If your monthly membership payment for YouTube Music is declined, we will notify you via email so that you can take action and restore your membership.
After receiving this email:
- You’ll have 3 days to fix the issue before losing access to your membership benefits. During this 3 day period, we will regularly re-attempt to process your monthly payment.
- If after 3 days, we are still unable to successfully charge you, your subscription will enter a "Paused" state for 30 days. During this paused state, we will still periodically attempt to process a payment to restore your membership access, unless you cancel your subscription.
If you update your payment information during this time, your membership should be automatically restored during our next attempt to charge your payment method. If you do not want to wait for the system to re-attempt the charge, you can cancel your subscription and re-sign up to gain access right away.
If you believe you were charged for a paid membership but are unable to access your benefits, click here.
If your payment for a membership was declined, you most likely need to fix an issue with your payment method. See our tips for how to do this below.
Fix a declined payment
Your monthly membership payment may have been declined due to an issue with your card or other form of payment. Once you fix any payment issues, the system will automatically try to charge you again and restore your access to your membership benefits.
Make sure your card information is up to date
Payments often fail due to an expired credit card or an incorrect billing address. To update this information:
- Go to youtube.com/paid_memberships if you’re on a computer. If you’re in the YouTube Music app, click on your profile picture
Paid memberships.
- Click the
next to the message "Current payment method could not be processed".
- Click Update payment method.
- We recommend that you check all of your card information to make sure it is correct, including the expiration date. The zip code listed for your payment method should also match the zip code of the current billing address of your card.
If your payment method on file can no longer be used, please add or choose another payment method.
Tip: If you don’t see the option to "Update payment method" from the link above, you can also update the payment method for your membership from the Google Pay
Subscriptions and Services page.
Submit any requested information
If you see an error message requesting that you submit additional information to Google, please follow the instructions to submit those details. For example, you may need to
verify your identity on Google Pay before being able to purchase using your Google account.
You can also check
Google Pay at any time for alerts or requests to fix account issues.
Check you have enough funds for the purchase
Sometimes a transaction is declined because of insufficient funds. Check your account to make sure you have enough to complete the purchase.
Contact your bank or card issuer
Your card may have specific restrictions which cause your payment to fail. Contact the bank or company that issued your card to ask about the transaction and see if they know the reason for the decline.
If you’re outside of the U.S., you will also need to ensure your card and bank support international transactions. Depending on your country, you may also need to contact your bank to authorize your card’s use for online transactions.
Try to pay with a different payment method
You can try switching to another form of payment by following these steps:
- Go to youtube.com/paid_memberships if you’re on a computer. If you’re in the YouTube Music app, click on your profile picture Paid memberships
.
- Click the next to the message "Current payment method could not be processed".
- Click Update payment method.
- Select a different payment method.
Tip: If you are still having trouble using your payment method to purchase on YouTube, you can consider paying with Google Play balance (if it’s available in your country). You can find which countries have Google Play balance available
here.
First, add to your Google Play balance and then select the "Google Play Balance" option as your payment method. You can also read more about redeeming your Google Play balance.
Fix issues with accessing benefits after being charged
You may have tried to make a purchase or received a notification of a charge (such as a message from your mobile carrier), but have noticed that you don’t actually have access to what you bought. This can happen if your charge is still being processed, or has been declined.
About authorization holds and pending transactions
Pending charges on Google Pay or your card statement are
authorization holds that haven’t been processed yet.
It’s possible to see multiple pending charges for the same subscription payment, as each pending charge represents an authorization attempt. If a charge is "Pending" instead of processed it has not been charged to you, and any unsuccessful card authorization attempts for a payment will drop off from your statements on their own and will not be billed to you.
Check a pending charge
- Check your billing statement or Google Pay. If you click into the transaction on Google Pay, you should see the purchase listed as a "Pending" charge rather than completed.
- Search for an email receipt. You will receive an email receipt from YouTube if a charge is actually processed.
- You can also check Google Pay at any time for alerts or requests to fix account issues. For example, you may need to verify your identity on Google Pay before being able to purchase using your Google account. If you don’t see any alerts or requests on Google Pay, be aware that this pending charge should either go through, typically within 1-14 business days, or disappear on its own during this time, if the payment is declined by your payment provider. If you are still seeing a pending charge after this time, please contact your payment provider.
Check a declined charge
You can double check the status of your purchase in
Google Pay. Google Pay should show the transaction status as "Declined". See our tips in the section above for how to fix a declined payment.
If your billing statement is still showing a "Pending" charge for this payment, this should go away on its own within 1-14 business days or disappear on its own during this time, if it is declined. If you are still seeing a pending charge after this time, please contact your payment provider.
Note: Starting in 2022, new YouTube Premium and Music Premium subscribers who signed up on Android will be billed via Google Play. This change will not affect existing subscribers. You can visit
payments.google.com to see recent charges and check how you are billed. To request a refund for a Google Play purchase, follow the steps outlined
here.
Paid memberships.
next to the message "Current payment method could not be processed".