Card-related restrictions on Amazon seller accounts: checking registration and payment status

Is Seller Central showing a message saying, in effect, that you need a valid card? Have you re-entered your card only to have verification fail again? This article is for sellers in that situation. We explain what stops working when your card becomes invalid, how to run a self-check against the official requirements and update your card, how to narrow down the cause when verification still fails, and how to respond if the matter goes to review.

What card-related restrictions are: telling situations apart by where the notice appears

To sell on Amazon, your selling account must have a valid credit card (or debit card) and a bank account on file. The Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement (the "Agreement"), which is the contract between sellers and Amazon, requires you to provide valid credit card and bank account information and to keep it accurate, complete, and valid at all times.

If the card you registered fails verification, a banner appears in your selling account telling you that a valid card is required to continue using selling services, and you also receive an email. While your card is shown as invalid, you cannot manage listings, inventory, or shipments, and you cannot receive disbursements (your sales proceeds) from Amazon. A single problem with your card can halt both your day-to-day selling and the payout of your sales proceeds.

This article reflects information as of September 2026. Policies, fees, and on-screen labels may change, so please also check your actual screens.

Identify which procedure applies from where the notice appears

Communications that involve a "card" can relate to procedures of very different kinds. Start by identifying which one you are dealing with based on where the notice appears.

Category	How it usually appears	Where to respond
(1) Invalid payment card	A banner in your account and an email notifying you of a verification failure	Checking and updating your Credit Card Information (the focus of this article)
(2) Seller performance review	A notification alert on the home page, Account Health, or Performance Notifications	Providing valid card information and submitting the documents specified in the notification
(3) Unrelated issues with similar names	Emails about buyer orders, input screens when you start selling, emails from suspicious senders	Responding to chargebacks, the Installment Sales Act information review, protecting yourself from spoofing (see below)

Re-registering your card will not resolve the issues in category (3).

• Buyer chargebacks: This is the process that starts when a buyer disputes an order charge with their card issuer. If you do not respond within 7 days of the notification date to the email requesting information, the amount of that transaction may be debited from your seller account. Chargebacks also affect your Order Defect Rate, so see also our article on reviewing your Order Defect Rate.
• Information review under the Installment Sales Act: In this procedure, you enter information such as your corporate number and details about your representative, which is then shared with acquirers and others for merchant screening for card payments. We cover it in detail in our article on preparing for the Installment Sales Act review.
• Spoofed emails asking you to "update your card information": Amazon states clearly that it will never ask for your card number or security code by email. Sender names can be faked, so do not open links in the email; instead, check using the method described in STEP 1 below.

If your disbursements have stopped, consider causes other than your card as well

Amazon's Help lists "missing or invalid bank account or credit card information" as one reason disbursements can be delayed, because both are required before disbursements can begin. Other possible reasons include a reserve, a negative or zero balance, a funds hold, shipping confirmations that have not been sent, and your account being under review, so check Performance Notifications and the Payments screens too. Note also that when you add or update your bank account information, disbursements will not be initiated until 3 days have passed, for security reasons. If you fix your card and bank account at the same time, factor in this waiting period as well. To check sales proceeds that are on hold, see how to check your sales proceeds after a suspension; to prepare an inquiry, see what to confirm with the payments team.

Why your card is charged even when you have sales: how the money flows

The Agreement provides that Amazon may collect amounts you owe it by charging your card, offsetting them against your sales proceeds, sending you an invoice, or other means. Subscription fees, selling fees, and other amounts that cannot be fully deducted from your balance may be charged to your card.

