How to fix google payment error 'or_ccr_123'

Well, recently I was working on a machine learning project to summarize text using HuggingFace models. Initially I thought of buying a new GPU, but when I investigated a little further I realized buying a new GPU doesn't worth it, cause you can't really do much with 12 GB or 16 GB GPU when it comes to training huge models. Hence I thought of buying a subscription of online GPU services like Google Colab or Kaggle. Finally I decided to buy Google Colab Pro as this seems to be a great deal and cheaper as well.

Learning a new technology is always challenging and interesting, although there are huge no of tutorials online, unlimited online resources are a big challenge for newbie as you will end up swimming in the ocean of resources not knowing which one to go with first. A structured content is always helpful for a newbie.

The Initial Plan, Failed

So, my first challenge was to buy the google Colab pro subscription. As I was really eager to start my machine learning journey, I added my debit card in google payment. You can do the same by following below steps-

1. Login to Gmail
2. Click on  your google account at upper right corner of the screen.
3. Click on manage your google account
4. Click on 'Payments & subscriptions' on left side of the screen and the click  'Manage payment methods'.
5. Now click on 'Add a payment method'

Well I did the same, and next day I wanted to buy the Colab pro subscription, I couldn't buy it, neither I saw my debit card in google payments which I added day before, instead I saw option to my debit card again. When I was trying to add my debit card, it was giving me very weird error like below-

The card you are trying to use is already being used for a transaction in a different currency. please try using another card. "[or_ccr_123]"

I searched in google for almost 3,4 days but couldn't find a solution. Later I thought of logging a support ticket with google. As you know raising a ticket would have taken longer to get the resolution.

So I started my own analysis and finally found a solution.

What was the issue?

The problem was with the currency settings, when I initially added the payment method, google payment by default added the currency of my country, but as the Colab pro subscription currency is dollar($), it didn't recognize the payment method which I added.

Solution

There was no option to change the currency which is very weird. As I was in a hurry, I didn't chase the google support guys rather I did the following.

If you face the same issue. it is better to delete the payment profile which you added and then try to buy the subscription, when you buy the subscription it will give you option to add your payment method. 

Please follow the below steps to delete the existing payment method-

•  Click on 'Manage payment methods' as mentioned earlier by going to your google account management page [steps mentioned above].
• Click on 'Settings'.
• Click on 'Close payment profile' at the bottom left of the page like below.

• It will ask you for certain options, select whichever is suitable for you and delete your payment profile.
• Now come back to google Colab pro subscription page.

• Select the Colab plan, I purchased the Colab pro plan. 
• Click on buy 
• Further it will ask you to enter your credit or debit card detail.
• Once added click on buy. 
• Once payment is done, it will take you to Colab pro page.

Buying Colab pro plan is certainly useful, I am using it for last few days. I can say it is better go for Google Colab than buying GPU. You can't really do much with your 16 GB personal GPU. The HuggingFace models needs a lot of GPU computation.

I hope this article helps someone who is facing the same issue with google payment. Happy Coding!!