Anthropic payment woes – resolved [en]

TL;DR: enter card details manually, not using Link, if you need to change your payment method and it’s stuck.

Three days ago my Claude Pro subscription was up for renewal but I’d forgotten to top-up the prepaid credit card I use for this. It was (logically) declined and my subscription was suspended. 

I was using Link as the payment method.

No sweat, I thought, I’ll top up the credit card and “try again”. No luck, still declined. 

Cool cucumber, I’ll just use another card this month. Clicked through to select an other payment method, but… once I was back on the Anthropic payment screen, the active payment method displayed was still the first card that had been declined.

What I did:

What I got:

Then I went a bit wild. I tried to change the payment method again. I went into Link and removed the card, leaving only the second one, but the payment was still attempted by Anthropic (Link?) with the card I had removed 🥴 

I logged out of Link and back in. I even tried Apple Pay. My card transaction statement shows a string of $0 card checks, and my inbox is full of e-mails telling me my payment was unsuccessful, but that is all that there is to show for these efforts. Whatever card I chose, Anthropic insisted on trying the same one again and again.

At some point, inspiration hit and I tried settling the open subscription invoice from inside Link directly, with my other card, instead of through the Anthropic billing screen. That worked! 

But I wasn’t out of the woods. I wanted to buy some extra usage (I know, I know). The same frustrating dance started again, to no avail. 

I decided to let it rest 24 hours and try again.

I tried again today. Same same.

In desperation (of course I’d already had a frustrating chat with Fin the Anthropic “support bot” and sent an e-mail to support) I tried chatting up the Link support chatbot. It confirmed that there was indeed a trace of the failed purchase on their side. At least something! I requested a human, and started chatting up my credit card’s support too, as I now had a clear indication that the purchase request had left Anthropic’s walls.

I’ll spare you the hour of slow, mind-numbing, half-chatbot-half-human support chats. You’ve been there I’m sure. There would be a lot to say.

In the end, after going around in many more circles, here is what worked:

• I clicked to change the payment method on checkout on the Anthropic site
• I disconnected Link in there
• I entered my card details manually

What I did (notice how I’m not signing into Link here):

What I got (notice how this time I actually did manage to get it to switch to the Mastercard and drop the Visa!):

Lo and behold, the payment went through! 

(This is the second card, mind you, I’m not that crazy. Next step, before my next subscription invoice comes around, will be to try and make a purchase with the initial – preferred – card. Maybe by then the e-mail the service cyborg promised with details of why the transaction failed will have reached me.)

Sharing this in hope it can spare at least one other person some headaches.

See on Reddit.