Your Stripe Test Card Keeps Declining — Here's Why

Your test card declined six times in a row. And you're still using the wrong card number. Most devs grab 4242424242424242, it works, and they never learn the rest. But the moment you need to test a real failure — insufficient funds, a stolen card, a velocity breach — guessing random digits wastes an hour. Here's the actual cheat sheet. Generic decline: 4000000000000002. Insufficient funds: 4000000000009995. Lost card: 4000000000009987. Stolen: 4000000000009979. Expired: 4000000000000069. CVC mismatch: 4000000000000127. Velocity exceeded: 4000000000006975. Each number maps to a specific network decline code. Stripe's sandbox simulates the real issuer response — so your webhook receives the exact error your production code will handle. And if you're testing Issuing spend controls, the most restrictive limit always wins: a $50 authorization cap overrides a $100 card limit, every time. Save this. Link in bio for the full Stripe test card table.