No Such Issuer
A "No Such Issuer" decline means the card number's issuer identification number (the first six-to-eight digits, or BIN/IIN) doesn't match any recognized financial institution in the routing network. It usually results from a mistyped or mis-keyed card number rather than fraud, and the transaction cannot succeed until the correct card number is entered.
Decline code by card network
| Card network | Code | Network's wording |
|---|---|---|
| Visa | 15 | No Such Issuer |
| Mastercard | 15 | No Such Issuer |
Common causes
- The card number was mistyped or mis-keyed during manual entry.
- The card was misread by a chip, swipe, or contactless reader, corrupting the account number.
- The card is very old, foreign, or from a niche or defunct issuer whose BIN is no longer active in the routing tables.
What merchants should do
- Ask the customer to double-check and re-enter their card number, or try dipping or tapping the card again if it was manually keyed.
- Try an alternate entry method, such as chip, tap, or swipe, if the number was originally hand-keyed.
- If the error persists on a card that should be valid, ask the customer to contact their issuer to confirm the card is active and correctly issued.
How to prevent this
- Encourage chip, tap, or swipe entry over manual key-entry wherever possible to reduce transcription errors.
- Use real-time card number format and length (Luhn) validation at the point of entry to catch mistyped numbers before submission.
- Keep card reader hardware maintained and calibrated to reduce misreads that corrupt the account number.
This decline occurs at the network-routing stage, before the transaction ever reaches an issuer, because the BIN doesn’t map to any institution. It’s most often a simple data-entry or card-read error rather than a sign of a fake or compromised card.
Frequently asked questions
Does "No Such Issuer" mean the card is fraudulent?
Not necessarily. It most often means the card number was mistyped, mis-keyed, or misread by a card reader, rather than being tied to fraud.
What should the customer do if their card number is definitely correct?
They should contact their card issuer directly to confirm the card is active and properly registered in the network's routing tables, since a persistent error despite a correct number can indicate an issue on the issuer's side.