I tried and they are aware of the problem. They said they would contact SE on the issue & on my behalf and assured me it is absolutely not on their end (blocking cards).
It's not Global Collect or my bank in the first place. Why would SE issue us a 401 error the first attempt if there is no issue with them.
Another thing, they 'block' your account from using any sort of payment methods for 30 days if you try multiple times. And I was scolded by Danielle for trying to pay more than once. When you get the 401 error, the error message DOES NOT SAY "STOP! DO NOT PROCEED WITH PAYMENT AGAIN, CONTACT SE SUPPORT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE OR TRY AGAIN IN 24 HOURS." Stop and 24 hours being key. What it DOES say is "Try again later"...
I cannot believe there is not a person I can talk to at SE that can unblock my account or let me verify that it is me (anyone at SE should be able to see my card I provide is ok, I've used it to pay my subscription since 2010).
I guess I will call SE twice a day, every day till I can get this resolved.