Payments, 6 min read
How to increase payment approval rates
Every declined deposit is a player who may not return. For iGaming operators, a few percentage points of approval translate directly into revenue, so it pays to start by measuring exactly where transactions are lost.
Start by breaking down declines
The average approval rate alone says little. Split the data by country, payment method, issuing bank, amount and player type (new or returning).
Declines usually concentrate in a few segments. Fixing the two largest often yields more than small improvements across the whole system.
Understand response codes
Bank codes fall into hard declines (such as a blocked card), soft declines (such as insufficient funds) and technical errors. Each type calls for a different reaction.
Technical and generic declines are the first candidates for a retry or a route change, while hard declines are a signal to offer another method.
Apply smart routing
If you use several providers, route transactions by performance in each segment rather than by the lowest fee alone. A provider cheaper by 0.2 percentage points can be more expensive if it approves 3 points fewer.
Set fallback routes for provider outages and monitor performance in near real time.
Tune 3-D Secure and retries
Authentication adds security, but applying it too aggressively lowers conversion. Use the exemptions permitted by regulation and transaction risk scoring.
Limit and space out retries, and after a decline show the player a simple alternative instead of an empty error message.
Look after the player experience
A clear form, remembered methods, plain error messages and fast withdrawals reduce abandoned deposits before authorisation is even reached.