The monthly subscription fee for a Professional selling plan is ¥4,900 per month (shown excluding tax; charged when you have active listings), and under the Agreement it is paid in advance each month. For the first month after you switch to the Professional plan, the subscription fee is first charged against the available balance in your selling account, and any shortfall is charged to your card. In addition, when your balance is negative or zero, selling fees may be charged to your card. Your card's validity matters in periods like these:

• Months when sales are low and your balance cannot cover the subscription fee
• Months when returns and refunds push your balance negative
• Periods when you have paused selling in vacation mode

The monthly subscription fee is not charged for a month in which your account is blocked or suspended, or if you have no buyable ASINs on the billing date, but it is charged while you are in vacation mode. To see the actual charges, go to the Payments (支払い) tab > Payments (ペイメント) > Transactions (トランザクション), select "Service Fees" (サービス料金) as the transaction type, and click "Update" (更新). The charge appears as "Subscription Fee" (月額登録料) in the product details column. With a unified account, the subscription fee is prorated by country or region and charged in local currency, and it does not include any foreign transaction fees charged by your card company.

You can pay off a negative balance by card (via "Pay negative balance" (マイナス残高を支払う) under Payments) or by wire transfer. Always check the wire transfer destination in the Help pages within Seller Central.

Self-check against the nine official requirements

Even a card you use every day may be declined in Amazon's verification. The Help pages set out nine requirements for card verification, and a card that fails any one of them will be declined. Lay out the front of the card, your card statement, and what you entered in Seller Central side by side, and check them one item at a time.

No.	Official requirement (summary)	Commonly overlooked points
1	The number entered matches the number on the card	Still using the old number after the card was reissued
2	The billing address matches the billing address on your card statement	After moving or relocating your head office, only one of the two still shows the old address
3	The security code matches the one on the card	The code may change when the card is reissued
4	The expiration date is at least 6 months after the date you add the card	A card with less than six months left before it expires does not meet the requirement
5	The cardholder name matches the name printed on the card in Latin letters	Entering the name in kanji or kana, or differences in name order or spelling
6	It is not a prepaid, virtual, or gift card	Not checking what type of card it is
7	It can be charged in the currency of the Amazon store or of the store you registered for	The billing currency when you also sell in stores outside Japan
8	It has enough available credit to cover the charge	Credit used up by payments for inventory purchases
9	If your financial institution asks for a code, it matches the code sent to the cardholder	Entering the phone number the code was sent from

The three to watch most closely are No. 4 (expiration date), No. 5 (name), and No. 2 (billing address). The expiration date is judged not on whether the card works today, but on whether it is at least six months after the date you add it, so a card close to expiring may be declined even if you re-register it. Enter the name as it appears in Latin letters on the front of the card, and the billing address as it appears on your card statement, even if it differs from your business address.

We could not find a list of accepted card brands in the Japanese-language Help for Amazon.co.jp. Amazon's Global Selling guide for sellers in Japan directs them to cards "other than JCB," while the US Help includes JCB among the accepted brands, so treatment may differ. If your card meets the requirements but is still declined, try a card from a different brand as well.

How to check and update your card information

Screen names vary between Help pages (for example, "Payment Information" or "Charge Method"), so treat these steps as a guide and follow what you actually see on screen.

STEP 1. Log in to Seller Central directly

Even if you receive an email asking you to update your card, do not follow the link in the email; log in from a bookmark you saved yourself or a similar route. After logging in, check your card's status in the banner, in Performance Notifications, and on the Credit Card Information (クレジットカード情報) page. Decide whether the email is genuine based on what Seller Central shows when you open it this way, not on where the link in the email leads.

STEP 2. Check your registration status

Go to Settings (設定) > Account Info (アカウント情報), then under Seller Account Information (出品用アカウント情報) go to Credit Card Information in the Payment Information (支払情報) section, and check your card's status. If "Confirm credit card information" (クレジットカード情報を確認) appears on your home page, you can also go from there. With a unified account, the card you registered generally applies to all stores, but if you have set a different card (an "exception" (例外)) for a particular store only, also check that no expired card remains assigned to that store.

STEP 3. Add a new card and assign it to your stores

From "Change credit card information" (クレジットカード情報を変更), select the stores to assign, then add a new card or choose a card already on file. Enter the details exactly as they appear on your card statement. A card that is currently set as your charge method cannot be deleted, so add and assign the new card first, and delete the old card only once it is no longer used by any store.

