thread Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out in Payments Troubleshooting

Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

C_Marshall — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 12:56:51 GMT

Hi,

We are using self serve in our restaurant with QR codes leading to a Square Up online site for customers to order and pay for them themselves. When a customer has a Bank of Scotland Visa Debit Card and tries to use the self serve online ordering for the second time it comes up with the error "Invalid Card". The first time the customer uses the card there are no issues and we can use the card through the square register with no issues. When the error message appears the customer is able to check out using the guest option and it also works.

I believe it might be something to do with Square Up holding the customer details after the first transaction, which I think might trigger the error message.

Has anyone else had this issue? Square Up customer support suggested re-publishing my online site but the issue has persisted. I've also disabled the instant profile setting in the customer settings in case that had been triggering the issue. Any help would be appreciated.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

Breffni — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 13:09:21 GMT

Hey @C_Marshall, thanks for flagging this here on the Seller Community.

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing this, it definitely sounds like there's an underlying issue here that the usual troubleshooting steps that our support team advised wouldn't resolve, so apologies for that.

I'll have to get our engineers to take a look but before doing so can you please post a link to your site here?

From there I have a few questions:

- How many customers/transactions has this occurred with?

- When did you first notice this happening?

- Are these customers using Square Pay to save their details for future orders or are they manually entering their card details?

- Is there a particular error message appearing for these declined transactions?

Any additional details you can provide will help a lot, I'll keep an eye out for your response.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

C_Marshall — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 11:26:26 GMT

Hi @Breffni ,

Thanks for your response, I do think there's an actual bug in the system here as I've tried everything and it doesn't resolve the issue.

The link to my site is:

https://marshall-leisure-craibstone.square.site/

To answer your questions:

1. This has occurred to about a dozen customers, basically anyone who has a Bank of Scotland Visa Debit card and is a repeat customer.

2. This has been happening since we went live at the end of March 2022, its taken us a bit of time to narrow the issue down to this.

3. The issue only occurs when the customer uses Square Pay to save their details, the first time they use their card before they save their details it works and if they enter their card details manually it always works. The issue only occurs if they try and use that specific Visa Debit card and if they have saved their details with Square Pay.

4. The error message that appears is "This card is invalid. Please use another payment method or try again". You can then re-enter the card information and it works fine.

To me the issue is how Square Pay must be saving the customers card information, it must not save all the information or be saving it incorrectly. I have screenshots I can share, but I don't want to do that on a public forum. Is there another way to send those to you?

Thanks,

Charles

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

Breffni — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 15:24:06 GMT

Thanks for the details, Charles.

If you could send me the screenshots via direct message here in the Community, it would be really helpful. From there I can create a case for our engineers to take a look into.

By hovering over my name on this thread you should see the option.

It may be a few days before I have an update - it can take some time for our teams to dig into these issues but as soon as I have more information, I'll let you know. @C_Marshall

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

C_Marshall — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 09:46:26 GMT

I've just sent you the screenshots, let me know if there is anything else you need from me. It would be great to get this sorted ASAP as its tough to convince people that self-serve is good when it doesn't 100% work! Thanks.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

Breffni — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 07:27:38 GMT

Hi @C_Marshall.

Just confirming that I have received the screenshots and I have filed the case for investigation.

Thanks again for the detail in your query, it's extremely helpful for me and the engineers investigating the issue.

The response time on these queries can vary but as soon as I have an update over the next few days, I will let you know. I know this is a timely matter so thanks for your patience.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do in the meantime.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

Breffni — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 14:01:59 GMT

Just confirming on the thread that this issue has been resolved, thanks again for your patience.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

raitec — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:40:48 GMT

Hi Breffni, i have the same issue happen to me at wakumeals.com

Everytime I try to process a payment I get the error "This card is invalid. Please use another payment method or try again."

I tried many cards, cash app, apple pay... nothing works.

Any chance you can check if it is the same issue?

Happy to provide more info.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

Breffni — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 08:42:25 GMT

Hi @raitec - happy to take a look here.

Feel free to send me a private message here on the Community when you can!

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

ciaobella80 — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 17:48:46 GMT

Hello. Can you assist me with this as well? I’m getting the same error. I can’t launch the site because I’m scared that other people will get this message too.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

MayaP — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 20:38:36 GMT

Hello @ciaobella80, I am sorry you are having this issue as well. Can you provide your URL, so we can look into this?

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

CJ713 — Sun, 12 May 2024 01:36:37 GMT

I am having this issue on my site https://floridadays2024khemtemple.weebly.com/#/ and I'm not sure how to resolve this, can you assist?

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

CJ713 — Sun, 12 May 2024 01:39:14 GMT

@Breffni

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

Lou8 — Tue, 14 May 2024 07:36:42 GMT

Hi @CJ713, thanks for posting and welcome to the Community.

I'm sorry to hear you're getting the same error message, and I'd be happy to take a look at it for you.

Could you send me a private message with the following information as well as a screenshot of the error message:

How many customers/transactions has this occurred with?
When did you first notice this happening?
Are these customers using Square Pay , Google Pay or Apple Pay to save their details for future orders or are they manually entering their card details?
Is there a particular error message appearing for these declined transactions?

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

CJ713 — Tue, 14 May 2024 13:53:47 GMT

I called the support number and it was resolved when I disconnected then reconnected square on weekly site, thanks for reaching out.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

Sineaid — Wed, 15 May 2024 08:08:26 GMT

Thanks for the update on this @CJ713! Glad to hear it's been resolved.

Re: Self Serve "Invalid Card" Error When Checking Out

Steph14 — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 01:56:34 GMT

Hello, im having the same issue

https://slawanie.square.site