Short answer
For one customer, ask them to check their card details or use another card; the same card can be tried again after 24 hours. If many cards fail at once, check for card testing: refund suspicious payments, move to Stripe Checkout or the latest Payment Element, and limit how often your own endpoint can create payments.
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Why the card hit the limit, and the fix
01
A customer kept retrying a bad card
“This card has been declined too many times. You can try to charge this card again after 24 hours.” Stripe, Error codes (card_decline_rate_limit_exceeded)
Stripe suggests checking that the customer entered all details correctly and that there is no issue with the card. Show the decline message clearly after the first failure so they fix the details or use another card.
02
Someone is testing stolen cards
“A spike in suspicious payments with low transaction amounts, often with nonsensical customer names and emails.” Stripe, Card testing
A spike in failed payments, many small amounts and nonsense names or emails point to card testing. Refund what got through so it doesn’t turn into disputes.
03
The checkout is easy to script
“If you use the latest Stripe Payment Element or Checkout, we have many automated and manual controls in place to mitigate card testing” Stripe, Card testing
A custom form that creates a payment on every submit, with no sign-in or CAPTCHA, lets a script try a large number of cards. Stripe recommends its own integrations, which carry its built-in protections, plus your own limits on the endpoint.
04
Blocking by IP alone
“simple firewall rules or filters based on a single heuristic such as IP addresses are usually not sufficient to prevent card testing on their own.” Stripe, Card testing
Also check: a firewall rule on a few IP addresses rarely stops it. Card testers use a wide variety of techniques, so a rule on a single signal is usually not enough. Combine several.
Checked against the vendor’s docs on : Stripe docs: Error codes; Stripe docs: Card testing; Stripe docs: Decline codes.
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Related: Stripe card_velocity_exceeded · Stripe card declined: fraudulent · Stripe rate limit 429 · Stripe card declined