Common issues when charging card with Hotel Link Pay
When charging a guest’s card using Hotel Link Pay, you may encounter several common errors. Understanding these issues and how to resolve them will help reduce failed transactions and improve payment success rates.
1/ Transaction declined by the cardholder's bank
- Error message: "The operation is declined by the user"
- Root cause: The cardholder's bank declined the transaction from Hotel Link Pay.
- Solution: Advise the guest to use a different card or contact their bank directly to authorize the transaction.
2/ Card token has expired
- Error message: "Token provided has expired"
- Root cause: The cardholder's bank declined the transaction, or the system could not verify the guest's card information.
- Solution: Advise the guest to use a different card or contact their bank to authorize the transaction.
3/ Missing CVV or CVV expired
- Error message: Something like this:
- "The request contains one or more unexpected parameters"
- Invalid CVV or CVV mismatch
- Incorrect/Missing security code
- Incorrect/Missing params
- Security code required
- Root cause: This error is generally related to CVV usage or expiration. It is not necessarily caused by a single specific issue, but typically occurs when the CVV is no longer valid for processing a charge. There was a charge failure quite a while ago (more than 30 minutes), and the card is no longer valid.
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- Solution: If the previous charge attempt was made more than 30 minutes earlier, you should request new card details from the guest or the OTA.
Note: CVV usage logic:
- The CVV can only be used once - either to view or to charge.
- If used to view → you can’t charge the card afterward.
- If used to charge:
- If you retry within 30 minutes and it succeeds, the card is usable.
- If you keep failing → the card is permanently lost.
- If successful → you can continue charging later.
- If failed → the CVV will remain available for the next 30 minutes.
4/ Payment amount exceeds the value confirmed by the OTP
- Error message: "The payment amount must not exceed the value confirmed by the OTP for this transaction. Please adjust to decrease the amount, complete this payment, and proceed to create a new payment for the remaining amount."
- Root cause: The charge amount exceeds the guest's Max Charge Amount
- Solution: Charge the amount less than the 'Max Charge Amount' value.
5/ Payment amount is 0 at the time a card request is sent to the guest
- Error message: "Currency loading failed. Please reload the page and try again."
- Root cause: This error occurs when the booking's total amount is 0 at the time you send a card request to the guest. The guest proceeds to enter their card details and completes 3DS authentication with an amount of 0, which causes the transaction to fail afterwards.
- Solution: Send another card details request to the guest, making sure the payment amount is greater than 0.
6/ Card cannot be charged in a different currency
- Error message: "VAULT_CANT_PROCESS_WITH_CURRENCY" / "You can only capture payment with this Kovena credit card token in {currency}"
- Root cause: Once a card has been tokenized in a specific currency, it cannot be charged in a different currency due to payment gateway security protocols.
- Solution:
- Activate the original currency the card was tokenized in
- Set the 'Card Charge Currency' back to that tokenized currency
- Process the charge. All future charges for this card must use the same original currency.
7/ Configuration error at PSP
- Error message: Configuration error at PSP
- Root cause: You are not configured for this currency or sub type (country or brand).
- Solution: Please contact Global Support Team via support@hotellinksolutions.com for further assistance.
8/ No smart routing
- Error message: "No smart routing configuration found. Please review your settings before continuing"
- Root cause: The smart routing is not configured correctly on Kovena's end.
- Solution: Please contact Global Support Team via support@hotellinksolutions.com for further assistance.
9/ The amount must match or be less than the 3D Secure authorization amount
- Error message: "The amount must match or be less than the 3D Secure authorization amount"
- Root cause: The scheduled charge amount exceeds the guest's Max Charge Amount:

- Solution: Charge the amount less than the 'Max Charge Amount' value.
10/ Save card with OTP
- Error message: "Security required: Save your card with OTP for added protection."
- Solution: Please contact Global Support Team via support@hotellinksolutions.com for further assistance.
If you face any other errors when charging a card using Hotel Link Pay, please contact Global Support Team via support@hotellinksolutions.com for further assistance.