Multi-platform: Credit cards and billing

Multi-platform: Credit cards and billing

Your search ads will be eligible to run once you have added a primary payment method. Your monthly billing date is the date that you signed up for Multi-platform.

Billing threshold

We charge your primary payment method when you reach your billing threshold or your monthly billing date, whichever comes first. Your billing threshold works as follows:

• In order for Microsoft Advertising to validate your primary payment information, we'll charge you after your spend reaches $10.
• After three successful payments of $10 each, your billing threshold will increase from $10 to $25.
• The same will repeat at each tier. For every three successful payments, your threshold will increase by one tier.
• The thresholds tiers are $10, $25, $50, $100, $200, and $500.

Your primary payment method will be charged on your monthly billing date unless you have made a successful payment within the past 10 days, either by reaching your billing threshold or by paying your account balance. Your card can be charged multiple times a month each time ad spend reaches your billing threshold. You will be able to see how much you spend in search ads versus social ads, but you won't be able to see the spend on each individual ad platform.

Billing thresholds start out low and will automatically increase when you make successful payments. The amount of increase depends on your currency and other factors. Alternatively, Microsoft Advertising automatically decreases your billing threshold if you run into problems paying your charges.

Prepay

If you have a prepay account, you need to add funds to your account before your ads can display on Microsoft Advertising. You can manually add funds whenever you'd like, or you can set up automatic payments (auto-recharge) to make sure there is no pause in your online advertising. If you don't set up auto-recharge and your account balance reaches zero, we'll pause your campaigns and your ads will not display until you add more funds.

The maximum amount of funds you can add to your account depends on the country of your billing address and the payment method you are using to fund your account. You'll see the maximum amount allowed when you add your payment.

Funding a prepay account can be immediate or can take up to three weeks, depending on your payment method.

Manually add funds to a prepay account

Set up auto-recharge for a prepay account

If you sign up for auto-recharge, each time your account balance reaches 20 percent of the recharge amount, we will automatically charge your primary payment method and add funds to your account.

To set up auto-recharge, you need to make sure that you are using a card or PayPal as your primary payment method.

Add a payment method

Follow these steps to add a credit or debit card as your payment method:

You can only remove payment methods that are classified as additional. If you only have one card in Microsoft Advertising, add another card, and assign it as the new primary card. Once that is updated, you can remove your previous primary card. To remove a backup payment method, you must first designate it as an additional payment method.

Inactive accounts cannot be reactivated if they are associated with an expired or otherwise invalid payment method or if the account has had too many declined payments. If you are unable to add a valid payment method, create a new account and enter your credit or debit card information in the new account.

Make a one-time payment

You can pay the charges on your account before it reaches your billing threshold or your next billing cycle. Partial payments are not accepted.

Credit and debit card requirements

Please note the following requirements for credit and debit cards:

• Multi-platform accepts credit and debit cards only (for example, VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover Network). We do not accept payments by prepaid cards.
• These account funding options are typically instant, but can take up to 24 hours if there are card processing system delays.
• Please note that PayPal and bank transfers are not yet available for Multi-platform.
• Multi-platform doesn't accept cards that require you to enter a PIN/security verification when making a payment.
• Enter your name precisely as it appears on the card. Only include your middle initial if it appears on your card.
• If your address exceeds the Address 1 field, then use the Address 2 field. Do not shorten or abbreviate your address.
• The card number and type cannot be edited, so if you make a mistake, you'll need to add a new one with the correct information.

Contact your credit card company in the following situations:

• To make sure you're authorized to use this card for online purchases and automatic billing.
• The credit card has expired, has been reported lost or stolen, has reached its transaction limit, or is new and hasn't been activated.
• Required multi-factor authentication failed. Your bank might require multi-factor authentication to help prevent online fraud and unauthorized access to your account. If the one-time passcode didn't work, try resending the code or adding the card again. If this doesn't resolve the issue, please contact your bank to validate your information. Learn more about Payment Services Directive 2 and Strong Customer Authentication.

Subscription plan billing

Your subscription is set to automatically renew monthly for your convenience and to avoid interruption of service. Your primary payment method will be charged 24 hours before your monthly billing date, and you may receive a payment receipt indicating so. This is to ensure you still have a balance when charged, otherwise, your account may be put on pause. You can cancel your subscription plan anytime you'd like.