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 three days to fix the issue before losing access to your membership benefits. During this three-day period, we will regularly re-attempt to process your monthly payment.
- If after three 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 sign up again to gain access straight away.
Fix billing issues with a Premium membership
Troubleshoot a YouTube charge
Click the button below to troubleshoot or learn about your YouTube bill.
If you believe that 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've fixed any payment issues, the system will automatically try to charge you again and restore your access to your membership benefits.
Make sure that your card information is up to date
- 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 that it is correct, including the expiry date. The postcode listed for your payment method should also match the postcode of the current billing address of your card.
Paid memberships.
next to the message 'Current payment method could not be processed'.Submit any requested information
Check that you have enough funds for the purchase
Contact your bank or card issuer
Try to pay with a different payment method
- 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
.
- Click the
- Click Update payment method.
- Select a different payment method.
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 about a charge (such as a message from your mobile operator) 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 authorisation holds and pending transactions
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 working 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.