Payment Method Registration Errors [Error Code 401 and 601]

what? that doesnt make sense to lock down when you try to solve an error that is not of your making.

Can't add crysta here either... error 401..

This is just unacceptable. I've been trying to buy the gold plan for marriage yet SE can't accept either of my Visa cards. There's no problem from my bank either since the transactions are in the history, just pending. Why can't SE just implement paypal already?

This is the 2nd time in the span of a month that I've had this error - the first one was fixed by using a different credit card after waiting 3 days, which isn't really a good solution. Now that I've gotten this error again, I can't use either of my cards.

I've lost my retainer, and cannot get the gil or items back - which includes some soldiery mats, atma, retainer venture dyes, expensive materia, etc. I'm playing on game card time. I've waited 24 hours, twice, because support has refused to help me and repeatedly "suggests" I wait. Support has been completely and entirely unhelpful, and in fact some of them had awful attitudes to go along with their abysmal "support".

I contacted them again today, was basically dismissed in live chat and told to wait another 24 hours, so I called the support line instead. What did I get there?

"Wait 48 hours."
"What happens if I wait 48 hours, and on Saturday, when there's no support available, it doesn't work again?"
"There's nothing we can do."

So there's two options here.

Option #1: That's a lie, because people in this forum have said that support has fixed it for them after they provided personal info to confirm their identity.

Option #2: It's the truth, and I have to live the rest of my FFXIV life with no name changes (great since I changed my name to this one as a joke to match a friend and intended to go back), no fantasia, no server transfers, never getting my retainer/gil/items back, no access to the cash shop marriage system, dyes, minions, glamours, mounts. Basically, I'm told that everyone else gets to have things I - or anyone with this problem - can't.

Either way, this is extremely messed up. Providing features to only some players and not others is a horrible business model.

So tell me how it's possible, despite getting this error when attempting to buy the Promise of Devotion (Platinum) item, that I can go right now and successfully purchase a metallic red dye with no issues with the same card I've attempted to buy the Promise item with 20 times??? Please, explain this to me, I'd love to hear an explanation :) when apparently I should be locked out for 24 hours and that my bank is declining every single transaction :)

Edit:
Great, now I can't purchase dye anymore to prove a point lol, guess SE put some kind of block on my card or something, or are you saying I had exactly $1 to spend on the metallic dye yesterday? LOL

Edit Edit:
Now I'm getting the 601 error, not sure if this is progress or not, also yeah exact same thing with my bank, not a single transaction is being put through to them and they told me there's no block on my card. Got a reply to my reply to support too and they said to wait 24 hours because basically they can't do anything because it's out of their hands, and like people on here have said it's not even Global Collect's issue.... I don't know how you can just sit idly by telling people wellp nothing we can do guess you can't give us money anymore, too bad, guess we'll just lose you to someone else because we're too lazy to look into implementing something that WORKS and in our control :T

Got the 401 error last night, on a card that I had used to buy optional items not three days ago. Have to try again tonight, but given what I've seen in here, I'm not hopeful. Like most everyone else, no problems from my bank, no blocks issued, etc. Sucks UltimatePay is gone, seems like the only other option there was to getting around this system.

I used my card on the 3rd. It worked fine. Now I cant pay my fees. SE says I am not blocked. The bank says I am not blocked. The bank says SE has a pending $1 charge that they(SE) are not picking up. The bank says it will be five days before that charge is dropped off my pending if SE doesnt fix it. While it is pending it means SE is not picking it up. If they dont pick it up they wont let me pay them my fees. My son in law said he would pay it while we try to sort it out. It gave him a 401 error on his card. He went to his account and bought some crysta to test his card out. It worked fine. It is not the bank. It is not the card. It is SE. My card works everywhere but on SE.
My garden is growing. It takes a lot to grow onions for the level break for chocobos. I am on stage two. I have about 4 days left, maybe less, to get my main account back on so I can harvest. My second account is tending right now but can not fertilize or harvest. Please. SE I have been loyal to you since 2 years after FF11 started. Thats a lot of years. Dont I deserve to be able to play and to pay for my account?

Just tried two other cards, still nothing. Guess I'm waiting for a few days now or something.

It is the or something that has me worried.

I broke down and bought a game card. Now I am back on the game so my garden wont die but that will NOT pay for my retainers or for my marriage. My husband has his marriage plan because there was plenty of crysta to pay for that already bought. But how can he get married when I cant buy my wedding plan? 20 dollars out the window since we only have one plan?

