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So I can't use my credit cards on the PS Store, and their customer service is useless

Boogiepop

Member
And I'm not the only one. Just started happening to me when I tried to purchase something from their Flash Sale.

And so I decided to try to give this a little more visibility, as a couple of other users reported this in the Flash Sale thread, and you can see a big thread on it here on their support site (haven't read through the whole thing yet, but you can see there's multiple people in there and customer support has proven useless for them as well, and that the issue apparently stretches back as far as a year and a half to the present).

Tried all kinds of things, from using a computer/phone/PS3/PS4, different cards, adding and removing cards, adding and removing stuff from my cart, purchasing different items, damn near everything you can try (and yes, these cards are all valid, and have been used on the PS Store plenty in the past, as well as on other sites recently with no issue). And then customer support was completely useless. What I was told was that, thanks to this issue on their end, I failed to use a card too many times, and then it "locked" paying by card (without telling me ever, naturally), and that they apparently have absolutely no way to fix it on their end.

So yeah, this is crap, it's apparently an ongoing issue with no way to fix it other than "eh, just buy PSN cards" (which only have fixed increments as far as I know, so that results in paying more money), and Sony's customer support sucks and will only keep giving you the same canned answers.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
There's a reason why PSN cards are usually the top seller on Amazon. You'll probably have to go through that route
 
Huh, so it's not just me? I tried buying some things on the store yesterday with the card I've always used and it kept telling me there's an error and to try again later.
 

mcz117chief

Member
Yesterday evening I bought Drakengard 3 + some DLC without any issues on the PS3. I am located in Czech Republic just fyi.
 

daxy

Member
Been like this for about a week now. Sony's storefront is fucking garbage covered in a thin veneer of less hot garbage. People give Nintendo shit, but at least it consistently works like you need it to.
 

boosh5

Banned
Mine stopped working years ago. Calling Sony didn't help. Calling my bank didn't help. I've just been using Paypal ever since.
 

Troy

Banned
I'll never give Sony my CC info again. Just buy PSN digital codes from Amazon. As someone else said, there's a reason why those are top sellers at Amazon constantly.
 
Just started happening to me during the flash sale. Now I get to test whether Costco Canada can get electronic PSN credit codes to me quickly enough. What a pain.
 
I have the same problem here too. Thought my card had been stopped for whatever reason my bank would have found but works fine everywhere else.

I have never had a problem with my cards on PSN before, and only have it on ma Canadian account. French one does not have problem letting me burn my money on the PSN.
 

ss_lemonade

Member
I was trying to add a credit card the other to purchase Corpse Party Blood Drive and it would not let me add any of my cards or my wife's cards. All I would always get is something not really helpful like "enter a valid card number". Turns out PSN's card checker is extremely picky. I looked at a statement of one of the cards and our apartment number was listed in the first line of the address. So I put that in Address line 1 and the street address in line 2 and it worked. Kinda weird because I always do it the other way around and never had problems.
 
Question for OP, and others too - Did it work before, and just stop suddenly? Or does it give you an error when you try to add it?

I had a problem where I got the Sony Playstation Credit Card, and it couldn't be added to my account. I tried, and tried. PSN said it was Capital One. Capital One said it was Sony. Hours wasted on three way calls. I was getting LIVID, as the card offered all these great perks for using it on the store. I missed roughly $200 in purchases on it from flash sales, nothing was helping!

Then one day, a glorious angel at PSN suggested something -

"PSN reads your CC details EXACTLY as it appears on your CC statement. However your contact info is entered on your statement, is how it needs to be on the store. Street can't be St, or anything similar. Verbatim to the statement"

Lo and behold, my apartment number was listed first for some reason, then my street address. I updated every, and boom.

I know it might not be applicable in this situation, but maybe!
 

Boogiepop

Member
Question for OP, and others too - Did it work before, and just stop suddenly? Or does it give you an error when you try to add it?

I had a problem where I got the Sony Playstation Credit Card, and it couldn't be added to my account. I tried, and tried. PSN said it was Capital One. Capital One said it was Sony. Hours wasted on three way calls. I was getting LIVID, as the card offered all these great perks for using it on the store. I missed roughly $200 in purchases on it from flash sales, nothing was helping!

Then one day, a glorious angel at PSN suggested something -

"PSN reads your CC details EXACTLY as it appears on your CC statement. However your contact info is entered on your statement, is how it needs to be on the store."

Lo and behold, my apartment number was listed first for some reason, then my street address. I updated every, and boom.

I know it might not be applicable in this situation, but maybe!
Yeah, it just abruptly stopped after working plenty of times in the past. And the scary thing is that support forum thread makes it seem like it's an issue that's been around for a while and is unlikely to go away, and Sony seems to not be doing a damn thing about it.

I probably will just suck it up and buy prepaid cards, but I'm still grumpy about this and wanted to make it at least a little more known of an issue.
 

Walpurgis

Banned
Whenever I attempt to order something and enter my card info, I always get an error and have to retype it. This happens every time without fail and has been happening for months. The second time always lets me through though. I haven't tried it yet this week.

