What should I do if my payment was declined?
Updated
Payments can be declined for various reasons, and sometimes your bank won't share the exact reason with us. To help you troubleshoot, this article outlines the most common causes of payment issues and the steps you can take to resolve them.
📝 If your payment is declined and you have an active Shadow PC subscription, the service will be suspended for 7 days before termination. After termination, you'll have 7 days to download the files from your Shadow PC before they're permanently deleted.
Insufficient funds
Your bank account doesn't have the necessary funds to cover the payment.
Check your bank account balance. Sometimes an unexpected or scheduled charge can leave your remaining balance lower than usual.
Contact your bank or financial institution to resolve the issue.
Try using a different payment method.
If your account has a high enough balance to accept the charges, including any additional taxes where applicable, check both your payment information as well as your billing information.
Authorization required
Your bank may need you to authorize the charges. Some banks offer a web or text service to complete this process.
You can also contact your bank to authorize the charges. To avoid recurring issues, ask your bank to authorize future charges from Shadow.
Incorrect billing information
The billing information you provided must match the details registered with your payment method. If the information cannot be verified by your bank, the transaction may be flagged for suspicious activity.
To ensure a successful payment:
Double-check your full address, including city and ZIP code, for accuracy.
Select the correct country and state during checkout, as this information is also verified with your bank.
If you need to change your country or state, restart the checkout process to update your details.
Incorrect payment information
Your payment information was entered incorrectly or your payment attempt was flagged for possible fraud.
Review the following information and try again:
Make sure the card has not expired.
Check the CVV or security code.
Re-enter the card or IBAN number.
See if your card was reported lost or stolen.
Or try another payment method.
High risk and fraud
Shadow uses Stripe to securely process all payments. While Stripe does not share your payment details with us, they use this information to help identify and prevent fraudulent transactions on our behalf. If you’ve already contacted your bank and suspect that your payment was blocked by Shadow, here are steps you can take to resolve the issue.
Turn off services that can hide your IP address
Submitting your payment from behind a VPN, proxy server, or network firewall can cause your payment to appear suspicious and fail.
Use a different payment method
Stripe evaluates your payment activity on Shadow alongside your activity with other merchants that also use Stripe. If Stripe detects suspicious activity, the payment will be blocked. We cannot disclose the reason, make exceptions, or provide advice, as accepting fraudulent charges poses risks to our business. These decisions are final, even if there is a possibility of a false positive.
Try your payment again later
If you've attempted to submit your payment too many times, a rate limiter will temporarily stop your payment from being processed. You can retry your payment 24 hours after your most recent attempt.
Still have questions after reading this article?
Check out our other articles or contact Shadow Support.