Won't accept payment method. Says I owe money--but I don't; I'm all paid up. What to do?

[Autumn Tyrellium]

Frustrated. The Marketplace [and $Linden] keeps giving me the message "payment not accepted."  Also says I owe $ [though not clear if it's to SL or to my credit card].  My credit card is paid up, but the Marketplace won't let me update my info.  What to do?

[Rolig Loon]

Without more information, it's hard to give specific advice.  There are just too many ways you may have screwed up.  Here's a check list (with a couple of added pieces of emphasis) from the Knowledge Base

Credit cards

Here are some common reasons for credit card failure:

• You entered the credit card number incorrectly.
• You did not enter the billing address or entered it incorrectly. It should be the same address that appears on your bill.
• You did not enter the name on the card or entered differently from how it appears on the card.
• The credit card is not in the list of accepted payment methods (see here). NOTE also that you may not use a prepaid card, a gift card, or a debit card.
• You did not enter the CVV (3 digits on the back, or 4 digits on the front for AmEx) or entered it incorrectly.
• The card is expired, or the expiration date was entered incorrectly.
• There are no funds available on the credit card to validate it. We send a US$1.00 authorization to ensure that a credit card is valid. This is not a billing, but the card must have at least US$1.00 available on it to pass validation.
• Your monthly payment limit is reached, and/or your bank is not authorizing any more transactions.
• The issuing bank has not pre-approved transactions with Linden Research, Inc. Contact the issuing bank to resolve the problem.
• If you are outside the US, your card may not be set up for international/overseas transactions (this is very common with Visa Electron).

If none of the above applies, contact your credit card provider to determine the cause.

You may also contact Linden Lab Billing Support.

PayPal

Often the initial agreement can't be set up due to an unverified PayPal account. To use your PayPal account with Linden Lab, it must be verified and be capable of making instant transfers.

Linden Lab does not accept e-check (bank account) payments through PayPal because they cannot be processed quickly enough to match the instant delivery of virtual goods and services.  Therefore, we require that you have a credit card on file with PayPal as a backup payment source, OR that you pay with your PayPal balance in USD. Without a sufficient USD balance in your PayPal account, you will not be able to use it with only a bank account.

Be aware of your monthly limits. By default, your monthly spending limit with PayPal is set to US$250.00. You can easily raise or lower that limit. See Using PayPal for more information.