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Let me put some money in my Skype account!!!!

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Published on September 1st, 2004 by Communication

Like Loic , I have had trouble crediting my SkypeOut account with my credit card. My issue was that I was trying to use my US credit card whilst travelling in France. The payment system rejected it on the basis that users connecting from France (through a French IP range ?) should not use a US credit card, according to a very polite online help desk rep.

Too bad Skype seems to have a glitch in this piece of back-end system, key to converting their users into paying customers. However, I am a big fan and will try again later… or make sure people I want to call move to Skype as well.

Update: Skype has fixed a buffer overrun flaw in version 10.0.100 of its Windows software. Make sure to download and install this fix (i.e version 10.0.100 and up).

  • Marc

    I have the same problem. I have tried two credit cards from different banks in different countries, both in my name. Both card have plenty of credit, but I could not even buy €10 credit.
    Skype stuffed up on this one no doubt. Does anybody have a solution?

  • http://blog.softtechvc.com Jeff Clavier

    The explanation I got was that their credit card payment service provider was checking that your IP address (range) corresponded to the country of your credit card issuer. If you have a german credit card, and tried to credit your skypeout account from Germany, that ought to work.
    Have you tried to talk to Skype’s online support ?

  • Avi Leoni

    Me and several friends tried to buy credit from SkypeOut with a perfectly legal credit cards but failed time and again. We all concluded that the “revolutionary” SkypeOut is hopeless and gave up on the idea of using it. We now look for more user-friendly alternatives which already exist. You may try to look for “PC to Phone” services on the web.

  • http://www.flickr.com/ Caterina Fake

    I’ve been trying to find out why Skype has been rejecting my credit cards, and came upon this thread. I’ve been coming from an IP in the same country where my credit card is located, but have still had my purchase cancelled. The Skype site claims that this is because I have entered the wrong Card Verification Code, but I’ve got the card (both cards) here, and they’re clearly legit.
    This verification by IP idea seems astonishingly stupid. Perhaps Skype is rejecting the card because I am based in Vancouver, and the bank issuing the credit card is based in Torontol?

  • http://www.powerframe.com/ Joe Morrison

    I agree – Skype’s credit card restrictions are incredibly frustrating. I’m currently living in Beijing, China for a year and when I found out about Skype, I thought it was the answer to my dreams. I was planning to use SkypeOut to call friends and family at home (Canada and US) from my Linux desktop. But I’ve tried 3 different credit cards, all valid – and all rejected by Skype with no explanation.
    Even the theory that my IP is not in the same country as my credit card doesn’t hold, since I tried using a Canadian credit card and proxying my HTTP connection through a friend’s server in Canada. (Both the server and the credit card are even based in the same city – Ottawa!) Same result. “Transaction cancelled.”
    At this point, I’m going to experiment with http://www.sipphone.com, Free World Dialup and other alternatives. SkypeOut is the only reason I went with Skype in the first place, and I don’t get the sense that Skype is taking this problem seriously.

  • http://www.netphonedirectory.com Nathan Smith

    Hallelujah!
    After reading these posts I feel somewhat vindicated. After 10 (unsucessful) attempts to purchase Skype-out credit using both my own, and my wife’s visa card, I’ve given up. Numerous emails to support, the Skype Billing Dept. and seemingly endless hours waiting for ‘live-help’ have all resulted in absolutely zilch. I checked with my c/card provider, no problem there. Each and every transaction was ‘approved’ at their end. Furthermore, the IP argument didn’t hold water either. All transactions were attempted through my own home computer which corresponds with my c/card billing statement.
    Don’t get me wrong, I think that Skype is a terrific app, it’s just incredibly frustrating trying to buy time for the ‘highly-touted’ Skype Out. If anyone’s interested, I’ve built a website featuring PC-Phone providers which give alternatives to Skype:
    http://www.netphonedirectory.com
    I’d really like to add Skype to my PC-Phone directory but will refrain until they improve their c/card processing and handling of customer concerns/complaints.

  • RadimB

    An observation. Just like many users here, I have failed to buy Skype credit. In my case it was using major US bank issued credit cards with US billing addresses carrying out the transactions from two different US-registered domains. A friend of mine, currently residing in the Czech Republic, told me that he never had any problems. Just for the fun of it, he set a proxy for me so that the transaction would appear to come from a Czech domain. With this change, but everything else the same, the transaction went through without a glitch! This is not it, ten minutes later I received a call from the credit card company asking me to verify the $13 transaction!

