Workaround for Google Play Store credit card deletion problem

Looks pretty straightforward, eh?
Guess again.

This is not a geek blog, but I seem to have found a workaround for a vexing problem users of Google Play Store on Android have with cancelling a credit card on their account and I want to share it.

THE PROBLEM

I recently went to pay for an upgrade of a free app on my Android phone. This took me to my account on Google Play Store where I noticed at once that the only card on file was a MasterCard that had been replaced by the issuer some time ago.

This was my first purchase on Play Store and I was somewhat surprised to see that Google had a card on file at all. Never mind that.

I dutifully entered another MasterCard and Google showed it as one of the available cards.

Then I thought I would remove the dead card so there would be no problems with future purchases. That's when I fell into credit-card-delete Hell.

When I clicked 'Remove' I was shown a message that I needed to unlink this card from any payments (I am assuming this means app rollover payments on file) which led to a payments page showing no activity. I had never before made a purchase on Play Store (to my knowledge).

Frustrated, I did a Google search on the problem which brought back 44,200 results. Aha! So others have had this issue. Maybe I'll get some help.

No such luck. All I learned was that tons of people had had this problem and basically Google's support folks were no help. Some folks wasted a day on the phone, others tried tips from forums, but I did not find a single report of a fix.

THE WORKAROUND

Not looking forward to contacting Google, I thought for a moment. If a door doesn't open, try a window.


So I entered a VISA card that I often use for online purchases. Play Store took it immediately and showed me a list of three cards: two MasterCards (one of them the dud) and the VISA card.

Then I tried removing the dud MasterCard and it worked just like a charm. No problemo!
My partner of 41 years, who had two careers in computer programming (IBM and Unisys) muttered: "Bad programming ... Google is no more immune from it than anyone else."

WHAT I WAS USING

I did all this from my ancient HP laptop, running Firefox 60.0.2 (64bit).

I will be happy to hear from anyone who finds this tip useful. Email me here, or FB me at Dan Damon (NJ, not the BBC reporter who copped my name ;) ). Please feel free to share.

And gook luck!

---

 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

View today's CLIPS  here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.