Hi, ARMY!! This is Helen 🙋🏻♀️
I have had conversations with many buyers this weekend and I would like to address some questions that have come up in regards to “payment restrictions.”
I want to start off by saying that my opinion on payment restrictions has evolved over time. While it’s true that at one point I did fear that payment methods could only be used once per tracking week, my opinion on this has LONG since changed. I no longer feel this to be true but the bottom line is, none of us can know for sure.
I’ve always operated more cautiously to maximize valid sales and after seeing the trials and tribulations many buyers endured this past week with payment methods being declined left and right and even fraud alerts being issued either directly from their credit cards, banks, PayPal or even UMG my notions were reaffirmed. Despite the privacy laws in place in regards to payment information being reported, this points to a reality that payment methods CAN and ARE being tracked to some degree.
Knowing this, I can’t in good conscience support EXCESSIVE buying with the same payment method.
That said, I will continue to fund each payment method a handful of times each tracking week because, logically speaking, this could be normal behavior. For example if one household was buying the same song they would likely use the same payment method but with different emails and accounts.
Please understand that the funds you are requesting for have been donated through other ARMYs personal sacrifice to support the seven artists that we love. It’s WAB ARMY’s responsibility to wisely distribute the funds that are entrusted to us.
As a funder, I’ve always thought that I am just the middle man between the donors who give so generously and the buyers who actually put the funds to work.
I was a buyer before I started funding, so I know the hard work that goes into it! The last thing I would ever want to do is to make things more difficult – my intention has always been to work in tandem with and support of buyers for the best possible results.
Each one of us whether you are a donor, buyer, funder, streamer or radio requestor are part of a well-oiled machine. Each of us forms a part of Bangtan’s armor!!
Please continue sending me your funding requests so that we can continue to work as a team supporting our beloved seven!!
Thank you so much 💜
I agree that there can be a bit of leeway in regards to unique payment methods. This was found during a buying test approx 1 month ago. However, our testing was not of this magnitude so they may not have triggered some system checks/restrictions.
To be as cautious as possible and avoid disqualification of my purchases, I use a stack of prepaid visa gift cards. And because these cards are not tied to an identity (specific name or address), I will use a unique email address and physical address of friends and family members.
One important thing to note during my purchases the 2nd time around, 2 of my prepaid visas were getting declined on qobuz for an unknown reason. They had only previously been used once on Amazon.
Same thing happened to me this past week but on D2C. My credit card was previously used only once on the D2C website and it got declined the second time around, two days later. I tried changing mailing and email addresses and nothing worked. I went to buy on Qobuz instead and it went fine.
I had a card declined on the BH store that I had never used before on D2C or any other store. Some I heard getting Visa Gift Cards declined with ‘no match’ errors & was first time trying to even use it on the store. I’m wondering if it’s an issue with BH store itself.
This actually happened to me with a Gift Card. I then tried to buy with my husband’s credit card and also got the same errors that it couldn’t be processed. I eventually was able to process both. I was unable to determine how I was able to process them successfully. I used multiple gift cards, my CC, hubby’s CC, daughter’s CC, different emails. Just to note, I only used 2 different home addresses. It may be a glitch with their site?
This also happened to me but the issue was Amazon. I tried 3+ times, removed and re-added my card, and even talked to a representative. Eventually it worked, but originally I thought I was the only one going through something like that at the time. as for the US store, I used the same payment method for 5 emails, and each one went through and I was successfully able to purchase and download.
Please do not get discouraged with any errors you might face when using prepaid credit cards (Visa/MC gift cards). I am happy to see more buyers using these because I truly feel this is a better and safer way to buy these days. Yes, I do realize that it is not as fast and it is more time consuming in every way and it comes with many struggles, especially on the D2C store. HOWEVER just because it’s harder please don’t give up. You can still spread your purchases out and buy across all platforms. If you can’t get it to work on one site you can use it on another or you can attach the card to your PayPal or Amazon Pay etc…. We really need to be very careful with the new rules in place. Things ARE NOT the same as they used to be. Please do not use any one type of payment method excessivly. Including everyone’s favorite “PayPal balance.”
I didn’t know people were having payment errors. I didn’t get any last week at all. However, I did diversify my payment options and spread out my purchases slowly over the week. I bought Itunes giftcards and Amazon giftcards to load up on my accounts. Then I use my credit cards, paypal, and debit card for the web store and Qoboz. I used each payment method max 2 times. With the new rules, it’s just going to be a period of trial and error until we figure things out. We’ll get there eventually.
You did amazing!! VERY SMART buying practices, if you ask me! Good job ARMY!! Love to see it.
Thank you funding team, funders, and buyers! I didn’t have any issues last week buying 🙂 Not sure how 2nd week will go. I like recharging my amazon balances ahead of time to make it easier when buying.
For Amazon and itunes i always go for gift cards. Amazon gift cards are heavenly. we can customize gift card amount as we need. I have love and hate relationship with itunes gift card tho bcz of its fixed amount nature and extra charges (if we buy from 3rd party stores).
I diversify my payment method in d2c and qobuz. i don’t repeat same payment method on those platform tho.
I believe adding handful of gift cards in paypal is a good strategy. In that way we will have different payment methods easily.
address and phone number isn’t a problem with me. google suggest many addresses when we type street number. i just chose a random street number that google suggests. i think i already used all restaurants phone number at this point 😂.
I had no issues with payment methods last week and made hundreds of purchases on qobuz. I used PayPal’s and gift cards. The only time my payment was denied was while trying to use a gc for YTC when it was .69. Minimum purchase amount on a gc seems to be $1 since they worked fine for purchasing L&R.