Sony is really bad at everything other than games and hardware.
Probably a bad idea to give Sony your CC info anyway, honestly.
I always erase it immediately afterwards.
 

Dorygrant

Member
You could also use the credit card via Paypal if you have an account.

Add the desired amount with Paypal, when it wants to use funds link to the credit card, and it should work!

Atleast that's what I've done in the past.
 
Make sure all of your mailing addresses match up. The one on my card was different than the one I had logged in, and that fixed it.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
If you live in an apartment or unit, put that in Address Line 1 and the physical address in Line 2.
 
think something is fucked up in sony's end , when i purchased DQH on the 12th i got an error message "pre-order payment failed"

still got to download the game (even though i was using psn cards) BUT on my QUEUE i have a blue space with the message "Pre-order Payment Failed"

also somehow my UC4 pre-order is now fixed, the dynamic theme appears for download (it didnt ) however i have 2 UC4 listed in my download list UC4: A Thief's End and UC4: A Thief's End Pre-order

one doesnt work (doesnt queue) and one does.
 
Huh, so it's not just me? I tried buying some things on the store yesterday with the card I've always used and it kept telling me there's an error and to try again later.


Same thing happened to me...Tried to buy both Corpse Party titles on Monday, using a card I've used a hundred times, kept getting an error on the web store, and missed out on the sale...

I know, I know, they were on sale for 2 weeks, but I finally caved the last day they were on sale and then couldn't buy them...


I'm even more pissed now knowing it was something happening to other people too...sucks
 

4Tran

Member
PSN has been having some credit card issues lately. I tried to buy something yesterday, and nothing worked on the website - changing cards, modifying address information, etc. But when I tried to make the same transaction on my Vita, it went through without a hitch.
 
Question for OP, and others too - Did it work before, and just stop suddenly? Or does it give you an error when you try to add it?

I had a problem where I got the Sony Playstation Credit Card, and it couldn't be added to my account. I tried, and tried. PSN said it was Capital One. Capital One said it was Sony. Hours wasted on three way calls. I was getting LIVID, as the card offered all these great perks for using it on the store. I missed roughly $200 in purchases on it from flash sales, nothing was helping!

Then one day, a glorious angel at PSN suggested something -

"PSN reads your CC details EXACTLY as it appears on your CC statement. However your contact info is entered on your statement, is how it needs to be on the store. Street can't be St, or anything similar. Verbatim to the statement"

Lo and behold, my apartment number was listed first for some reason, then my street address. I updated every, and boom.

I know it might not be applicable in this situation, but maybe!

Worked before, suddenly stopped working. Last time I paid for something was in August, and I had made no changes to my billing info until after I started running into problems.

Oh, also, even though my billing address has never before been a problem, I changed it to be exactly what it says on my billing statement, right down to using St for Street and E for East and whatnot. Still nothing.
 

4Tran

Member
Worked before, suddenly stopped working. Last time I paid for something was in August, and I had made no changes to my billing info until after I started running into problems.
Each of Sony's different stores seems to be running the transaction differently, so you may have more luck trying the PC, PS4, PS3, or Vita stores.
 

dci260

Member
Yea, I've had this same problem for almost a year now. I can't use my PayPal or Credit/Debit Card information, and their "solution" to me was to buy PSN cards. It sucks because now, for example, I have to buy $20 cards when I only want to spend something like $10.01.
 
Same problem. The card that used to work doesn't any more. I tried the virtual Visa card I subscribed to for my oline shopping, Paypal too. And the PS store still fails. I'm using Amazon and pre-paid card now.
 

Zen Mu

Member
I've never had issues personally, just bought Hearts of Stone and preordered a game on Monday, plus bought some stuff yesterday from the flash sale.

On the other hand, my little brother has never been able to get his card to work on PSN. He lives in a apartment though, so i'll have to ask him how he is inputting his address and see if that's his problem.
 
Each of Sony's different stores seems to be running the transaction differently, so you may have more luck trying the PC, PS4, PS3, or Vita stores.

PC is my default. No dice (though I can at least inspect the Ajax checkout request and see that it's 401-ing because of "invalid credit card info," never mind that in the process of troubleshooting this I've removed ALL my credit cards and left only PayPal). PS4 doesn't have any games I want and the PS4 store only shows PS4 games (because of course it does).

Ten minutes after booting up the PS3 store, I finally manage to get to checkout, whereupon it tells me my credit card info is invalid (which, again, PayPal, not even a goddamned credit card).

Also tried mobile web. No dice there, either. If Sony really doesn't want my $6, I'm fine to not give it to them. Jesus.
 

Kalor

Member
I had that problem yesterday when I used the webstore but I got it to work on the PS4. It was also happening to me on the Humble Store so it might not of just been a Sony thing.
 
Well then....I've exhausted my vast knowledge on the subject, I anxiously await to hear of possible fixes, in case this happens to myself in the future.