  • Bob

    I’ve had all the same problems as you people and the same stock answers from SkypeOut. It’s as if SkypeOut just don’t want our money. I’ve tried four different credit cards between October and now. All have plenty of funds, especially 10 Euros and all verified by the various banks. I’ve spoken to people on the live help line about four times now and they, as good as, informed me that I must be the only person in the whole world with this problem. Having now found this site I find that I have been mis-informed. This does not come as a big surprise to me. The last time I spoke to them it was to introduce me to ‘MoneyBookers’. They almost wanted my whole life story, backed up with photos of my credit card, birth certificate, passport, driving licence and hat size. I take a six and seven eighths and that’s all the information they’re going to get. Apparently SkypeOut, who are based in Luxemburgh, don’t accept cards from [quote]‘some countries, like Spain’. The only resemblance that New Zealand has to Spain is that it is about the same distance south of the Equator as Spain is to the north of it. I would like this European based company to know that NZ is a very westernised country, situated in the Pacific Ocean, larger than the UK and is certainly larger than Luxemburgh and that our money is as good as anybody’s!! Thanks for the website Joe; I’ll now be trying the alternatives.

  • udlett

    ALL IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS!!! NO SKYPEOUT IF YOU OUTSIDE THE EU!!!
    Initially I was super impressed with Skype. Here was software that provided PC-to-PC and PC-to-Phone telephony all in one! And the sound quality with PC-to-PC was excellent. Then I tried to buy a SkypeOut voucher. Ignorant of the real issue/s, I went through the whole routine. You know, applied with the Mastercard/Visa options etc. I frowned when my transaction was (CANCELLED) and thought initially I had entered the information incorrectly or my card had been cancelled or maxed out. I naturally checked out all these possibilities and still couldn’t figure it out. Why could I not purchase SkypeOut credit? I went to the FAQ at the Skype website and low behold there was a breakdown on possible credit purchase problems. From all of the suggestions there I concluded if I wanted SkypeOut credit, I would have to register at Moneybookers.com. Then I was perplexed that after registering at Moneybookers, I still could not complete my transaction! Looking for answers I searched the internet and I found that I was not alone, many people had the same problem! I tried to find any consistencies with what people said on the internet and myself. I have come to the following conclusions. My findings show that only people within the EU can get SkypeOut and there were even people in the EU that had the same problem (Spain and others). Now what I believe is this:
    OUTSIDE OF THE EU IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET SKYPEOUT CREDIT PERIOD
    This can only be for a limited number of reasons:
    1) the Skype software cannot provide the interface between international telecommunication providers, and will only be rectified after a patch which Skype developers are frantically trying to finish
    2) there is some legal issue that Skype has to get around before they can provide this service
    3) or possibly more sinister; Skype are in fact never going to provide this service, and are using the failed credit card transaction process to somehow make money with MoneyBookers!?
    CONCLUSION
    I think the fact that the issue of failed credit applications being the first issue discussed in their website FAQ was not a coincidence. There is a strong possibility that they are well aware of the problem and are stalling until they fix the problem and are avoiving announcing this so potential customer do not go to other VOIP vendors in the meantime. This is reinforced by the fact that they do not have a proper support structure and have an electronic chat service to fend off all the credit purchase queries. I also think its unethical that Skype still encourages people to purchase SkypeOut credit and even more unethical by encouraging people to “keep trying” if they still have a problem. I submit that all non-EU customers cannot purchase SkypeOut credits for some reason that Skype knows about but will not admit.
    Thanks for nothing Skype

  • lock

    I don’t think in- or outside EU is the cause. I’ve heard people still buying skypout from African countries, but I live in the Netherlands and only the first time in August it worked. I too had a failure on my Visa recently. I know the card works, because I bought six gifts in december through internet, and each time I used the three digit code that is supposed to bounce.
    Let’s find an alternative.

  • http://softtechvc.blogs.com Jeff Clavier

    I originally had the problem I refer to in this post when I was spending time in France, and using a french Visa card. I have since been able to buy SkypeOut credits in the US, using a US Visa card. So EU or not EU does not seem to be a discriminating factor.
    I had a chat with one of Skype’s investors, and they assured me that they were pressing Management to get this credit card issue fixed asap. Skype is leaving money on the table, and leaving their (free service) users towards competing solutions. Just the kind of things VCs like…

  • Peter

    Hi
    I’m from Cape Town, RSA. SkypeOut CC billing works 100%
    from SA but with an SA billing address. The only site which would not take my CCs was Net2Phone – otherwise all websites including Paypal were happy with my CCs. I expect this is an IP address vs billing address issue.
    Hopefully they’ll sort this out soon. :-)
    Peter.

