Test Mode and Test Cards: Try HandyPay Without Real Money
Flip on Test Mode, create a test payment link, and pay it yourself with a test card number. Nothing charges, nothing pays out, and none of it touches your real business records.
The short answer: the merchant portal has a Test Mode toggle in the header. While it is on, everything you create lives in a separate test workspace, and checkout only accepts Stripe's published test card numbers, like 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future expiry date and any 3-digit CVC. Real cards are declined in Test Mode, and test payments can never reach your bank account, so you can rehearse your whole flow safely before a single real customer pays.
Disclosure: this is a first-party guide by HandyPay. Card processing runs on Stripe, so the test card numbers below are Stripe's published testing numbers; Stripe's testing documentation is the authoritative list.
What Test Mode Is
Test Mode is a full copy of your HandyPay workspace where money is not real. It uses a dedicated test account under the hood, with its own products, customers, payments, subscriptions, and webhook endpoints, so test activity never appears beside your live business activity. Your reports, statements, and payout history only ever show real payments.
Use it to:
- see exactly what your customers see at checkout before you share a real link
- rehearse a payment link, QR code, subscription plan, or donation link end to end
- place test orders through the WordPress, WooCommerce, or Shopify integrations with no real charges
- try failure cases on purpose: declines, insufficient funds, expired cards, and bank-authentication prompts
- build against the developer API with test keys before going live
How to Turn It On
- Sign in to the merchant portal.
- Flip the Test Mode toggle in the top bar. The workspace switches to your test data.
- Create whatever you want to try: a payment link, a subscription plan, a QR code.
- Open the link like a customer would and pay with a test card from the table below.
- Flip Test Mode off to return to your live workspace. Anything you want customers to actually pay must be created in live mode.
The Test Cards
At checkout in Test Mode, use any of Stripe's published test numbers with any future expiry date, any 3-digit CVC, and any name and postal code.
| Card number | What happens |
|---|---|
| 4242 4242 4242 4242 | Payment succeeds (Visa) |
| 5555 5555 5555 4444 | Payment succeeds (Mastercard) |
| 4000 0025 0000 3155 | Bank authentication prompt appears, then succeeds |
| 4000 0000 0000 0002 | Card is declined (generic decline) |
| 4000 0000 0000 9995 | Declined for insufficient funds |
| 4000 0000 0000 0069 | Declined as expired |
| 4000 0000 0000 0127 | Declined for an incorrect CVC |
The decline rows are worth trying deliberately: they show you the exact message your customer would see, so nothing surprises you on a real sale.
The Rules That Keep Testing Safe
Real cards do not work in Test Mode. A genuine card number is declined on a test checkout by design, so a customer cannot accidentally pay a test link.
Test cards do not work in live mode. The reverse is also true: 4242 4242 4242 4242 is rejected on a real checkout.
Test money never pays out. Test payments accumulate in a test balance that has no path to your bank account.
Share live links, not test links. Before sending anything to a real customer, make sure Test Mode is off and the link was created in your live workspace. If a customer reports their card being declined for no reason, first check that you did not share a test link by mistake.
Testing as a Developer
The same separation applies to the API: test API keys operate on the test workspace with their own webhook endpoints, so you can integrate, fire test payments, and receive webhooks end to end without real money. Keys and endpoint details are in the developer docs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do test payments show up in my reports or statements?
No. Test activity lives in its own workspace and never appears beside live business activity, so reports, statements, and payout history stay clean.
Can a customer accidentally pay one of my test links?
No money can move: a test checkout only accepts test card numbers and declines real cards. The risk is confusion, not charges, so keep test links out of customer conversations.
Do I need a separate account for testing?
No. Test Mode is built into your existing account; the toggle in the portal header switches between your live and test workspaces.
Why was my real card declined when I tried my own link?
You almost certainly opened a link created in Test Mode. Real cards are declined there by design. Switch Test Mode off, create the link again, and it will accept real cards.
Which expiry date and CVC do test cards use?
Any future expiry date and any 3-digit CVC work with the numbers above, and any name and postal code are accepted.
Where is the full list of test cards?
The numbers above cover the common cases. Stripe publishes the complete list, including cards for specific countries and edge cases, in its testing documentation.