Add a backup credit card for automatic payments

Applies to editions of Google Workspace and other paid subscriptions in your Google Admin console.

To make sure your service runs without interruption, we recommend adding a backup credit card to your Google billing account. If we try to charge your primary payment method and our charge is ever declined, we'll automatically try to charge your backup credit card.

You can't use a bank account as a backup payment method.

Add a backup card

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. In the Admin console, go to Menu and then Billingand thenPayment accounts.
  3. Next to your subscription, click View payment methods.
  4. Click Add Payment Method.
  5. Select Add credit or debit card and enter your card number and other information.
  6. Click Save.
  7. Below the card icon, click the Down arrow and select Backup.

  8. (India, only) If your credit card's bank is in India, follow these steps to verify a card based in India.

After adding a backup credit card, you can use it to make other payments, such as paying an outstanding balance or making an advanced payment. For details, go to Make a manual payment or pay early.

Questions?

When do automatic payments occur?
  • Google Workspace, Essentials, and Cloud Identity Premium—After your free trial ends and your paid subscription starts, we charge your payment method at the beginning of the following month. If your paid service starts in May, for example, we charge you at the beginning of June. After that, charges continue automatically at the beginning of each month.
  • Domain registration—We start charging your payment method at the time of purchase. If you set up your domain for automatic renewal, we renew your domain 7 days before the annual renewal date and charge your payment method at the beginning of the following month.

Learn more about how to understand your monthly costs.

What if my country isn't listed when I try to add my billing address?

In some countries, the billing address you specify for a payment method must be in the same country as the billing country you select when you set up your Google billing account. If that's true for your location, you can't enter any other country in a billing address—nor can you change the billing country associated with your account.

If your billing address isn't in the country you selected for your billing account, you can:

  • Add a new payment method with a billing address that is in your billing account's country.
  • Transfer your account to one of our Google Partners who might be able to change your billing account's country for you. Find a Google Partner.
I just added my credit card. How long until it can be charged?

When you add a credit card, we can typically authorize and begin charging it right away. In some cases, however, this might take a few hours.

How long does it take to process a credit card payment?

When setting up a Google billing account

Your service will start running almost immediately after you enter valid credit card information in your new billing account. However, in some circumstances it can take a few hours.

When making a manual payment

When you make a manual payment, we check with your credit card provider right away to see if your card can accept the charge. If it can, we authorize your card almost immediately for the amount of your payment. See Make a manual payment or pay early.

If your account was suspended because an automatic payment was declined and you're paying off your balance to lift the suspension, service will resume once your payment is complete.

It might take several hours for the payment to appear in your transactions.

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