and cannot see every school’s account, so declined transactions must be checked in your portal. If more than one parent cannot pay, contact SchoolsBuddy with the details listed below.
- SchoolsBuddy
- Troubleshooting
- Admin
What to do when a parent has a payment issue
For school staff investigating a parent’s failed or declined payment in SchoolsBuddy.
| I want to | Go to |
|---|---|
| Find out why a payment was declined | Declined transactions |
| Fix a common card error | Common errors |
| Report a problem affecting several parents | When several parents cannot pay |
Declined transactions
You can see the reason for a declined transaction in your payment portal. For help using the portal and understanding error messages, see your payment provider’s support guidance. Include your Merchant ID in any query where you can, as this speeds things up.
- PaySafe Support
- AsiaPay Support
- Checkout Support
- CyberSource Support
- PayFort Support
- Stripe Support
- Bluesnap Support
Common errors
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| Incorrect information entered, or the card has expired | Ask the payer to try the payment again. Ask whether any saved details in their browser or app could be filling in wrong information, such as an old expiry date or card number. |
| The issuing bank declined the payment | Ask the payer to check with their bank why the payment was declined. |
| The parent is paying with an Amex card | Most of our payment providers do not currently accept Amex, because the processing fees are higher than for Visa and Mastercard. |
Is it the card or the device?
- If the problem happens on several devices but only for this parent, it may be their card. Ask them to try another card if they can.
- If it happens with several cards but only on one device, the device is the likely cause. Ask them to try another device if they can.
When several parents cannot pay for an event
SchoolsBuddy usually runs a payment test before payments go live, to make sure transactions go through smoothly. Some Asian payment providers do not offer a test facility, so we may need your help to run a small live test payment.
If more than one parent is having trouble paying, contact SchoolsBuddy with:
- the name and email address of the person making the payment
- the exact time of the issue, including the time zone
- the payment amount and the group or event it was for
- the payment method (for example Bluesnap, PaySafe, Checkout, Stripe, PayFort, AsiaPay or CyberSource)
- the payer’s card type (Visa or Mastercard; Amex is not accepted), with the last 4 digits of the card, or the first 6 digits if possible
- whether the parent has tried a different payment method or device and still cannot pay
- the browser or app the payer is using and its version (for example iPhone, Android, Chrome, Safari, Opera or Edge; Internet Explorer is not supported)
- screenshots of any error messages
Examples of problems that can stop payments include an expired secure hash or secret, or an account made inactive after a long time without use.
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