So, guess what? I have yet another wonderful problem with OpenAI—shocking, I know. Every time I try to add a payment method to my account to purchase credits, it gets declined. Every. Single. Time. This has been happening since September 3rd, 2024. I’ve reached out to support multiple times, and guess what they’ve done? Absolutely nothing.
When I try to add a payment method, it gives me the classic, unhelpful “Card Declined.” But when I check my bank, there’s zero record of any declined transactions—meaning OpenAI isn’t even trying to take my money. Which, honestly, is a first. Usually, companies are more than happy to snatch your cash. But no, not OpenAI. They’re playing hard to get with my wallet, and it’s getting beyond frustrating.
I’ve tried more than four different cards, all with plenty of funds. And guess what? Every single one has been declined. Just today, I went the extra mile and used a brand-new Greenlight card. Declined again. And, of course, no record of any attempted purchase. I am literally missing out on work because of this nonsense.
This is my fifth—no, maybe sixth—time reaching out to support. Every time, I try every troubleshooting step they suggest, plus some extras they don’t even mention, like switching browsers, networks, sacrificing a goat to the tech gods—you name it. Nothing works.
Finally, after days of silence, some support rep named Remm graces me with a response. And what does Remm say? Oh, just that OpenAI’s payment partner, Stripe, flagged my account for “potentially risky activity”—aka fraud prevention. Now, don’t get me wrong, I totally understand fraud protection, but why the hell is my account getting flagged when I’m just trying to give them my money?!
But fine. Whatever. Remm gives me some troubleshooting steps. Spoiler alert: they don’t work. But at least he gave me some information, which is more than any other support agent has managed. So I thank him, because, you know, I’m polite like that. But I already know that’s not gonna cut it, so I decide to go straight to Stripe myself, you know, OpenAI’s actual payment processor.
I contact Stripe’s customer support, and a helpful lady responds the next day. She tells me they need my Customer ID, Charge ID, and Card ID to figure out what’s going on. Sounds reasonable, right? So I go back to Remm and say, “Hey, I talked to Stripe. They need y’all to open a support ticket with my Charge ID, Card ID, and Customer ID.”
And this? This is where things get truly wild.
Remm, my boy Remm, just copies and pastes the exact same message he sent me three days ago. Like, word for word. No update, no acknowledgment of what I just told him—just straight-up Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V like we’re in some AI-generated nightmare.
Naturally, I’m confused. So I ask, “Uh… did you mean to send that?”
A day later, he responds. And guess what? Another copy-paste job, but this time its shortened. Maybe he figured I didn’t get the memo.
At this point, I’m convinced I’m talking to an AI bot with the personality of a brick. Six months of this nonsense, and Customer Support is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. So since OpenAI support is clearly allergic to actually helping people, maybe someone here has an idea.