Ask HN: OpenAI suspended my account over 57cent while I have prepaid credits
I have been using the OpenAI API for a year with no issues paying my monthly invoices. I use it mostly to offer a free service (https://regexgpt.app/) and everything was going fine, every month I would get new users and it was growing nicely.
However recently OpenAI decided to change their billing system where they require you to prepay for your credits, that is not an issue and I gladly deposited enough credits to last me quite a few months.
Suddenly I get an email from OpenAI that my account will be suspended due to an outstanding invoice of 57cents, so I try to use the same credit card I have been using with them for a year and for some unknown reason Stripe keeps denying my card even though it has worked every other time.
I contacted OpenAI's support and they told me to use a different payment method but there are none, only Stripe. I was also told to get a new credit card just to pay 57cents?! Then another support person told me not to worry the invoice will be deducted from the available prepaid credit I deposited. However that did not happen and my account got suspended anyway and I am no longer getting any response from OpenAI's support after waiting for days. Now my service is down due to the API no longer working and is going to have a negative impact on it's growth.
I am hoping that maybe someone here can offer guidance or a solution or maybe the right eyes will see this and help fix this very silly issue.
I find it funny to be suspended for lack of payment while having a very positive prepaid credit balance.
Thank you for reading.