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Fees & Billing

My Payment Failed or I Was Charged Unexpectedly

Why a card declines on Polycopy, what a failed Premium renewal does to your Real Trading bots, how to update a card and get a receipt, and exactly what to send support.

Last updated August 22, 2026

Two different problems send people here. A card that will not go through, and a charge you did not expect. Both are usually simple. Here is what is actually happening and what to do about it.

Why a card fails

The six causes that account for almost all declines

Not enough available balance

The most common one, and it includes cards that hold the money but have a pending authorisation sitting against it.

The card expired or the details changed

A reissued card carries a new expiry date and usually a new security code, even when the long number looks the same.

3D Secure was not completed

Many banks now require you to approve the payment in your banking app. If you missed the prompt or it timed out, the payment declines even though nothing is wrong with the card.

Your bank blocked it

Banks block first and ask later on anything they read as unusual, particularly a first-time online subscription. It shows as a decline on our side and as a security block on theirs. Only your bank can lift it.

International card rules

Some non-US cards decline USD subscriptions by default, or allow a one-off charge while blocking recurring ones. Your bank can normally enable it in a call or in their app.

Prepaid and virtual cards

Many do not support recurring billing at all. If the first charge worked and the renewal failed, this is the likely cause.

What a failed renewal does to your bots

When a renewal fails, Stripe retries over a few days before the subscription lapses. Nothing changes while it is retrying. If it does lapse, Premium access ends and your Real Trading bots are paused.

Paused is not deleted. Your bot settings, budgets, trader selections and connected wallet all stay exactly as they were. Your open positions are unaffected, because they live in your Polymarket account and belong to you regardless of your subscription. They keep their value and they still resolve. Fixing the payment restores access and you can resume the bots.

Fixing a failed payment

1

Check the obvious three

Available balance, expiry date, and whether your banking app is waiting for you to approve something.

2

Update the card

Open Settings, select Account, and go to Membership & Wallet. That takes you to the Stripe billing portal, where you can add a new card or replace the one on file.

Settings
3

Retry the payment

Once a working card is on file, Stripe retries on its own within a day. You can also settle it immediately by paying the outstanding invoice in the billing portal.

4

If it still declines, call your bank

Ask them specifically whether they are blocking a recurring USD charge from Stripe. That exact question gets an answer. We cannot see or override a block on the bank side.

5

Then email us

If the card is fine and your bank says it is not blocking anything, send us the details listed below and we will check the Stripe side.

Charges you did not expect

What the charge on your statement probably is
What you seeWhat it is

$30/month on your card

The Premium subscription, on its monthly renewal date.

A charge right after your trial ended

The trial converted. Premium renews automatically unless you cancel before the 7 days are up.

A charge on a different date than you expected

Billing runs on the date you subscribed, not on the first of the month.

A small temporary authorisation

Some banks place a verification hold when a card is added. It drops off on its own.

Two charges close together

Usually a failed attempt that still showed as pending, plus the successful one. The pending one falls away.

A small amount taken out of a trade

Not a subscription charge. That is the flat 0.5% trading fee, charged per executed trade and shown before you confirm.

The last row causes the most confusion. The trading fee and the subscription are unrelated. The fee applies to every trade executed through Polycopy on both plans, and it comes out of the trade rather than off your card.

Receipts and invoices

Every payment sends a Stripe receipt to the email on your account. You can also download past invoices from the Stripe billing portal, reached from Settings. If you need an invoice carrying a company name or tax details, add them in the billing portal before the next renewal. A receipt cannot be reissued with new details after the fact.

What to send us

Email help@polycopy.com from the email address on your Polycopy account. That single detail matters more than anything else, because it is how we find the right Stripe customer. From a different address we cannot match you without a lot of back and forth.

Include:

  • The email address on your Polycopy account
  • The date and amount of the charge, or of the failed attempt
  • The last four digits of the card
  • What your bank told you, if you have called them
  • A screenshot of any error message you saw

You can also use the Get Help form on the help centre. Please do not send full card numbers. We never need them and cannot use them.

Can I get a refund for time I did not use?

Email help@polycopy.com from your account email with the charge date and amount and we will look at it. Cancelling on its own does not trigger a refund, because you keep Premium access until the end of the period you already paid for.

I cancelled but was charged again. What happened?

Almost always the cancellation landed after the renewal had already processed, or it was started but not confirmed on the final screen. Open the Stripe billing portal from Settings and check whether the subscription shows as cancelling at period end. If it does not, cancel again and email us the dates.

Still stuck? Send us a message and we'll reply by email.
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