  • http://www.readyforenglish.com Christian

    I have a US credit card, but I live in Japan.
    The first time I tried to buy credit, the system took 2 – 3 minutes to verify my account info. Purchase approved.
    The second time I was directed to my credit card company website where I had to enter my user name and password. Purchase approved.
    So for me, everything has been fine, however I can’t understand why a company makes it so difficult to give them money.
    Since I love Skype, I hope they don’t refuse customers until they go bankrupt!

  • David R

    Hi All,
    I wanted to add my support to the most commonly described problem discussed here (Cancelled transaction, explained by Skype as a failure or CVV verification).
    I have tried more than 15 times since mid- December… no luck. Skype is about to lose my business, and the 20 or 30 other people I have convinced to use Skype in the last 4 months.
    They better figure this out.

  • Petrus

    I have been trying to use three different South African cards to top-up my SkypeOut account from Hungary without success. Skype Support could not give any useful information but nevertheless the amounts have been popping up as authorisations on my card. They can kiss my business good-bye – I’ll continue to used their Linux app for free pc2pc calls but when I need to phone a POTS number I’ll be using another service.

  • abadplanner

    No problems from Switzerland with Swiss credit cards. Works 100% each time, almost instantaneously. Switzerland is not in the EU.

  • Jiawei

    I’ve got the same problem in China. I failed to puschase any credit with two different Visa (one is issued locally and the other is issued in the U.K.). At last I figured out a way to get the credit. If you are in China, try http://www.taobao.com or http://www.eachnet.com and search the keyword Skype. These are the websites simliar to ebay. Someone is able to help you charge your account with a slightly higher price. Not bad at all. If you are really flustrated, why not spend a little bit more to get it work :)

  • Karsten Jeppesen

    I just spoke to my bank (major US bank).
    Accordingly to their fraud department, Skype is listed as fraudulent and they refuse payments to skype.
    This must have happened somewhere between November and now.
    So much for Skype

  • Ralph Wiggum

    Hi
    I’m from Australia and just succeeded in VISA transaction for EUR10. Cheers

  • PAtrice

    Putting credit on my skype-out account is a real pain!!!
    I had no problem when I was in the US. But then I moved to the Middle-East. And I have been trying to put credit on my account for 3 months…
    First, it seems that depending on your IP address they forbid you to use any credit card. My only option was to use Moneybookers.
    Getting registered at Moneybookers was hard stuff. They ask you to scan copies of your bank accounts, credit cards, and plenty of other documents and send them by fax or mail. I did that. But I NEVER heard back from them. I tried to send them emails, re-send them mycredit card info… Nothing. No-one from Money bookers ever sent me an email back. After 3 months I abandonned.
    Finally, the only way I found to put credit on my skype account, was to ask a friend located in the US to pay for me.
    A message to SKYPE : Guys, you are losing a whole bunch of paying clients. Not everyone will spend that much effort to send you money. Do something about it.

  • Momtchil

    Hi
    It is a relief to know that you are not the only one who has been through the whole 9 circles of hell in the attempt to put money into their account.
    However, I see that some of the other ‘victims’ have been really persistent in trying for as much as 3 months – as there are other solutions I really find this a waste of time.
    I am using the Dialpad services, and also Yahoo Messenger for the free PC2PC conversations, but decided to give Skype a try. After the similar problems with the payment I find it amazing that they have so many customers. Compared to Dialpad they have almost the same tariffs, so it is really the advantage of using both P2P and low cost VoIP. But to give so much time to get it – I really don’t understand it.
    I myself gave it 15 minutes of my time, send 2 consecutive e-mails to the Moneybrokers or Moneylounders or whatever the f… they were called (actually I send one as soon as I had my CC card rejected and the system blocked, and when I send it I have got even more frustated when I received their Autoresponder e-mail, so I send another one even angrier than the first one) then I sent another e-mail to Skype to let them know they are loosing a prospective customer (just for the sake of them KNOWING that, which always hurts more).
    And then… I bought extra credit with Dialpad, who are very happy to have my business, even though they are not that popular as Skype.
    And just few minutes ago I’ve decided to spend an extra 10 minutes to write a little something here, as guess what? … I have got a reply from the Moneyloundering people, who suggested that I transfer the money by bank.
    So, people, I want you to know – there is hope that eventually Skype will look into their records under the pressure of the Board of Directors, unhappy with the numbers in their Annual report. And maybe, just maybe they will use their database for good and e-mail all the lost customers due to this problem, and give them a 10 EUR credit just to appologise and as a token of appreciation for all their efforts…
    But most likely at this point I will wake up from my dream and think of all the thousands of minutes I’ve talked using their competitors’ services and thank them for appreciating my business and trying to figure out a way to express their gratitude for my business and make it simpler for me to spend more of my money.
    In other words, its our money their are competing for and we have a world full of opportunities, so I would not spend a second more wondering how to ‘satisfy’ their requirements – there are plenty of alternatives who would be looking how to ‘satify’ our needs.
    Thank you all

