---
title: "Test every payment outcome with test cards · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/payments/checkout-and-card-data/payment-test-scenarios
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Test every payment outcome with test cards

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Required
- Chapter: [Checkout and card data](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/payments/checkout-and-card-data)
- Rule: Keep one automated test for each payment outcome, using the provider's test cards and test clocks, and run them before every release that touches payments.
- How: Cover success, a decline, insufficient funds, a 3-D Secure challenge passed and failed, a delayed bank payment, a refund, a dispute and a failed renewal. Providers publish a test card for each, such as Stripe's 4242 4242 4242 4242 for success and 4000 0000 0000 0002 for a decline. Use a test clock to move a subscription through months in seconds. Forward test webhooks to your machine with the provider's command line tool. Keep payment fixtures apart, as in [isolated test data](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/testing/test-data-and-environments/isolated-test-data).
- Check: The suite has one named test for each outcome on the list. The CI log for the last payment change shows them all passing.

Example:

```text
success                  4242 4242 4242 4242
generic decline          4000 0000 0000 0002
insufficient funds       4000 0000 0000 9995
3-D Secure always        4000 0027 6000 3184
fraud dispute            4000 0000 0000 0259
(Stripe test cards. Other providers publish their own lists.)
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers payments playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/payments/checkout-and-card-data/payment-test-scenarios`.

- Previous: [Keep test and live modes apart](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/payments/checkout-and-card-data/test-and-live-keys)
- [Checkout and card data](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/payments/checkout-and-card-data)