Has anyone tried purchasing ffxiv through Steam and using the Steam wallet option you apparently gain in the Mog Station instead for subscriptions?

Have had this issue for months now. Have tried Chase, Amex, Mastercard and nothing works. No Square, my bank is not blocking a stupid charge, the charge isn't even being attempted.

The last time I called support I told the guy everything I did and he basically said: Yeah, it doesn't work at all for alot of people and there is nothing we can do. We may get more payment options in the future (yeah right)

Extremely, extremely annoying.

Tried a few more cards, still nothing. At this point, just hoping for a crysta card or something from the Squeenix store, but given the few months that have gone by with no alternatives, I'm not hopeful. The only thing I keep getting told is to buy time cards, which is no big deal for me, but I'd really like to have the option of using the optional store again. :/

I have found out something that may be useful. SE took FIVE days to take my money from the $1.00 pending that they use to check validity of your account. From the 10th to today. If you have an original issue, like I had with a messed up pin where the bank put a hold on my card and I did not know it before trying to by crysta, it may take a long time to get processed by SE. In the meantime they will not allow another transaction to process. Actually that would be the card processor company because you can use the SE store for buying a time card. SE uses a different process for the two areas of transaction. Anyway my suggestion is to let it go for at least 5 days or check your banking to see if the charge is pending before trying again.

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Originally Posted by Fonou

On my side, I was able to fix it with SE Europe.
I had to send my credit card picture (showing only the 4 last digits) and also a copy of my ID and then they allowed my credit card.
I can finally use it now...

In any case, SE, change your verification method for payment!

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Did the same too and it works, but now I can't use my card again.

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Originally Posted by Fonou

On my side, I was able to fix it with SE Europe.
I had to send my credit card picture (showing only the 4 last digits) and also a copy of my ID and then they allowed my credit card.
I can finally use it now...

In any case, SE, change your verification method for payment!

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Originally Posted by LydallMomoda

Did the same too and it works, but now I can't use my card again.

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Did the same and it works, SE Europe support team gave me prompt and helpful replies. As soon as I am able to use my card again, bought a certain amount of Crysta for emergency uses (retainers, eternal bond, etc.) Hope this is really not going to happen again!

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Originally Posted by aldoxzx

Have had this issue for months now. Have tried Chase, Amex, Mastercard and nothing works. No Square, my bank is not blocking a stupid charge, the charge isn't even being attempted.

The last time I called support I told the guy everything I did and he basically said: Yeah, it doesn't work at all for alot of people and there is nothing we can do. We may get more payment options in the future (yeah right)

Extremely, extremely annoying.

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I know exactly where you are coming from. I have tried Visa, Mastercard and Pre-paid Visa under their current system. Back when you could use UltimatePay they would still reject my Credit/Debit/Paypal. I actually had to select a Merchant from UltimatePay's 'other' payment methods and choose MoneyBookers which worked every time... Basically I was paying a Merchant to pay a Merchant to pay SE to get Crysta to pay for my accounts. However, since they dropped UltimatePay this is no longer an option and the time on my accounts is ticking away.

This has been effecting me for over a year now. I will try usually once/week to buy Crysta and 95% of the time will get the 401/601 error which locks payment on the account for 24 hours. I also have multiple accounts and ALL of them are effected (this is useful as I can test multiple theories e.g. cancelling accounts and then trying to pay, re-adding the account then trying etc. none have worked!). Just the other week I went through all of my accounts getting the 401 error until I got to my final account which for some reason processed the payment. There seems to be a 5% chance I will successfully be charged and a 95% chance it will simply be locked for 24 hours.

Recently I decided to try and fix it once and for all. I read the documentation SE provides on the errors where they simply blame the financial institution. I contacted my financial institution and they performed an investigation. The result was them telling me that they have not rejected any payment attempts from SE and do not even see them in their records. They told me it is completely on the Merchant's side.
I then went to SE support and made my case even showing them the chat I had with my bank. The action they took was just silly. They dropped the 24 hour lock on the account I had tried to buy Crysta for which of course I knew would not solve the problem and I simply got another 401 error.
I then contacted SE support AGAIN but this time I got a rep who did not seem to want to help me at all. He tried to tell me he cannot look up my ID because of Final Fantasy XI maintenance (I have not played XI for 4 years and my IDs are long since cancelled). The previous rep had also checked my ID without issue so I knew the guy was just trying to get rid of me so he could go to lunch or something... I then insisted he check another of my accounts which has never been associated with XI. He told me I should just buy game time cards, there is nothing he can do and that I should wait 24 hours.
At this point I felt both infuriated and betrayed as the second rep had been very disrespectful and obviously had just been trying to get rid of me. It was very obvious he did not read a word of what I was typing when I tried to explain my case to him as he even spammed his copy/paste text as I was outlining the issue. Below is an example of what I am talking about.