  • Pat

    You can add this to the SkypeOut billing mess. this was sent to us from the Billing Dept, on March 19, 2005
    Billing
    We have temporarily restricted the option to purchase SkypeOut credit with U.S. credit cards. We have done so because we are currently making changes to our webstore that will allow us to process U.S. transactions more securely, we hope to re-introduce the credit card option in the coming weeks if not sooner. In the meantime the only purchasing options are Moneybookers or Paypal.
    We apologize for any inconvenience.
    Best regards,
    Priidu
    Skype Support

  • Kyle Miskin

    I’m from the U.S., had purchased skypout minutes almost a year ago and have used it with great results. Now I can’t call any land-based phone, still have 3.49 credits but get the great 9403 error. Oh, of course, I have to use it by Sept. of 2005 or lose it. Where did that come from? Well, I’m dumping them. They are Customer NO Service! I wonder how many others they have shut off. Let’s see… 4 EU x 1000,000. Makes a nice sum to show the board of directors I guess.

  • zman

    Just to add my woes to this long list, I’ve had the exact same experience as ‘Ralph Wiggum’. I tried 3 US-issued credit cards but all from Kuwait (in the Middle East). All 3 times my transaction was denied.
    Also tried opening a Moneybookers account by they want me to fax them a hundred freaking documents which I’m not going to bother doing.
    The only reason I want to use Skype Out is their rates. PC2Phone has similar rates but periodically I cannot login to my account to place calls (some weird ‘data configuration’ error).
    Net2Phone is great but their rates are double that of Skype/Pc2Phone (from Kuwait – India).
    The only reason Skype can get away with this is that the quality of their product is so good. (In fact, are there any other commercial peer-to-peer softphones out there?)

  • http://www.infusiondev.com Brent Williams

    Had same problem as everyone else, only once successfully got credit in Canada.
    UNTIL NOW, I created a paypal account within a minute or two with my visa (US but my IP’s in Korea), gave the paypal account to Skype and I’m done, 25 big ones. Skype is largely fantastic they’ll be bigger than ATT in 5 years if they figure an efficient way to take our money!

  • Love Skype

    I am too. I can’t buy skype credit via my visa. So, i search and found 1 website that sell skype voucher. It’s very cheap. They sell 6$ skype credit with price 5.5$. I buy 1 and use it very easy. You can see at
    http://www.skypevoucher.com

  • Jaime

    I bought two EU 10.00 SkypeOut credits using PayPal, quick and easy, a week ago. This morning I tried to buy more but suddenly they sent me to something called “Moneybookers”, which I did not accept. Skype invoked security reasons and that the option of other cards will be available again “in the near future”. Is this some kind of scam? or is Skype going into the banking business.
    PayPal is by far the most secure payment means of the net.
    Congrats for a fine – and opportune – forum.
    Jaime,
    Sweden

  • vivienne

    What a relief to come across this brilliant site! I live in the UAE so the skype site is blocked. I was hoping someone could send me the accounts email at sype so I can buy credit through PayPal, but Jaime says that particular avenue is closed. I thought I would be able to top up account when I go to Europe in a few weeks, but that seems unlikely to happen too! What is skype playing at – we want to give them money and they won’t let us? WHY?

  • Bryanwr

    I too have been suffering with trying to top up my Skype account for 10 Euros. The first 2X I did it, it worked fine. Now, for some dumb reason, Skype will not accept my VISA CARD even though (1) they took it twice before, and (2) the card is valid. My only solution is to NOT USE SKYPE. It is very frustrating to try and communicate with the fools. It is certainly no way to treat your customers. If they want to kill themselves like AT&T have done in the USA, then please continue to ignore your customer service problems. Bryan

  • sana

    regarding moneybookers.com
    it works and pretty quick. i tried to buy a credit twice using a normal bank transfer. both times failed. so i just risk this service with indeed a pretty suspicious name. as i said before it worked. so i’m going to skype-out further. but if i did not have to call so often abroad, i doubt that i would use it ever again

  • sam

    using german credit card from singapore: ok. only thing: can’t use same credit card on two different accounts.
    but something else: i put €10 euro into my account and didn’t use it for 180 days. account still shows those €10 but naturally i can’t use them.
    site tells me to put more money on my account, but then also says one page later, that as a new customer i first have to use my previous credits to some account before i get the chance to buy more credits.
    mmhhh. support contacted. no reply. (didn’t really expect any…)
    any workaround ?

