diff --git a/lib/workers/branch/index.js b/lib/workers/branch/index.js
index 274cdbbae736b8f0da435071124d12906110f1b0..5c2ddea639c7f39e234d90e0a38815ea51947ec1 100644
--- a/lib/workers/branch/index.js
+++ b/lib/workers/branch/index.js
@@ -196,6 +196,10 @@ async function processBranch(branchConfig, packageFiles) {
       logger.debug('Passing repository-changed error up');
       throw err;
     }
+    if (err.message === 'bad-credentials') {
+      logger.debug('Passing bad-credentials error up');
+      throw err;
+    }
     if (err.message === 'lockfile-error') {
       logger.info('Lock file error');
     } else if (err.message !== 'registry-failure') {