Google Ads has made a negative change that will soon impact business owners who earn points, miles, and cash back with credit cards.
Starting July 31, 2024, debit or credit card payments will no longer be allowed for Google Ads for future billing. The company states that it will only accept checks or wire transfers via monthly invoicing or direct debit moving forward.
Here’s what you need to know if you own a business and pay for Google Ads with a credit card.
Google Ads To Change Payment Policy
Many small- and medium-sized businesses rely on using credit and debit cards to pay for their advertising expenses. In particular, business credit cards provide valuable benefits such as a seamless way to manage cash flow, the ability to pay off balances over time, and even earn bonus rewards on their advertising purchases.
For instance, the popular Ink Business Preferred® Card issued by Chase offers 3x Ultimate Rewards points on up to $150,000 in combined purchases on internet, cable and phone services, shipping expenses, travel, and ads purchased with search engines or social media sites. The latter bonus category provides a considerable haul of points and miles if your enterprise spends hundreds (or thousands) of dollars in Google Ads every year.
Ultimately, the new policy by Google Ads will force these businesses to adapt quickly. According to this email passed by a business owner, it appears that the first date of this move will be on July 31, 2024, and impacted advertisers have been notified of this deadline.
“There are no exceptions to this requirement for impacted advertisers,” the company shared in the email. “All impacted advertisers will be similarly notified throughout the coming months.”
Based on this statement, it appears that Google Ads will require this change for all of its advertisers sooner rather than later. Therefore, businesses will have no choice but to switch to other payment methods, such as checks or bank transfers, or risk account suspension.
Bottom Line:
While there’s no official word as to why Google is changing their policy, we can only speculate the change is due to saving the company a ton of money on accepting credit card payments vs. direct bank transfers.
Final Thoughts
Google Ads is crucial for many businesses, so the decision to prevent credit card payments is a major shift. This will impact businesses that earn rewards on advertising purchases and major issuers like Chase or American Express that earn a significant revenue cut from processing credit card payments.