(Urgent) IHS payment failed at Stage 2

Stage 2
1

I understand that Stage 2 submission must be on the http://gov.uk/ website.
I am at the IHS payment step and unfortunately, my payment got rejected 4 times because of some transaction limits on my card. I received an email saying “If your payment is declined 5 times, you will not be able to complete this IHS application”

I now have another card which will allow me to pay.
However, can I just discard the “old” application on gov.uk website and create a “new” one to pay the IHS fees? I say that because I do not want to risk the transaction failing for the 5th time (on the “old” application) since that would mean the end of it.

Please advice.

2

Please help me out @Francisca_Chiedu @pahuja @alexnk @hsafra

3

I’m not very familiar with the IHS payment, but I have worked on credit card payments and can advise on that.

Assuming the credit limit in your card is enough for the application you are probably hitting some fraud prevention algorithm because the transaction might be unusually big or abroad or a combination of those.

Your first stop before attempting the payment again is calling the issuer bank and asking the reason of the rejection (they will have in their system). Then you need to ask them to pre-approve the transaction (it will help if you know the exact amount). This will give you the best chance to get an approval the next time.

If your credit limit is not enough, you can ask the customer service for a 1-off increase. Usually explaining what you are trying to spend the money on, and assuming your standing with the bank is ok, they will increase the limit for this cycle.

2 Likes
4

Thank you @dprotas !

Also requesting @Francisca_Chiedu @pahuja to please let me know if I’m allowed to create a fresh Stage 2 application on the gov.uk website (reason: I don’t want to risk any transaction declines for this last 5th time… and prefer if I can just make a new application altogether, so that there are 5 new transaction attempts allowed)

5

For anyone who faces similar issue: You can just restart your application (your Stage 1 outcome will still be valid + Stage 1 is mostly independent of your Stage 2).

It’s best to:

  1. Call the bank beforehand to increase the transaction limit of debit card
  2. Use a credit card + increase its limit also beforehand
  3. Use Paypal
6

yes you can start a fresh application

2 Likes
7

Thank you very much!