You moved your account to a new login and everything looked fine — until checkout failed.
Your card didn’t “disappear.” It simply didn’t transfer.
If you can’t add a payment method after an account transfer, the platform may be treating your new login as a different billing profile.
Why Your Payment Method Doesn’t Transfer
Most services do not move stored payment methods automatically. Common reasons include:
- Security rules: cards are tokenized and locked to the original billing profile
- Different login type: email login vs Google/Apple login creates a new billing identity
- Region mismatch: the new account is detected under a different country/ZIP context
- Store vs direct billing: App Store/Google Play subscriptions don’t carry cards into web billing
- Fraud prevention: billing tools block “copying” payment methods during migrations
Fast Checks That Usually Reveal the Cause
- Check whether the subscription is billed by App Store / Google Play or by the platform directly
- Confirm you didn’t switch from email login to Apple/Google login (or the reverse)
- Look for a “billing profile” page — some platforms create multiple profiles per login method
- Verify your country/ZIP settings match the card’s issuing region (US/CA/UK errors happen here)
How To Fix It Without Breaking Your Subscription
Do this in order (it prevents double-billing mistakes):
- Step 1: confirm where billing lives (store billing vs direct billing)
- Step 2: if it’s store billing, update payment method inside the store account (not the app/site)
- Step 3: if it’s direct billing, re-add the card inside the new account’s billing profile
- Step 4: log out/in and refresh billing settings (some systems cache “no card” status)
- Step 5: if a card won’t save, try a different method temporarily (PayPal/another card) to unlock the profile
Refund Risk: What Happens If Payment Fails During Transfer
- Some services pause access immediately after a failed renewal
- Others keep access but keep retrying the card (this can look like random charges later)
- If you see retries, you must update the payment method on the correct billing owner (store vs platform)
Quick FAQ
Why can’t support “move my card” to the new account?
Most platforms can’t transfer card tokens across billing profiles for compliance and security reasons.
I used Apple login before and now I’m using email. Is that a problem?
Yes. Many systems treat those as separate identities, even if the email looks similar.
Will adding a new card create a second subscription?
It can — if you add it under the wrong billing path. Always confirm the billing owner first.
Prevent This Next Time
- Before transferring accounts, screenshot your billing owner page (store vs direct)
- Keep the original login active until the first successful renewal after transfer
- After transfer, verify you still have exactly one active subscription
If your payment method “vanished” after an account transfer, it’s usually not a bug — it’s a billing-profile boundary. Fix the billing owner first, then re-add the method in the right place.