  • Heliano

    A company tha makes it so hard for the customers to give them money it suicidal from the business standpoint. I is beyond comprehension. I am currently in India and tried a zillion times to send them 10 Euros without success. Tried three international credit cards with plenty of funds. Nothing. I used these cards to buy credit from them before without problem. I live in Brazil. If placing a payment when away from home – abroad – is unacceptable by Skype, my reaction is to laugh. What is the main personal use of Skype? To call home when you are away, especially when you are far away!

  • Abbas

    all i want to say is that u guys are making a mistake. my family stay’s in dubai,uae and i study in sydney , in dubai the site is blocked so i fill in skype credit in australia using a dubai sim card so the point u guys are saying tht tht is ip related i wrong as i dont use a uae ip when in sydney.
    secondly and the most important thing you guys should knw is that when making a transaction in skype you should use the exact same billing address you have givin in ur credit card details. you should do this word to word if you address difers from the one you have givin to your credit card provider your trasaction will be rejected. i think most of you must be making this mistake pls try it out and let me know
    best of luck

  • xyz

    Hi,
    I have also experienced problems with my skypeout billing. Using czech international VISA card while being in USA, I didn’t experienced any problems while doing my (about four) previous transactions, including purchasing of skypein phone number. But my transaction on 20th dec and all others failed, no matter what I did (using proxy to have czech IP, using different browsers and computers, waiting 48hrs and trying again). Of course they online help was completely useless, since it is nonexistant – they simply havent answered.. Finally I gave up, and opened paypal account. It worked flawlesly, in few seconds my payment was approved and I finally got the credit on my skype account.
    So, to sum it up, if everyhing fails, and you still for some reason want to give skype a try, use paypal.
    I mean, I really got angry and frustrated by their stupid paying obstructions, and by the lack of customer support. Havent I already spent money on skypein, I would have moved to different IPphone solution. Now I just hope paypal will work in the future too. In my opinion, THEY DO THIS ON PURPOSE, to promote their stupid paypal I don’t need at all, since eBay nd Paypal are very affiliated. I hope there will soon be more choices on the market of IP telephony, so I can move away from skype, to show them what happens when they treat their customers like this.

  • http://profile.typekey.com/farang/ farang

    The Skype forums are full of disgruntled people with similar problems. But most of Skype’s competitors have similar problems taking “international” credit cards – although they tend to have better customer service and let you know what’s happening. Skype seem to be super-paranoid about credit card fraud. Fraud is a real problem of course, but when average users who just want to buy 10 Euros of time are treated as fraudsters, then they need to rethink their business model.
    What is sad is that the same problem has been around for so long…

  • Vishal

    Hi guys, i have just added funds to moneybookers.com. I just wanted to know does anyone know how do i transfer my funds from moneybookers to skype. i would really appreciate any sort of help. thanks.

  • David

    I had a similar problem in Vietnam. I used logmein.com to access my computer in the United States. Once I was buying credit from a computer in the United States (using an IP in the US range), everything worked great. I had many more payment options than I was offered in Vietnam.

  • Ratita Cuqui

    I was a faithful SkypeOut user until they introduced Moneybookers. That has got to be the most frustrating billing experience in my lifetime! I’ve tried to make it work with three otherwise functional CC’s, but the only one who finally got through was the one that didn’t bill me in US$ so, since the verification asks for an “exact amount”, I lost the US$1,20 or so the *)/%&$ people from Moneybookers charged me. Since then, I’m using Iconnecthere, which doesn’t have that good quality but works as a decent alternative.

  • Bart

    Same problem, no recognition that New Zealand is a modernised (modernized?) country. Of course you all know that ebay owns Skype now?

  • John

    In all fairness, other than poor customer support this is a credit card verification issue not just a SkypeOut issue. I’m currently in the US with both Visa and Cirrus enabled debit cards and they’re just about useless for anything. I’m constantly asked for 5 digit zip codes (my country has 4 digit), 10 digit phone numbers (we have 9 digit)). I beleive it’s the card companies who are not doing enough to come up with global verification solutions to actually make there cards work globally as advertised.

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  • Elena

    Same problem from the US using an US-issued prepaid VISA debit card. Skype Customer Care claims they don’t accept prepaid cards but I have always used them with Skype in the past. They simply try to have us doing whatever they want. I won’t use again Skype except the totally FREE calls!