Visa is updating the response codes it returns for online refund declines and suspended and deactivated Commercial virtual cards.
Changes to response codes for online refund declines
Effective October 17, 2025, Visa will introduce the existing 20078 (Blocked at first use - transaction from new or replacement card that is not properly unblocked) response code for online refund declines. This indicates that the card is not activated or temporarily blocked.
If you receive this response code, we recommend contacting the customer, letting them know the reason for the decline, and asking them to activate their card before re-attempting the refund.
Changes to response codes for suspended and deactivated Commercial virtual cards
Commercial virtual cards (also known as pseudo accounts) are used by some Visa Commercial products to roll thousands of pseudo accounts to a single primary account number (PAN) to help safeguard the underlying PAN from misuse.
Currently, Visa returns a 05 (do not honour) in the response when declining an authorization for one of these pseudo accounts is declined due to suspension or deactivation. From October 24, 2025, they’ll return a 20078 (Blocked at first use - transaction from new or replacement card that is not properly unblocked) response code. This will give you more granular information about the reason for the decline so you can advise your customers.
Read more about response codes