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# Payment method

Pivotal uses Stripe to store cards. Your card number never touches Pivotal's database. The token lives in Stripe; Pivotal stores the last four digits and the brand for display. Billing actions live under **Admin > Billing > Payment method** and require the Owner or Admin role.

## Add a card

1. Open **Admin > Billing > Payment method**.
2. Click **Add card**.
3. Stripe's checkout sheet pops in. Enter the card number, expiry, CVC, and billing zip.
4. Click **Save card**. Stripe runs a \$1 auth-and-void to confirm the card. The dollar reverses on your statement inside 7 days.
5. Pivotal returns you to the Billing page with the new card listed.

The card you add becomes the default. If your workspace has no plan yet, the next step is **Plan > Choose plan** to start the billing cycle.

## Swap the card

1. Open **Admin > Billing > Payment method**.
2. Click **Add card** and add the new one (Stripe doesn't support editing in place).
3. Find the new card in the list, click the three-dot menu, choose **Make default**.
4. The old card stays on file until you click **Remove**. Stripe blocks removal of the default card; promote the new one first, then remove the old.

The next charge runs on the new card. Pending charges already in flight stick with whichever card they started on.

## Card types Pivotal accepts

* Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, JCB, Diners (consumer and corporate).
* ACH bank debit on annual plans, by request. Email [help@pivotal.app](mailto:help@pivotal.app) with your workspace slug and your finance contact; expect 1-2 business days to enable.
* Wire transfer on annual plans of \$20k+. Same email path. Pivotal issues an invoice with wire details and activates the plan once the wire clears.

Apple Pay and Google Pay are not supported on the billing page.

## What happens when a charge fails

The first failure does not suspend anything. Pivotal retries on day 1, day 3, and day 5 after the initial decline. Email goes to the Owner and any billing recipients on each retry. After the day-5 retry fails, the workspace enters **Past due** state: customers and the portal stay live, but invites are blocked and you'll see a banner on every page until you update the card. On day 14 past due, Pivotal suspends the workspace (portal goes to a holding page, API returns 402). Suspension reverses inside 5 minutes of a successful charge.

## The gotcha

Corporate cards from Brex, Ramp, and Mercury sometimes fail the \$1 auth even though they accept production charges. If the auth fails but you know the card is good, switch to ACH or wire (see above) or email [help@pivotal.app](mailto:help@pivotal.app) and the team can manually attach the card to your customer record on Stripe's side.

## Related

* [Plans and seats](/product/setup/plans-and-seats)
* [Invoice access](/product/setup/invoice-access)
* [Roles and permissions](/product/setup/roles-and-permissions)

Email **[help@pivotal.app](mailto:help@pivotal.app)** with a screenshot of where you got stuck and the customer or onboarding id from the URL.