diff --git a/lib/platform/github/index.js b/lib/platform/github/index.js
index 71824311f85da28d268fb7997a2b026b244cda7a..9f7ba21274a08871a59bc0470fa7a7786f91c11a 100644
--- a/lib/platform/github/index.js
+++ b/lib/platform/github/index.js
@@ -1425,17 +1425,8 @@ async function createCommit(parent, tree, message) {
 
 async function getCommitMessages() {
   logger.debug('getCommitMessages');
-  try {
-    const res = await get(`repos/${config.repository}/commits`);
-    return res.body.map(commit => commit.commit.message);
-  } catch (err) {
-    // istanbul ignore if
-    if (err.message.includes('Bad credentials')) {
-      throw err;
-    }
-    logger.error(expandError(err), `getCommitMessages error`);
-    return [];
-  }
+  const res = await get(`repos/${config.repository}/commits`);
+  return res.body.map(commit => commit.commit.message);
 }
 
 function expandError(err) {
diff --git a/lib/platform/gitlab/index.js b/lib/platform/gitlab/index.js
index 33659f6e62ed20b6a35d9a53c5008e8366e4a7cb..d2db116c3b4066c710c3bf2cbe4db87130c2ed45 100644
--- a/lib/platform/gitlab/index.js
+++ b/lib/platform/gitlab/index.js
@@ -784,13 +784,8 @@ async function commitFilesToBranch(
 // GET /projects/:id/repository/commits
 async function getCommitMessages() {
   logger.debug('getCommitMessages');
-  try {
-    const res = await get(`projects/${config.repository}/repository/commits`);
-    return res.body.map(commit => commit.title);
-  } catch (err) {
-    logger.error({ err }, `getCommitMessages error`);
-    return [];
-  }
+  const res = await get(`projects/${config.repository}/repository/commits`);
+  return res.body.map(commit => commit.title);
 }
 
 function getBranchDetails(branchName) {
diff --git a/lib/workers/branch/index.js b/lib/workers/branch/index.js
index db887a3cc26f8beff6f31fb0636a940483d3ce37..858ee3a0680fa99669113fd64d25d4d589a982e3 100644
--- a/lib/workers/branch/index.js
+++ b/lib/workers/branch/index.js
@@ -307,12 +307,8 @@ async function processBranch(branchConfig, packageFiles) {
       }
     }
   } catch (err) /* istanbul ignore next */ {
-    if (err.message === 'rate-limit-exceeded') {
-      logger.debug('Passing rate-limit-exceeded error up');
-      throw err;
-    }
-    if (err.message && err.message.includes('Bad credentials')) {
-      logger.debug('Passing Bad credentials error up');
+    if (['rate-limit-exceeded', 'platform-failure'].includes(err.message)) {
+      logger.debug('Passing PR error up');
       throw err;
     }
     // Otherwise don't throw here - we don't want to stop the other renovations
diff --git a/test/platform/github/index.spec.js b/test/platform/github/index.spec.js
index 9a7c16c1f4edd4947930990b00598bc4fd0c6556..11a6e871840e26f466a741e8301cb0aee5f81c4a 100644
--- a/test/platform/github/index.spec.js
+++ b/test/platform/github/index.spec.js
@@ -1840,12 +1840,5 @@ describe('platform/github', () => {
       const res = await github.getCommitMessages();
       expect(res).toMatchSnapshot();
     });
-    it('swallows errors', async () => {
-      get.mockImplementationOnce(() => {
-        throw new Error('some-error');
-      });
-      const res = await github.getCommitMessages();
-      expect(res).toHaveLength(0);
-    });
   });
 });
diff --git a/test/platform/gitlab/index.spec.js b/test/platform/gitlab/index.spec.js
index e6f034b908e27e9018870631b8e980ad35b643ec..3aac96d8b90b605b0ff29d9c8acf0d56056048bd 100644
--- a/test/platform/gitlab/index.spec.js
+++ b/test/platform/gitlab/index.spec.js
@@ -961,12 +961,5 @@ describe('platform/gitlab', () => {
       const res = await gitlab.getCommitMessages();
       expect(res).toMatchSnapshot();
     });
-    it('swallows errors', async () => {
-      get.mockImplementationOnce(() => {
-        throw new Error('some-error');
-      });
-      const res = await gitlab.getCommitMessages();
-      expect(res).toHaveLength(0);
-    });
   });
 });