You: I have tried Credit, Debit, UltimatePay, Paypal
Agent Daniel W: Understood. Well let me see if there is any advice we can give you. I need to verify an account. Please give me an ID.
You: and I make sure to only try once every 24 hours
You: all of those resulted in a 401 error
Agent Daniel W: Understood. Well let me see if there is any advice we can give you. I need to verify an account. Please give me an ID.
You: However, maybe once every 20 days or so it will work, which only further adds to my confusion
Agent Daniel W: Understood. Well let me see if there is any advice we can give you. I need to verify an account. Please give me an ID.

(he never read anything I said)

Agent Daniel W: Ok, I am sorry but it looks like you have XI or PlayOnline service accounts. We are currently under maintenance for that. I have no access to the account. I would advise you to contact us later in the day when this is finished.
You: I have not played XI since 2010
Agent Daniel W: Ok, there is still a service account on this account. I am sorry but it is under maintenance. Are there any different issues I can assist you with right now?
You: can you remove the XI service account if it is causing issues?
Agent Daniel W: I cannot even see the account right now.
You: Interesting.. could you look into another account which was never associated with XI?

(tried to get rid of me by claiming XI wouldn't let him look at my XIV account. The previous rep had not given this excuse 15 minutes prior)

You: is there a way to elevate this issue?
You: I have been trying very hard to figure it out..
Agent Daniel W: There really is not. I am sorry but you would just need to buy a game time card or just wait a bit.
Agent Daniel W: Are there any different issues I can assist you with right now?

(Got rid of me)

For one; I did not want game time - I wanted Crysta so I could use their cash shop. This was just after 2.4 and there were lots of things I wanted.
Secondly; I have legacy accounts I am paying $8/mo for doing the 180-day plan.. why would I pay $15/mo via game time cards...

I have also waited 24 hours over 400 times!!! waiting 24 hours is definitely not the solution here!

However, the solution to all of this has become VERY clear to me. All SE needs to do is allow you to redeem the $30 60-day game time cards for 3000 Crysta. Then you can pay the appropriate amount for your accounts AND use the cash shop. The game time card codes can also be purchased directly from amazon; so there is not even any shipping involved.

I really hope a rep sees this post and takes their actions/my proposed solution to this issue into consideration.

I don't know if this will help anyone but I found a solution to why I was getting this issue. I was entering my debit card number in the format "1234567812345678" (obviously not my real number) and the payment request wasn't even getting to my bank. This seems reasonable cause it works on any other payment site where you enter the card number into a single field. It turns out that you have to manually insert spaces into your card number to break it up into the 4 groups of 4 as it is on your card, so my example number would have to be entered as "1234 5678 1234 5678". As soon as I tried this on a whim my payment went through fine, it's really unintuitive though and I don't like whoever coded that bit of the ui.

This worked for me so it might be worth a shot for some people also getting these errors, especially if the payment request isn't even being received by your bank.

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Originally Posted by ActionZero

I don't know if this will help anyone but I found a solution to why I was getting this issue. I was entering my debit card number in the format "1234567812345678" (obviously not my real number) and the payment request wasn't even getting to my bank. This seems reasonable cause it works on any other payment site where you enter the card number into a single field. It turns out that you have to manually insert spaces into your card number to break it up into the 4 groups of 4 as it is on your card, so my example number would have to be entered as "1234 5678 1234 5678". As soon as I tried this on a whim my payment went through fine, it's really unintuitive though and I don't like whoever coded that bit of the ui.

This worked for me so it might be worth a shot for some people also getting these errors, especially if the payment request isn't even being received by your bank.

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I did try this, with spaces and dashes, it would just end in a 401/601 error unfortunately... it's also stupid on their part if it were to work because I've used the same card for almost a year without having to worry about how I entered it in...

