Need help with Venmo "INSTRUMENT_DECLINED" Error

[tamachicktarot]

PayPal support said the Venmo "INSTRUMENT_DECLINED" error my LIVE site is receiving is caused by a bank rejecting, the payment.   I have tried several banks and a credit card with the same results.  The error message says, "The requested action could not be performed, semantically incorrect, or failed business validation."  How do I know if my business is validated?  Paypal and Card buttons work fine on the web site, but Venmo has never worked in Live mode.  Please help.

[MTS_Chiranjeevi]

Good day @tamachicktarot,

Thank you for posting to the PayPal community.

INSTRUMENT_DECLINED usually occurs when their is an issue with the Funding Source / Funding Instrument passed during the checkout flow.

Could you please request the customers/buyers to try different/valid card details while processing the payments.

You can also try to process a test payment using a card which is not linked to your PayPal account, since merchant can't process self payments.

If your still facing any issues, please create a MTS ticket via - https://www.paypal-support.com/s/?language=en_US  with the detail information and error details.

Sincerely,

Chiranjeevi

PayPal/Braintree MTS

If this post or any other was helpful, please enrich the community by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution.

[Tamachick]

Since you’re with Braintree, can you get production going on my site, TamachickTarot.com? I haven’t had a response from anyone in several weeks.

[Rooster242]

MTS_Chiranjeevi, you completely ignored what the op said. If you are going to attempt to help, at least read the op. Op said cards work fine and it's Venmo he's getting the INSTRUMENT_DECLINED error with. Advising him to try different cards is irrelevant. Advising he try a "test payment" without any specifics is useless. How does one try a "test payment" with Venmo and what should one expect?

Anyway, I'm getting the same error for unknown reasons. Unfortunately the only responses here are useless (including this one). Moving on.