Payment troubleshooting

Learn what each payment error means and how to get your payment back on track

Seeing a payment decline message and not sure what it means? Here's what each one means and the fastest way to fix it, so your account keeps running without any interruption.

There are a number of reasons a payment can be declined. This article covers the most common causes below, along with how to fix each one. If a payment does fail, your account keeps working as normal while it's sorted out. You won't lose access straight away.

Credit Card Errors

Your card does not support this type of purchase

This message can be due to using a card that requires a PIN to be entered with the transaction, as this is not supported by our payment processor. Unfortunately, the only workaround for this is to use a different card that doesn't require a PIN to be entered.
The other reason you may get this error is if your card does not allow for cross border usage: Stocksmith is based in Australia, so if you are based in a different country, check with your bank to see if there are restrictions on using your card overseas.

Your card was declined

This is a "catch-all" error that can occur for a number of reasons:

Your card is not set up for online purchases.
Your card has been momentarily blocked due to unusual usage (sometimes making an overseas purchase can raise a fraudulent use flag on a card).

PayPal Errors

The email address email@email.com is invalid. It may not be registered in PayPal's system yet

This message can occur when the email address listed on PayPal is changed or removed. To fix this, if your account has expired as a result of the payment decline process, you can proceed through the subscription process to update your PayPal payment details with the correct email address. If your account is still active, you can go through the Change Payment Method process instead to refresh your payment details to the correct PayPal email address.

This transaction cannot be processed. Please enter a valid credit card number and type

This error will occur if the payment details PayPal has on file have become invalid – for example, you have an expired credit card listed as your primary source of funds. If this is the case, fixing your card details on PayPal should resolve this issue, and you should not need to change anything on your account. Once your payment details have been updated, the next attempt for payment should process automatically (or to retry the payment immediately, go through the Change Payment Method process). If your account has been cancelled, you can process a new subscription, and this will update your expired subscription.

Alternatively, this error message can also occur if PayPal has put a temporary restriction on your account – see "Account is restricted" message below for details on how to fix.

Account email@email.com is restricted

This means that PayPal has put a temporary restriction on your account. The best course of action here is to contact PayPal to resolve this problem. Once the restriction has been removed from your account, the next attempt for payment should process correctly (or to retry the payment immediately, go through the Change Payment Method process). If your account has been cancelled, you can process a new subscription, and this will update your expired subscription.

The payment cannot be processed because no payment source is available

This can happen if your PayPal account is not properly configured to fall back on the default credit card/bank account if the PayPal balance isn't sufficient to cover the transaction. It could also occur when your credit card is not properly entered or isn't "verified" yet. To rectify this, the best course of action is to log into PayPal to verify that your current address and credit card information is correct and that your payment method is still up to date. Once your details have been updated, if your account is still active, the payment will be retried automatically for you (or to retry the payment immediately, go through the Change Payment Method process). If your account has been cancelled, you can process a new subscription, and this will update your expired subscription.

This payment method is invalid

If you are seeing the error "This payment method is invalid" when trying to subscribe or pay, it is likely because you are attempting to use PayPal Credit instead of PayPal Express Checkout. While Stocksmith does support PayPal as a payment option, we currently do not support payments made through PayPal Credit. To successfully complete your payment, choose PayPal Express Checkout and use a linked bank account, debit card, or credit card.

Whatever the cause, your account keeps working as normal while this gets sorted out, so nothing is switched off straight away. If you don't update your payment details yourself through the Change Payment Method process above, we'll keep retrying the payment automatically for up to 25 days. If we're still unable to collect payment after that, you'll need to update your payment details and resubscribe to keep using your account.

I'm seeing "Plan change on a canceled subscription is not allowed." error. What should I do?

This usually occurs when the PayPal pre-approval is incomplete for a subscription plan upgrade/downgrade.

The best course of action is to contact us via the support form and we can look into it and see what steps will needed to be taken to sort out this issue.

It should be noted that there is nothing wrong with your account and all your data will still be safe in the system.

Need help?

If you're still stuck after trying the steps above, get in touch with our support team and we'll help you sort it out.