STEP 4. Complete your financial institution's identity verification

You may be taken to your financial institution's site to verify your identity before returning to Amazon. The code arrives by whichever method you set up with your financial institution (SMS, email, or token), and you may be asked to verify for each card and each store.

STEP 5. Wait for the update and check the status

Verification usually completes within 2 minutes, but depending on the issuer and other factors, it can take up to 48 hours to be reflected. Even if the status does not change right away, do not re-enter your details; wait a while and then check. When you add a card, a small authorization may be made (see the FAQ for details).

Narrowing down the cause and contacting support when verification fails

If verification still fails after you have checked the nine requirements, choose your next step based on the situation.

Situation	Main causes and what to check	Next step
A card that used to work suddenly fails	The expiration date is near or has passed, the billing address was updated, or the bank decided not to approve use on Amazon	Re-add the existing card, try a different card, or contact your financial institution
The card is invalid for some stores only	Your financial institution allows use only in certain countries	Ask your financial institution which countries are allowed, and assign a different card to that store as an "exception"
The identity verification code is rejected	Name mismatch, entering the phone number the code was sent from, or outdated registration details	Check these three points; if that does not resolve it, contact your financial institution and then try again
The card meets every requirement but still shows as invalid	No stated cause	Try a different card or contact your financial institution. If two or more cards that meet the requirements are all declined, contact Technical Support

A note in the card FAQ says you can ask Seller Assistant about this topic, and that in many language settings it connects you directly to Technical Support. Before opening a new case, check the status of any existing cases in your Case Log, and open one case per issue. The guideline is not to create a new case if one for the same issue is already under review. Prepare a summary of the notification date, the issuer, brand, and result for each card you tried (without the card number), the results of checking the requirements, and your financial institution's response. In the sample message below, replace the placeholders such as [Issuer A] with the facts of your own business.

Since [date], a banner has been displayed in my selling account stating that a valid credit card is required. After checking my cards against the nine requirements listed in the Help pages, I registered two cards from different issuers and brands ([Issuer A] / [Brand A] and [Issuer B] / [Brand B]) on [date], but both were declined. Both issuers have confirmed that there are no usage restrictions on their side. Please tell me why verification is failing and what steps I should take next.

For general guidance on how to approach support, see our article on organizing your inquiries to Technical Support.

If the matter goes to a seller performance review

The Help pages list situations such as card information not being updated, a card being invalid, or a need to submit valid card information as one of the triggers for a seller performance review (出品者パフォーマンスの審査). (Changes to your address, bank account, or phone number are also listed; all of these are only examples.) In this case, you will also need to submit documents. If your account is suspended and documents are requested, the process is as follows:

1. Click the notification alert on your home page to open the Account Health (アカウント健全性) page
2. Click "Submit new information" (新しい情報を送信)
3. Check the details of which documents to submit via the Performance Notifications (パフォーマンス通知) link on the appeal page, then submit the required documents

You can also start from "View appeal" (申し立てを表示) in the Action column under the Performance (パフォーマンス) tab > Performance Notifications. Amazon cautions against resubmitting repeatedly without waiting for the review period, or sending inaccurate documents over and over.

Check that your documents meet the common requirements: they are unexpired; clear, with no cropping or skew; either scans of the originals or photos taken with a mobile phone camera (screenshots are not accepted); not altered or password-protected; and at least one document shows a name and address that match your registered information. The Help page on identity verification documents for businesses located in Japan lists a credit card statement as one of the documents that can prove your address (issued within the past 180 days and showing the cardholder's name and address). For a review, however, give priority to the documents specified in your Performance Notification. If you receive an identity verification email, see what to do when you receive a seller account verification email; for additional documents, see our article on preparing additional identity verification documents; and for what happens after a suspension, see the full picture from account suspension to reinstatement request.

