When using your Pre-tax Forma Card, transactions may be declined for the following reasons:
- Merchant Category Code (MCC)
MCCs are 4-digit codes used to categorize merchants by business type. For example, merchants labeled as dentists or optometrists will be approved under LPFSA and FSA accounts. Merchants labeled as hospitals or laboratories would be approved under FSA and HSA accounts.
Sometimes an MCC does not clearly indicate that a product or service is pre-tax eligible. When this happens, the transaction will be declined.
- The purchase is not pre-tax eligible
Refer to this complete list of eligible expenses.
- The account has insufficient funds to cover the entire purchase OR the merchant does not support partial authorization
- The card has been suspended
- The card was reported lost or stolen
- There is an unpaid balance due from an ineligible transaction
- The account was deactivated. Only accounts under Benefits > Active accounts are linked to your pre-tax Forma Card.
- Employment was terminated
- No pre-tax accounts linked to the card
Confirm you are enrolled in pre-tax benefits with Forma. You can see this by logging in to your Forma account and reviewing your current benefits
- The merchant does not use an inventory information approval system (IIAS)
Some merchants sell a broad range of merchandise, some of which may not be eligible under your FSA plan. Because these merchants sell a variety of products, the IRS requires that supermarkets, discount stores, wholesale clubs, mail order vendors, and web-based vendors implement what’s called an Inventory Approval System (IIAS) to accept FSA cards as payment.
It’s possible that IIAS is in place but not for all cash registers in a store. You can try another terminal, or pay out-of-pocket and file a claim for reimbursement.
7. Your pre-tax card has not be activated
To activate your card, please follow the steps illustrated in the Pre-tax Forma Card activation article.
8. An expense from the current year is paid for with your pre-tax Forma card from the previous year
Please submit a manual claim in this situation.