Okay, I'm extremely confused, irritated, and shocked about this. I have been using the Mog Station for my subscriptions for well over a year now. I've also, quite recently, purchased the Platinum Wedding set via debit card on the 17th. Today, I decided I wanted to buy myself a fantasia and change race/gender. To my horror, I am getting constant 401 error messages that I have never received before. I'm really not sure what's going on. Why is my card suddenly being declined after an entire year? I just do not understand. I even tried my boyfriends + mother's card, and I still can't pay for my fantasia. This isn't a fault with my card, my boyfriend's, or my mother's. SE, what on earth?..

As ridiculous as this sounds, does anyone have any suggestions? I'm out of ideas.

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Originally Posted by Merylx

Okay, I'm extremely confused, irritated, and shocked about this. I have been using the Mog Station for my subscriptions for well over a year now. I've also, quite recently, purchased the Platinum Wedding set via debit card on the 17th. Today, I decided I wanted to buy myself a fantasia and change race/gender. To my horror, I am getting constant 401 error messages that I have never received before. I'm really not sure what's going on. Why is my card suddenly being declined after an entire year? I just do not understand. I even tried my boyfriends + mother's card, and I still can't pay for my fantasia. This isn't a fault with my card, my boyfriend's, or my mother's. SE, what on earth?..

As ridiculous as this sounds, does anyone have any suggestions? I'm out of ideas.

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I'm having the same problems and they told me I might even be blocked for a damn month, when I've been buying a lot. My card failed once, then tried another of my family member's cards, and they said that made the problem even worse. I called my bank, no problem with my first card. They just blocked me for the lols, and I just want a dang fantasia.

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Originally Posted by ActionZero

I don't know if this will help anyone but I found a solution to why I was getting this issue. I was entering my debit card number in the format "1234567812345678" (obviously not my real number) and the payment request wasn't even getting to my bank. This seems reasonable cause it works on any other payment site where you enter the card number into a single field. It turns out that you have to manually insert spaces into your card number to break it up into the 4 groups of 4 as it is on your card, so my example number would have to be entered as "1234 5678 1234 5678". As soon as I tried this on a whim my payment went through fine, it's really unintuitive though and I don't like whoever coded that bit of the ui.

This worked for me so it might be worth a shot for some people also getting these errors, especially if the payment request isn't even being received by your bank.

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OH MY GOD, THIS ACTUALLY WORKED FOR ME. I could buy crysta and resub. Thank you so much for this suggestion!

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Originally Posted by Sonatia

OH MY GOD, THIS ACTUALLY WORKED FOR ME. I could buy crysta and resub. Thank you so much for this suggestion!

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OMG IT WORKED FOR ME TOO! I TRIED EVERYTHING...EVERYTHING! TY ACTION ZERO!!! BLESS YE!!!!!

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Originally Posted by guardin

OMG IT WORKED FOR ME TOO! I TRIED EVERYTHING...EVERYTHING! TY ACTION ZERO!!! BLESS YE!!!!!

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Nope, 2 days later and I'm still having problems. I also tried this and still giving me the error. Oh well, I'm going to try and leave it for a good week before I try again. Damn it.

Oh se ...playonline was pure hell and nightmare Ffxi and now this so much support so much fail removing PayPal and rejecting 4 cards , clearly it's se end .

Rubbish service nothing have changed for all these years same old crap service ...

The most annoying issue is they didn't sent any reminder that our account payment has been lock for 24 hours or a month due to multiple attempt. If they send this, we can plan when we will attempt so we don't attempt when our payment still in locking period. Square support, you should implemented this in your payment system, etc or otherwise you will lose a lot of customer.

I'm still having problems with this. I don't even know how long SE have locked me out for. Is it better if I ring them? See what's going on with my account? Or simply wait a week or two before trying again? This is ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by Merylx

I'm still having problems with this. I don't even know how long SE have locked me out for. Is it better if I ring them? See what's going on with my account? Or simply wait a week or two before trying again? This is ridiculous.

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It seems like some people have luck with EU Support, although I don't know if this is because their accounts are EU or if they're NA accounts going to EU instead because NA is useless... I'm going to eventually contact NA support but I'm pretty much livid and while screaming at whoever ends up helping me would make me feel better, I doubt it'll get me anywhere at all :P I do believe that you'll get info as to how long you're locked out for if you contact them though, as well as possibly a removal of the lockout, not sure, lots of different stories on here. Also no support on weekends :T

Also in regards to the whole enter your CC with spaces thing, Square Enix's Store says this:
"Should I use spaces or dashes when I enter my credit card number?
No. Enter your credit card number without any spaces or special characters. It should be entered as a continuous string of numbers. "
Funny how that works for some people with this issue...