What not to do

• Entering card details via a link in an email: The email may be spoofed. Make updates in Seller Central opened from a bookmark or similar.
• Re-entering details many times in a short period: Each time you add a card, a small authorization may be requested from your financial institution, and the pending holds can pile up on your statement and make the situation harder to read. Repeating attempts without identifying the cause will not necessarily help, so check the nine requirements first, then wait a while before checking the status.
• Registering a card where the cardholder's consent or control is unclear: What the Help pages require is that the name you enter matches the name on the card and that you can confirm you are the cardholder. Because the verification code is sent only to the cardholder, a card in someone else's name, such as a family member or acquaintance, tends to cause problems with verification and management, and we do not recommend it. The safest choice is a card controlled by the seller (or, for a corporation, by the company itself).
• Creating a new account to keep selling: Unless you have a legitimate business reason, Amazon allows only one selling account per region in which you sell. Creating another account to get around a restriction is not permitted and may make the problem even bigger.
• Altering statements or other documents: Editing a document because the name or address does not match is falsification. Obtain a genuine document again instead.
• Canceling your old card before registering a new one: This may result in your card being shown as invalid. Add and assign the new card first.

Preventing a recurrence: expiration dates, address changes, and stores outside Japan

The Help pages give examples of a previously working card failing verification, such as when its expiration date is near or has passed, or when the billing address has been updated. Make it a rule that "whenever you change something with your card company, you also review Seller Central."

Frequently asked questions

Q. If I update my card information, will listings and disbursements return to normal right away?

A. Verification usually takes up to 2 minutes, and it can take up to 48 hours to be reflected, but Amazon does not state when each function is restored after the status returns to valid. If your account has gone to review, a separate review of your documents is also required.

Q. I paused selling for a while, and when I finally logged in again I was asked to update my card.

A. We could not find any special procedure in the Help pages that applies only to dormant accounts. However, even a card that used to be valid can fail verification as its expiration date approaches or passes. Check whether your card was renewed or reissued while you were away, and re-register it in line with the nine requirements.

Q. My card statement shows a pending amount I don't recognize.

A. It may be a small authorization made when you added the card or assigned it to a store. Because these are made for each store, several may appear. You are not actually charged, and although it depends on your financial institution's policy, they disappear from your statement within 3 to 5 business days. If they do not, check with your financial institution.

Q. Can I register a debit card?

A. The Japanese Help pages include debit cards, but they must meet the nine requirements, and not every card will be accepted. Prepaid and virtual cards are not eligible.

Q. I sell as a corporation. Can I register my representative's personal card?

A. The Help pages do not clearly state whether a representative's personal card can be used. What they do state is that the name you enter must match the card and that you may be asked to confirm you are the cardholder. The safest approach is to use a card controlled by your company and to enter the details exactly as they appear on the front of the card and your card statement (name in Latin letters and billing address). If you are unsure, check with Technical Support. For how to handle it in your accounting, please consult a tax accountant.

Summary

A card-related restriction is a state in which your registered card fails verification, halting the management of listings, inventory, and shipments as well as the receipt of your sales proceeds.

• Check where the notice appeared to tell whether it is an invalid-card notice, a review, or an unrelated matter such as a chargeback or a spoofed email
• Subscription fees and selling fees may be charged to your card when your balance is insufficient, so a valid card is essential even for sellers with sales
• Check your card against the nine official requirements (an expiration date at least six months after the date you add the card, the name in Latin letters, an address matching your statement, and so on), and make updates without using links in emails
• If two or more cards are declined, contact Technical Support. If the matter goes to review, prepare the documents specified in the notification

*This article provides a general explanation. The appropriate response in individual cases depends on the circumstances.

Further reading

Distinguishing Amazon seller account suspension from closure: notices and reinstatement inquiries Read article → Checking funds after an Amazon suspension: holds, disbursement requests and video interviews Read article → An Amazon seller account verification email: steps for identity verification Read article →