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SchemeLens

ISO 8583:1987 response code

38

Allowable PIN tries exceeded

Standard version
ISO 8583:1987
Paired version code
No direct pair assigned

In ISO 8583:1987, response code 38 means “Allowable PIN tries exceeded”. No reviewed scheme source contains a corresponding entry on this row, so all five scheme columns are shown as N/A.

Merchant handling

Actions to be taken

Do not complete the transaction on this response. Let the terminal and acquirer control any permitted retry, and never ask the cardholder to disclose the PIN.

This is conservative merchant guidance derived from the published response meaning. Current scheme, acquirer, processor, merchant advice, and transaction-specific rules take precedence.

Scheme comparison

Descriptions in the reviewed sources

Each populated value links to its scheme record and preserves the raw code published by that source. N/A means no matching description exists in the reviewed public dataset.

Scheme descriptions compared with ISO 8583:1987 response code 38
SchemeRaw codeSource descriptionEvidence
VisaN/AN/AN/A
MastercardN/AN/AN/A
American ExpressN/AN/AN/A
DiscoverN/AN/AN/A
UnionPayN/AN/AN/A

Standard sources

Version and response-name evidence