My only other thought would be to ensure that there are no blocks or restrictions on the credit cards. A lot of new cards have been sent out lately, or will be, depending on if there is an EMV chip in the card - most should have them now, or will soon. Even if the number is the same, there may still be a little stupid activation flag that needs to be taken off by the company.
 

Bojanglez

The Amiga Brotherhood
Same happened to me, here is how to fix it.

Remove all payment methods (including PayPal).

Remove all billing address information.

Wait about a week (some people has success after 48hrs).

Add credit card via PS4 store.

After that it should work. The customer support for this issue has been pretty poor and it seems to be an issue for many people.

I'm pretty sure this was triggered when Sony messed with their store to change way PayPal payments are handled (might just be a coincidence). It also seems that the more failed attempts you have the longer you have to wait before the fix will work.
 
Okay, so. Just got off the phone with North American support. After a very nice lady walked me through the various "change your address," "try PayPal," etc. steps, she put me on hold and returned to tell me that she'd just been told PSN is, in fact, having trouble accepting credit card and PayPal payments right now. I don't know if this is a widespread problem or made up on the spot (she said it'd been going on for about half an hour at least, and I think I've been having issues for longer than that) but there it is. Don't know why that would only affect some people and not others. Who knows. That's all I got, take it with the usual grain of salt.
 
Okay, so. Just got off the phone with North American support. After a very nice lady walked me through the various "change your address," "try PayPal," etc. steps, she put me on hold and returned to tell me that she'd just been told PSN is, in fact, having trouble accepting credit card and PayPal payments right now. I don't know if this is a widespread problem or made up on the spot (she said it'd been going on for about half an hour at least, and I think I've been having issues for longer than that) but there it is. Don't know why that would only affect some people and not others. Who knows. That's all I got, take it with the usual grain of salt.



Well, she doesn't necessarily know what she is talking about since it has been going on since at least the beginning of the week. As I posted before, I have purchased with the same card for years.


Monday, couldn't buy a damn thing on the web store. It was refreshing to hear her say it was on their end though.
 

Nokterian

Member
I always add money to the wallet through ideal this is a dutch thing since we can add money directly from our banks it is the most used system in the netherlands since you do with any bank you are with or i get a prepaid card if i am shopping but i never added my CC to psn.
 
You could also use the credit card via Paypal if you have an account.

Add the desired amount with Paypal, when it wants to use funds link to the credit card, and it should work!

Atleast that's what I've done in the past.

I have been using PayPal for a few years and it just stopped working a month or two ago the same way. Adding a new card, removing and re adding the paypal, nothing works.

Do all the people that have had this happen have long histories with psn? Lots of purchases over the years? I have a psn account since 2007 or so with probably hundreds or a thousand or more purchases between ps+ and other random things.

I wonder if it's a limitation on number of licenses to an account.

Maybe I'll try making a new account and buying something for a few dollars using the same paypal and see if it works.
 

Bojanglez

The Amiga Brotherhood
I have been using PayPal for a few years and it just stopped working a month or two ago the same way. Adding a new card, removing and re adding the paypal, nothing works.

Do all the people that have had this happen have long histories with psn? Lots of purchases over the years? I have a psn account since 2007 or so with probably hundreds or a thousand or more purchases between ps+ and other random things.

I wonder if it's a limitation on number of licenses to an account.

Maybe I'll try making a new account and buying something for a few dollars using the same paypal and see if it works.

I have been using PSN since it launched. Try following the steps I posted, it worked for me.
 
Just use prepaid cards. You probably don't want Sony to have access to your credit card information anyway.

Ew, prepaid cards in 2015.

If you're scared about card details for whatever reason, you can opt to not store them in Sony's database and enter them every time. I'm pretty sure they support Paypal anyway.
 
Well, she doesn't necessarily know what she is talking about since it has been going on since at least the beginning of the week. As I posted before, I have purchased with the same card for years.


Monday, couldn't buy a damn thing on the web store. It was refreshing to hear her say it was on their end though.

Yeah, I don't mean to present that info as a definitive statement or anything, but in light of Sony's complete radio silence on the issue, even this is better than nothing. But you're right to be skeptical, and not just because of the timeline.

I have been using PayPal for a few years and it just stopped working a month or two ago the same way. Adding a new card, removing and re adding the paypal, nothing works.

Do all the people that have had this happen have long histories with psn? Lots of purchases over the years? I have a psn account since 2007 or so with probably hundreds or a thousand or more purchases between ps+ and other random things.

I wonder if it's a limitation on number of licenses to an account.

Maybe I'll try making a new account and buying something for a few dollars using the same paypal and see if it works.

I've had a PS3 since 2007, and I do have a ton of stuff on my account.
 

Powwa

Member
Same thing started to happen with my credit cards too, really annoying. I tried 2 different cards and neither worked. Had to use my brother's card in the end.
 

Averon

Member
I just tried to use my card through my Vita and PS4 yesterday. It no longer works. It used to work before, now it don't.

I had to buy codes through Amazon.
 
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