Amex reason code A02
Amex A02: No Valid Authorization
What the cardholder is claiming
Amex says you processed this charge without a valid authorization, typically because the card was declined, the card had expired, or no authorization was ever requested.
The evidence that actually wins
Bank analysts skim responses in minutes against a checklist for this exact code. Lead with the strongest fact; never make them dig.
- ✓The authorization approval record: approval code, date, and amount matching the settled transaction
- ✓Processor logs showing the approval was obtained before submission, not retried after a decline
- ✓Documentation of a valid delayed or amended charge under Amex rules for your industry, such as lodging or vehicle rental
- ✓Evidence the settled transaction matches the authorized card number and expiration in force at authorization time
The honest read
This code is binary: either you can produce a valid approval code for this amount on this card, or you cannot. The classic cause is force-posting a charge after a decline, or an offline queue that submitted a stale transaction, and those are unwinnable, so do not spend the fee fighting them. If you do have the approval record, submit it and this reverses about as cleanly as any dispute does. Audit your retry and batch logic afterward, because A02s almost always come in clusters from the same system behavior.
Nobody can promise you a win; the cardholder's bank decides. What you control is submitting the strongest complete case your records support, on time. Our plain-language guarantees say exactly what that means.
Fighting a A02 right now?
Send us the dispute and a person builds the complete, submission-ready response: the narrative mapped to A02, your evidence compiled and ordered, and the field-by-field walkthrough. 24-hour rush available. If our review says yours isn't worth fighting, we tell you for free.