Remove Your Credit Card Details from Xbox Live – ONLINE!
Feb 7th, 2009 | By Debbie "Weefz" Timmins | Category: Articles, News, Xbox 360One of our most popular post series’ is How to Remove Remove Credit Card Details from Xbox Live. The upshot of it all was basically… you can’t. Not properly. We tried the website. We tried phoning them up. 53 days later, TheFluffyFist’s credit details were still on his Xbox Live account.
Stories came in from everywhere about people having the credit card problems. Scott wanted to stop his son from buying MS points indiscriminately – couldn’t do it. PrincessMeri spent two years asking Microsoft to stop billing her. Mark‘s account was hacked and $247 worth of points was charged to his card. People even made complaints to Watchdog and the Better Business Bureau (sadly, with no direct response). Lots of worldwide frustration over such a simple little thing.
We are now happy to report that Microsoft have finally added an option to remove your credit card details from your Xbox account! They no longer blacklist your card and you can add it back later if you change your mind.
Here’s how:
- Log in to Xbox.com
- Click the My Xbox drop-down in the top-right corner and select
Manage ProfileMy Account. (screenshots from the UK version of the site)
- Click Manage Payment Options in the list on the
rightleft-hand side
- You should now be presented with a list of your current credit cards! Note the magical new word, “Remove” next to the card ;) Click the image below for a bigger version.
Praise to the gods of customer service! And thanks to reader Johan for letting us know about the update.
Update: 11th Feb 2009
We’re getting reports that some people are having trouble removing their cards. Some even think this is a fake option on the site to placate us. Trust us, it’s not. You can actually remove your card details. Click the screenshots below for the readable pictures:
A few people get the following message:
“This payment option cannot be removed at this time. Please contact Xbox LIVE Customer Support.”
As Gabe says in the comments, they may have an active subscription using their credit card that needs to be cancelled first. I switched to a pre-paid 12 month subscription a few months ago, so the theory seems to hold true. If you get a customer service rep to explain this, let us know.
Our advice, remove your card details and buy pre-paid cards instead:
- Xbox Live 12 Month Gold Membership plus 1 free month!!!
- Xbox Live 12 Month Gold Membership Card
- Xbox Live 3 Month Gold Membership Card
- Xbox Live 4200 Points Card
- Xbox Live 2100 Points Card
Edit 30th May 2010: Microsoft have changed the way you get to your credit card details, so I’ve updated the screenshots above.
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I edited my information about the card so hopefully that will keep it from being charged. Changed my name to Mike Hunt, my address is 888 DeezNuts Rd. and I am from Beverly Hills, CA 90210!
i just called customer service i called right after i was charger with the subscription they gave me a refund because i called near the time it happened and they deleted the card just call customer service, it took 20 min but i got my money back
ok guys … i just had a thought if microsoft will not let you remove ya card payments by this … because i am getting the same message
*this payment method cannnot be removed*
can you just go to your bank and cancel it there and stop givin microsoft the momey out of your account!? will this work or not it just a thought =)
Yes that would work but that gives you the hassel of renewing and geting a new card and that could take upto a week without using your card unless you go to the bank everytime to get some money out.
That’s how I had to do it; reported my CC lost / missing and had my CC company issue me a new CC number. I tried every method mentioned by every person on this blog and it just plain wouldn’t work. Phone call to XBL, ha!!! That was a joke; a total waste of my time. Canceled the auto renewal, read every page of this blog and tried every suggestion. Spend WAY too much time trying to figure it out. I got close to fixing the problem online, but I would have had to cancel the existing membership that I paid for with the card (and I was only one month into a one year paid membership). Luckily for me I have several CC’s and the one I had attached to XBL was a card I don’t use often. Two minutes online at my CC’s website reporting it missing, 3 days later a new card in the mail, no more charges from XBL and my one year paid membership was unaffected. I should have done this FIRST!!! It’s just pathetic that this is the route I had to take to simply remove my CC from the account. Someone needs to file a class-action lawsuit; any lawyers out there?
I just canceled the auto renewal off. Just go to your account it’s under membership level. I love XBOXLIVE but hate their customer service & no refund policy. I’m switching to PC gaming for now they had me with the $5000 points I wasn’t able to redeem.
how did u turn the renewal of as i dnt know how too
Hey Grant,
I’ve just had a good look around the Xbox.com site. Looks like they’ve now removed that option from both the website and the console menus. You’ll have to ring them up.
it keeps sayin
An outstanding balance exists on this payment instrument. Please try again later
an i try later an it stil doesnt work what do i do ?????
Have you cancelled the auto-renewal on your account yet? That might help. Otherwise, better ring them up or contact them through the Support section of Xbox.com
I have tried several times to delet the credit card off my xbox and it wouldnt let me . one of my friends account got hacked and they spent 700$ worth of ms points. I felt bad after his parents found out=(
hey guys .. im on a month to month renewel and when i try to remove my credit card it says ad outstanding balance excsists? how do i remove it?
Hey Johnny,
Unfortunately, the only way to cancel your auto-renew these days is to call up Microsoft Support. They should also be able to remove your card.
thanx debbie im going to get on to them tomarrow
Hey guys I’ve been thinking. Ok I get it that microsoft has a hard system on removing your credit because they want to make shore that people pay their money for the xbox live month and that if the credit card cannot be charged they want you to be unable to take your credit card off untill it has been payed. But why in this time are you also not able to remove the auto renewal so they bill you every month and you can’t stop the auto renewal.
For microwsoft to really be a great company people need to be able to stop the auto renewal anytime so they are not continuly billed and also are able to stop payment to the credit card from there acount by a new created password confirmed by email of their choosing. So maybe a new email if your acount has been hacked. But then people maybe able to shut off your credit card but why if you have been hacked would that be a bad thing.
i turned off automatic renewal, but it wont let me delete the card because of the “outstanding balance” thing. im pretty sure my mom cancelled this car a long time ago and i keep getting xbox live messages saying the card isnt working. so i think im safe
it says to much of an over balance
inj order to turn auto renewal off you got to got to membership level under my accounts and scroll to the bottom. Keep clicking next until you see turn auto renwal on off click off they even offer you some banging deals like a year for 5 bucks but thats up to you…then your done.
you also have to click on the on button if its on srry i had to add that in
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I closed my credit card for unrelated reasons and am currently up to 10 days of free xbox gold lets see how long it takes for them to try and get the money out of me…….I’m not paying them a dime
I had xbox live for over 3 years and im sick of getting over charged for the same things you can do on ps3 for free.I tried to remove my credit card and they charged me a 30dollar cancellation fee!? Im done with xbox.