Why does google basically bill you whenever they want!? It would be nice to have a regular billing date as some of us don't always have the appropriate funds in our account!(dont know about you but im not rich, yet) I have contacted them through email but I am P-O'd!! Anybody have the billing dept. number!? Guess I will 'google it'...not funny but...lol anyway. Anyone else had this same problem? Would like to hear your thoughts.
Ironic...cant find googles number...sometimes they can really seem like scammers!! Im so ticked!!! Sorry...
You even have 2 days to retry CC. That was not possible till few months ago. It is good system. I do not think that calling them can be helpful since whole procedure is automatic.
its not actually they bill you whenever they want. there is a system in place where they start you off with $50 daily credit and then it increases to 200, and then 350, and finally $500 a day. they bill you when you reach your credit limit.
I don't recommend the pre-paid billing...especially if your in India!! I've set-up my client's account...5 days back...and even though google has received the funds....still Google hasn't updated the 'funds remaining' which's still remains '0' ... last I heard of them was yesterday which basically said they would 'escalate my issue'..so lets see.. Newaz if mhaynes6 has to go for a pre-paid account, he would have to close/delete his post-paid account....
They explain the billing process in a number of places. "Your credit card is charged based on your AdWords billing cycle. When you create and activate your account with a credit card, debit card, or direct debit, Google starts running your ads almost immediately. We then charge you every 30 days unless your advertising costs reach a certain threshold within your 30-day billing cycle. We won't charge you before 30 days unless you earn US$50 worth of clicks or impressions, depending on whether you're running a CPC or CPM campaign. The first time your account reaches US$50 within 30 days, we'll charge you. Then, we'll let you accrue US$200 worth of clicks before charging you within the subsequent 30 days. If you reach your US$200 limit within 30 days, Google will bill you and raise your billing threshold to US$350. Once you reach the US$350 threshold, you'll be billed again, and your threshold will be raised to US$500, the maximum allowed. Remember that the amount billed may be in excess of the threshold since ads will continue to run and generate charges between the time the billing cycle is triggered and the time the charge is completed. The activation fee, along with any other advertising costs accrued, is charged to your credit card at the end of your first billing period." Source: http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/text/19232.html#19238 Also - why don't I get one monthly credit card or debit card charge. And - When do you bill? And finally: Billing overview - https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=7001 And Google's contact number is easy to find - it's even in the sticky post at the top of this (AdWords) forum.
People seem to have pretty well covered the How's, so I'll cover the Whys for you: There was a scam a few years back where Black Hats would buy a bunch of prepaid credit cards, and use them alongside the $50 Google Credit and then run up a $2k - $5k bill of AdWords clicks before Google even got their charge in. Do this with enough cards and itd oesn't even matter your ROI, you're definitely making a profit but Google and the content producers that sent you links are both pretty well screwed. Now, as a result the billing procedures are set up to reduce Google's liability from AdWords fraud like this. Essentially: It's a real pain, but that's the cost that all these frauders have passed onto you. You're just gonna have to deal with it.