Mastercard Merchant Advice Code (MAC)

Definition

Mastercard's Transaction Processing Excellence (TPE) program offers these Merchant Advice Codes (MACs). They are a set of codes that Mastercard supports to enable issuers to communicate additional information regarding a transaction response. These codes indicate further actions on subsequent transactions that TabaPay Clients should take to continue serving cardholders.

The purpose of these TPE programs is to identify unfavorable transaction processing behavior and drive positive processing behavior change, resulting in a more seamless network experience for all parties involved.

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Program Fees

Program fees will be assessed under the Mastercard Transaction Processing Excellence (TPE program) if certain processing behaviors are breached during Authorization.

Benefits and How to Use MAC

  • The ability to optimize approval rate performance.
  • Lower operational costs associated with submitting unnecessary authorization requests.
  • Improved management of subscription services.
  • The MACs give merchants that accept non-reloadable prepaid and single-use VCN cards the opportunity to inform their customers using these products for ongoing purchases that a replacement payment source should be added to ensure uninterrupted service.

Where to Find MAC

MAC will be returned in:

{
  "SC": 200,
  "EC": "0",
  "transactionID": "TabaPay_TransactionID_",
  "network": "MasterCard",
  "networkID": "123454646545645",
  "networkRC": "00",
  "status": "ERROR",
  "approvalCode": "000000",
  "additional": {
   "par": "5001005642207382549510767179",
   "codeMAC": "02"
  }
}
{
  ...
   "bin": "222300",
    "last4": "2300",
    "nameFI": "FORD Instiution"
  },
  "AVS": {
    "avsID": "Q78rZrISCc3jeQORXlWtBg",
    "networkRC": "33",
    "networkID": "501419181602",
    "authorizeID": "181602",
    "codeAVS": "Y",
    "codeSecurityCode": "M",
    "par": "V0010013022073812195104907179",
    "codeMAC": "01",
    "ANI": {
      "codeMatch": "M",
      "codeFullName": "M",
      "codeFirstName": "M",
      "codeLastName": "M"
    }
  }
}

Note: For Query Card, the response includes Network Response Code 33: Expired card

MAC Values

A MAC value of 03 is indicates that a transaction should not be resubmitted. It denotes that an account is closed or fraudulent, and that no further approvals will be forthcoming by the issuer.

Per MasterCard, there will be a fee assessed for each authorization request resubmission following a MAC 03 decline within a 30-day period.

ValueDescription
01New account information available
02Cannot approve at this time, try again later
03Do not try again
04Token requirements not fulfilled for this token type
05Negotiated value not approved
21Payment Cancellation (Mastercard use only)
22Merchant does not qualify for product code
24Retry after 1 hour (Mastercard use only)
25Retry after 24 hours (Mastercard use only)
26Retry after 2 days (Mastercard use only)
27Retry after 4 days (Mastercard use only)
28Retry after 6 days (Mastercard use only)
29Retry after 8 days (Mastercard use only)
30Retry after 10 days (Mastercard use only)
40Consumer non-reloadable prepaid card
41Consumer single-use virtual card number)

Changes to Return Codes

MasterCard's Authorization Optimizer introduced three new values:
• 79 (Lifecycle [Mastercard use only]) • 82 (Policy [Mastercard use only]) • 83 (Fraud/Security [Mastercard use only])

These values replace the previously returned network response codes below:

Response codes introduced by Authorization

Optimizer

Original response codes

79 (Lifecycle [Mastercard use only])

14 (Invalid card number)
54 (Expired card)

82 (Policy [Mastercard use only])

57 (Transaction not permitted to issuer/
cardholder) 62 (Restricted card)

83 (Fraud/Security [Mastercard use only])

14 (Invalid card number)
43 (Stolen card)

Network Return Code and Merchant Advice Code

TabaPay Clients consuming MACs can apply the following logic to take better decision.

Network Response Code Value

MAC value

Suggested merchant action

51 (Insufficient funds/over credit limit)

When to retry the recurring transaction: 24 (Retry after 1 hour [Mastercard use only]) 25 (Retry after 24 hours [Mastercard use only]) 26 (Retry after 2 days [Mastercard use only]) 27 (Retry after 4 days [Mastercard use only]) 28 (Retry after 6 days [Mastercard use only]) 29 (Retry after 8 days [Mastercard use only]) 30 (Retry after 10 days [Mastercard use only])

Retry the recurring transaction after the duration period indicated in the advice given, which may improve the likelihood of an approval

79 (Lifecycle [Mastercard use only][Mastercard use only]) 82 (Policy [Mastercard use only])

How and whether to retry the transaction: 01 (New account information available)

Updated credentials are not found to be available for TabaPay Account Updater .

79 (Lifecycle [Mastercard use only][Mastercard use only]) 82 (Policy [Mastercard use only])

03 (Do not try again)

Do not retry the transaction. Updated credentials are not found with TabaPay Account Updater .

83 (Fraud/Security [Mastercard use only][Mastercard use only])

01 (New account information available)

Ensure that the card information is correct.Authentication may improve the likelihood of an approval. Retry using authentication (such as EMV® 3DS).

83 (Fraud/Security [Mastercard use only][Mastercard use only])

03 (Do not try again)

Fraud is suspected. Do not retry the transaction

Decline reason indicated by the issuer

40 (Consumer non-reloadable prepaid card)

Issuers are required to populate these values when responding to CNP authorization requests. The data gives merchants the opportunity to inform their customers using consumer nonreloadable prepaid cards or consumer single-use virtual card numbers for ongoing purchases that a replacement payment source should be added to ensure uninterrupted service.

Decline reason indicated by the issuer

41 (Consumer single-use virtual card number)

Issuers are required to populate these values when responding to CNP authorization requests. The data gives merchants the opportunity to inform their customers using consumer nonreloadable prepaid cards or consumer single-use virtual card numbers for ongoing purchases that a replacement payment source should be added to ensure uninterrupted service.****

Examples of Network Response Code and Merchant Advice Code

The following table includes further examples of combined Network Response codes, MAC Codes, and descriptions.

Network Response Code (RC)

MAC Code

Merchant Advice Description

Examples of Reason for Decline

Suggested Merchant Action

00 05 14 51 54

01

New account information available

  • Expired Card
  • Account Upgrade
  • Portfolio sale
  • Conversion

Obtain new account information before next billing cycle

51

02

Try again later

  • Over credit limit
  • Insufficient funds

Recycle transaction 72 hours later

05
14 51 54

03

Do not try again

  • Account closed
  • Fraudulent

Obtain another type of payment from customer

30

04

Token requirements not fulfilled for this token type

Invalid token to PAN mapping

Obtain another type of payment from customer

05

21

Payment Cancellation

Cardholder cancelled recurring agreement

Do not resubmit transaction