How to make a payment on the postpay or prepay payment settings

This article describes how advertisers using the postpay or prepay payment settings make payments.

Note: Refer to Make a payment for monthly invoicing accounts if you’re using monthly invoicing.

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How to make a payment
Prepayments
Postpay payments

How to make a payment

You can make a payment at any time and with any payment method that's available to you. Follow these steps:

Go to Summary within the Billing menu.
Select the option that applies to your account:
- For accounts on prepay, select Add funds to make a payment.
- For accounts on postpay, select Make an optional payment.

You'll be able to choose from any payment methods already associated with your account or you can add a new payment method. The processing time for your payment will depend on the payment method you use. Learn more about payment processing times.

Prepay

Countries and territories where prepay isn't available

Americas	Africa	Europe	Middle East	Asia Pacific
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Canada Cayman Islands Chile Costa Rica Dominica Ecuador French Guiana Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Guyana Haiti Jamaica Montserrat Netherlands Antilles Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Puerto Rico Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines St. Pierre and Miquelon Suriname Trinidad and Tobago United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Venezuela Virgin Islands (British) Virgin Islands (U.S.) Antarctica	Angola Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Cape Verde Central African Republic Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic Cote d'Ivoire Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Guinea-Bissau Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mozambique Namibia Niger Reunion Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Swaziland Togo Tunisia Western Sahara Zambia	Albania Andorra Austria Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Czechia Denmark Estonia Faroe Islands Finland France Georgia Germany Gibraltar Greece Greenland Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco The Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom	Armenia Bahrain Iraq Israel Jordan Lebanon Qatar Saudi Arabia Tajikistan Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates	American Samoa Australia Bhutan Brunei Darussalam Cambodia East Timor Fiji French Polynesia French Southern Territories Guam Hong Kong Japan Lao People's Democratic Republic Macau Malaysia Maldives Micronesia Mongolia Myanmar Nauru New Caledonia New Zealand Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Singapore Solomon Islands South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands Tokelau Tonga Vanuatu Wallis and Futuna Islands

If you're on the prepay setting, you'll make a payment for your Google Ads costs before your ads run. Your payment will be used to pay for your advertising costs when your ads start running.

You'll do this each time you add money to your Google Ads account. Whenever the money in your account starts getting low, you'll receive an email reminding you to make another payment. Learn more about prepay.

How to make a prepayment with a new credit card

Go to Summary within the Billing menu.
Select the Add funds button.
In the dropdown, select Add new credit or debit card, then enter your credit card information.
Enter the amount you'd like to make a payment for, then select the Add funds button to review and finish your payment.

How to make a prepayment with an existing credit card in your Google Ads account

Go to Summary within the Billing menu.
Select the Add funds button and choose the existing payment method.
Enter the amount you'd like to make a payment for, then select the Add funds button to review and finish your payment.

Tips on making prepayments

Pay whatever amount you like: The amount you pay is up to you, as long as it's above the minimum transaction amount for your location and currency. You'll learn what that minimum is when you make a payment.
Store your favorite payment methods in your account: You can make payments more quickly by storing multiple payment methods in your account.
Use any payment method for your country and currency: You can make a payment with any payment method in your account, or with a new payment method that's available in your location and currency. Check what's available to you.
Keep your ads running: Make a payment to ensure your ads continue to run for a while. It's recommended you add 30 times the cumulative amount of your ad campaign average daily budgets. You'll receive an email when your budget has less than 7 days' worth of advertising funds if your account balance is running low.
Allow for processing time: Depending on how you pay, it can take from 24 hours to a week or more for your payment to reach your account. Allow for this time when you're trying to keep your ads running.
Remember VAT: In some countries, Google deducts Value-Added Tax (VAT) from your payments. If this is the case in your country, be sure to factor the VAT deduction into your payments.

Note: If your last bank account payment was declined, you may experience a delay of up to 7 days while your payment is being confirmed. Your ads may not run while your payment is being processed. To avoid service impact, it’s recommended to use a card so that the payment is immediate.

Prepayments from bank accounts take up to 7 days to clear, while prepayments from a credit card are cleared almost immediately. If your payment is cleared within the 7-day period, the payment will be posted and your balance will be updated.

Postpay

If you’re on the postpay payment setting, you first build up advertising costs then have those costs automatically charged to your primary payment method.

You'll be charged advertising costs whenever your account reaches a predetermined amount or on the first day of the month. This is called the payment threshold. This payment threshold can increase automatically based on your account's spending and activity. Learn more about how to Change how often you’re charged.

You can use credit cards or debit cards for postpay payments. Follow these steps to add a new credit card to your account or edit information for an existing card.

Learn more about postpay.

How to add a new credit card or debit card to your Google Ads account

Some actions are restricted to users with Admin or Billing permissions. For Google Ads accounts with the Organization account type, you’ll need Admin or Billing access to add/edit a payment method. Learn more About access levels in your Google Ads Account.

Go to Settings within the Billing menu.
Under the “Payment methods” section, select Add a payment method.
Then, select Add credit or debit card.
Fill out your card information and select Save.
To make this your primary payment method, select the corresponding Actions dropdown menu of your newly added card, then select Set as primary payment method.

How to edit information for an existing credit card in your Google Ads account

Go to Settings within the Billing menu.
Under the “Payment methods” section, select the card you want to edit.
Select its corresponding Actions dropdown menu, then select Edit details.
Edit the credit card information.
Click Update.

Make a prepayment while on the postpay setting

If you're on the postpay payment setting, you can still make a separate, prepayment for your costs. You might want to make a payment for these reasons:

You want more control over how and when you're charged. With a prepayment, you can pay your entire Google Ads account balance, just a fraction of it, or more than your balance to cover future costs. You can also pay with a new payment method or divide your balance among several of them. This can help delay when your primary payment method is charged. Keep in mind that sometimes if you make a prepayment close to when your postpay payment is due, you might be charged twice.
You need a backup payment option. If your primary payment method is ever declined, you can make a prepayment to help your ads keep running while you resolve the decline with your bank. If you make a payment using a different credit card, bank transfer, or another bank account, your account will start running again after we've received the payment.

Here’s how a prepayment in advance can help keep your ads running if you are on the postpay setting:

Let's say you have a campaign with an average daily budget of $2,000 USD and that we charge your payment method whenever your costs reach $500 USD. This means you're charged multiple times a day.

If you make a payment for $10,000 USD with another payment method, such as a separate prepayment, you’ll be paying for 5 days worth of your advertising costs ($2,000 USD x 5 = $10,000 USD). This means that your primary payment method won't be charged until you've used up your $10,000 USD payment and an additional $500 USD, which triggers another charge.

If you want to make a prepayment while on the postpay payment setting, follow the instructions detailed in the section above.

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