- a Google account can have multiple Google Payment profiles and multiple Google Ads profiles
- every Google Ads profile has a Google Payments profile tied to it (if you finished setup and started displaying ads)
- once you started using a Google Ads profile, the link to the payment profile can't be changed anymore
In detail:
- we "transformed" a normal Google account to a Google Business account
- the business account got access to the Google Ads profile and payment profile of the normal account
- the old account stopped existing, you can't log in anymore or recover access somehow. It looks like the old account became the new one.
- the new account has no admin access to the Ads profile, and it doesn't have access to the payments profile linked to the ads profile
- the only admin is the old account, which should be the same as the new one, but it isn't somehow. So the old account is somewhat gone, but not completely, but enough gone, that you can't access it anyhow
- we used it likes this for some time, probably 2–3 years without realising that we have no admin access
- we contacted Google support about 2 years ago due to this, and they gave us admin rights over the ads account
- the payments profile linked to the ads account still can't be accessed, but we never used anything related to this, so we didn't notice
- then some or all (unclear) of our payment profiles got suspended. Google Ads continues to work for another 10 days.
- we immediately take action and fill out the form accordingly to the UI. Open Google Ads -> Your payments profile is suspended [...]. To solve this, click "Fix it". -> click Fix it -> a form opens -> fill out the form -> they say "Open this link and copy the payments ID you see" -> click the link -> copy the ID -> paste it -> send the form
- then the Google support staff starts going crazy, often no responses at all, nearly 2 weeks pending, then the ticket just disappears without further notice, false promises over and over (absolute hell, not the usual stuff, 10+ tickets)
- we learn that usually all payments profiles get blocked if one payment profile gets flagged, but also that usually all get unblocked if we successfully fill out the form. That's why they don't bother to tell you which ID to fill in, just copy any ID from the link, which leads to an ID of any payment profile
- then our payment profiles get unblocked, all, except the crucial one which is tied to the ads profile
- guess what, the payment profile tied to our ads account is somehow not really tied to us, but also isn't closed, it exists and works and Google lets you use it, but no original user can access it, so it doesn't get unblocked automatically with the other profiles, but somehow it got blocked because of the others (?), it looks like that it got blocked 10 days after the other payment profiles got blocked
- The UI at Google Payments tells us now, that all our payments profiles are ready to use, we test it, they work!
- The UI at Google Ads tells us that our payment profile is still suspended. Probably just a delay, right?
- Just in case, as the responsible business we are, we ask Google, they tell us, to fill out the form. We say we did, and it worked, so they say, again, fill out the form without further advice.
- Now, if you click the links send by the Google support or the "Fix it" link by Google Ads, you will end up at the same form which clearly says (with a hyperlink to the Google payments settings): "Enter the 12-digit payments profile ID shown in your Google payments settings." (https://support.google.com/payments/contact/account_verifica...)
- In the end, we filled out the form again with the ID from the Google Ads Settings and got unblocked. However, to realise that we need to do this took some time.
Comments
First things first:
- a Google account can have multiple Google Payment profiles and multiple Google Ads profiles
- every Google Ads profile has a Google Payments profile tied to it (if you finished setup and started displaying ads)
- once you started using a Google Ads profile, the link to the payment profile can't be changed anymore
In detail:
- we "transformed" a normal Google account to a Google Business account
- the business account got access to the Google Ads profile and payment profile of the normal account
- the old account stopped existing, you can't log in anymore or recover access somehow. It looks like the old account became the new one.
- the new account has no admin access to the Ads profile, and it doesn't have access to the payments profile linked to the ads profile
- the only admin is the old account, which should be the same as the new one, but it isn't somehow. So the old account is somewhat gone, but not completely, but enough gone, that you can't access it anyhow
- we used it likes this for some time, probably 2–3 years without realising that we have no admin access
- we contacted Google support about 2 years ago due to this, and they gave us admin rights over the ads account
- the payments profile linked to the ads account still can't be accessed, but we never used anything related to this, so we didn't notice
- then some or all (unclear) of our payment profiles got suspended. Google Ads continues to work for another 10 days.
- we immediately take action and fill out the form accordingly to the UI. Open Google Ads -> Your payments profile is suspended [...]. To solve this, click "Fix it". -> click Fix it -> a form opens -> fill out the form -> they say "Open this link and copy the payments ID you see" -> click the link -> copy the ID -> paste it -> send the form
- then the Google support staff starts going crazy, often no responses at all, nearly 2 weeks pending, then the ticket just disappears without further notice, false promises over and over (absolute hell, not the usual stuff, 10+ tickets)
- we learn that usually all payments profiles get blocked if one payment profile gets flagged, but also that usually all get unblocked if we successfully fill out the form. That's why they don't bother to tell you which ID to fill in, just copy any ID from the link, which leads to an ID of any payment profile
- then our payment profiles get unblocked, all, except the crucial one which is tied to the ads profile
- guess what, the payment profile tied to our ads account is somehow not really tied to us, but also isn't closed, it exists and works and Google lets you use it, but no original user can access it, so it doesn't get unblocked automatically with the other profiles, but somehow it got blocked because of the others (?), it looks like that it got blocked 10 days after the other payment profiles got blocked
- The UI at Google Payments tells us now, that all our payments profiles are ready to use, we test it, they work!
- The UI at Google Ads tells us that our payment profile is still suspended. Probably just a delay, right?
- Just in case, as the responsible business we are, we ask Google, they tell us, to fill out the form. We say we did, and it worked, so they say, again, fill out the form without further advice.
- Now, if you click the links send by the Google support or the "Fix it" link by Google Ads, you will end up at the same form which clearly says (with a hyperlink to the Google payments settings): "Enter the 12-digit payments profile ID shown in your Google payments settings." (https://support.google.com/payments/contact/account_verifica...)
- In the end, we filled out the form again with the ID from the Google Ads Settings and got unblocked. However, to realise that we need to do this took some time.