It's obvious they have no clue what they are doing if the issue is still here a year and some months after release

So its not working for me either atm but for me i think its an issue with visa prepayed credit card thay wont let me buy anything in Us currency im not sure how im gunna do this i also tried putting the space every 4 digits to no avail im gunna try to have a relative's credit card number and pay them back but until then....no FF for me....i was about to get my zodiac weapon too

Now it wont even let me register a credit card without trying to buy anything i get the error 601 it shouldnt refuse it even if i have to wait 24h before i try to subscribe again because im not even tryin to subscribe trying to get a time card online but no stores are selling them anywhere gamestop best buy fufuture shop they all have 0 in store...i wanna play so bad my relic os calling me lol

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Originally Posted by Slirith

It's obvious they have no clue what they are doing if the issue is still here a year and some months after release

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Oh yeah, clearly, nor do they even care to. I would love to see this issue moved over to the "Being addressed" section but as you said, a year and a half later and they don't even give a crap. It's so nice of them to just fluff off this issue and give the same repeated bs of "It's not our fault, it's everyone else's fault" and "I don't know, wait 24 hours or 30 days maybe lol :P?" isn't it?

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Originally Posted by elpacolopez123

Now it wont even let me register a credit card without trying to buy anything i get the error 601 it shouldnt refuse it even if i have to wait 24h before i try to subscribe again because im not even tryin to subscribe trying to get a time card online but no stores are selling them anywhere gamestop best buy fufuture shop they all have 0 in store...i wanna play so bad my relic os calling me lol

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Square Enix's store works much better than the Mog Station AND your Account page... their store has 60 day time cards and you can pay with paypal or cc. I did paypal but I'm willing to bet that cc will work on their store even though it won't work elsewhere. The only downsides are it costs more than entry level subscriptions, it doesn't really solve anything other than just getting you sub time, and you still can't buy Mog Station items etc...

Ok i did go see on square enix i found one but it only hap promo code option to it wich got me a bit confused and after dealing with this issue for a while i didnt bother looking into it very much ill check it again later thx

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Originally Posted by Cutish

Oh yeah, clearly, nor do they even care to. I would love to see this issue moved over to the "Being addressed" section but as you said, a year and a half later and they don't even give a crap. It's so nice of them to just fluff off this issue and give the same repeated bs of "It's not our fault, it's everyone else's fault" and "I don't know, wait 24 hours or 30 days maybe lol :P?" isn't it?

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If it's in that section good on them I suppose, just frustrated that the support email I got about it just says a bunch of nonsense that doesn't help fix it

Ok is the time card compatible with ps3 ps4 and pc?? And its a digital card so it just sends me a code to my email right? I dont need a pc for any of that stuff??
Im gunna make a paypal account anyways since i only a 25$ prepayed CC and is not enough for 2 months

I just got told that my account is on a 2 week hold, for trying too many times to buy 2. Freaking. Shiny. Red. Dyes. For a marriage ceremony, I had to wait until 4 A FRIGGIN M to frantically book, which is in LESS than 2 weeks.


.................sigh

FINALLY ABLE TO BY CRYSTA FROM MOGSTATION i use the xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx trick and it worked with the same card that wouldnt let me get anything yesterday....weird indeed RELIC HERE I COME... is what i would say if i did not make the mistake of reinstalling my game....gotta wait for updates...but hey... at least i will be able to play it!!!! Thx cuttish for ur advice and whoever gave the space between number tricks thx a lot i can go back to kicking ass thx to u

Ok so I have been paying all this time, no issues on either Mog Station or adding Crysta, with a CIBC Visa Debit. I've recently switched to Scotiabank and started using their Visa Debit, now I'm running into 401 errors galore; I can't update my subscription, I can't pay for anything optional, I can't add crysta, but yet, when I registered it to my account, it charged me $1.20 and went through fine, I just can't pay for anything at all. So what's the deal? It takes my money to register my card, but wont take my money in exchange for stuff I want? Hmmm, what's going on...?

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Originally Posted by Slirith

If it's in that section good on them I suppose, just frustrated that the support email I got about it just says a bunch of nonsense that doesn't help fix it

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The problem is it isn't in that section, that's why I said I'd love to see it there but it isn't. They figure it's ok to tell their customers they're SOL...