Fuel Card Denials: Causes & How to Fix Them

Understanding the 'Which Of My Cards Did Not Work Yesterday' Emails

The "Which of My Cards Did Not Work Yesterday" emails are designed to inform fleet managers on why the card was denied. The emails are sent out during the morning hours on weekdays and they are simple way to communicate the reason(s) why a driver may have faced difficulty using the card(s) the day before or over the weekend.

Here’s a quick guide on how to interpret those emails, starting with explaining what each of the column headers mean:

Fuel card denial guide explaining common approval statuses and how fleet managers can resolve fueling issues

  • Site: This is the number that is associated with the fuel station.
  • Card: The last 7 digits of the card used at the time of transaction. If your account is set under the Floating Pin system, this section will display the Driver Number.
  • Acct: The number that is assigned to your account.
  • Date: The date that the attempted transaction took place.
  • Time: The local time of the fuel station that the attempted transaction took place.
  • Approval Status: Explains why the transaction was denied.
  • Explanation of Denial: Clearly explains the reason of the denial and provides driver name.

Here is a list of stations found throughout the United States and Canada. This list is constantly updated.

Denials: What They Mean and How to Prevent Them

The different Approval Statuses or reasons why the card was denied are all preventable by taking simple steps. A few seconds of planning and verifying that the card settings are properly set before the driver leaves will mostly ensure your driver fueling with no issues.

Below are the most common explanations and the possible causes, and how to fix and prevent them:

Bad PIN / Bad DID (7 Not Found)

Explanation: Driver inputted the incorrect PIN/DID

How to Prevent: Remind the driver of the correct 5-digit PIN. Offer to make this a custom PIN for your driver so he/she may easily remember it.

Do Not Honor (1 Not Found, Bad TID)

Explanation: Fuel card is invalidated

How to Prevent: Revalidate the card by accessing your CFN customer portal (see below).

Site Not Allowed (4 Not Found, Bad TID)

Explanation: Fuel site is in a blocked zip code or state, or is a ghost site.

How to Prevent: Redirect driver to nearest authorized station by using the CFN Site Locator (website or app).

Exceeds Transaction Limit (3 Not Found)

Explanation: Card/driver has reached the day’s transaction limit

How to Prevent: Reset and revise the transaction count by accessing your CFN customer portal (see below).

Exceeds Gallon Limit (6 Not Found)

Explanation: Card/driver has reached the day’s gallon limit, or the account gallon limit has been reached

How to Prevent: Reset and revise the daily gallon limit by accessing your CFN customer portal or revise the account gallon limit with the customer service team.

Not Permitted

Explanation: This transaction was denied because the card swipe was attempted outside of allowed Time Profile.

How to Prevent: Access your CFN customer portal and reset the transaction count and ask driver to move to a different pump and/or please ask the driver to go into the store and do the transaction by swiping the card with the assistance of a cashier.

Suspected Fraud

Explanation: The driver/card visited a site with previous reports of suspicious activity or has not visited that site for a long period of time.

How to Prevent: Corroborate with your driver that they are at the site in question and contact us immediately after for next steps.

Transaction in Progress

Explanation: This transaction was denied because the card was swiped more than once in a short period of time before the card reader finished its card-reading process.

How to Prevent: Reset the transaction count by accessing your CFN customer portal (see below). If possible, have the driver move to a different pump in the same station.

Guides for the CFN Customer Portal

You can log on to the CFN Customer Portal with the Access Codes we provided and quickly see why your drivers are having a hard time when fueling, address the problem, and get them back on the road. Click on the Step-by-Step Guides button below to learn how to use the Authorizations Menu and fix the most common denials.

If you need help remembering your login credentials, or need us to provide access to someone in your team to these guides to use the CFN Customer Portal, please email us or call us. In less than 10 minutes, we will provide or generate the credentials.