What Payment Methods Does Tinder Accept?

Tinder accepts most credit and debit cards, and it notes that the options vary by location and device. On Tinder.com you can pay with cards such as Visa, MasterCard or American Express, though American Express may not be accepted in every country, and PayPal is available in some locations. On an iPhone or an Android phone, the options are set by Apple and Google Play, and Tinder points you to their support pages for the list.

On the website, Tinder takes the payment itself.

The main cards work here: Visa, MasterCard and American Express. The catch is American Express, which Tinder says may not be accepted in all countries. PayPal is an option too, but only in some locations. If you do not see it, it is not offered where you are.

Paying on Tinder.com also keeps the card with Tinder. To change it later, you sign in, open settings, scroll to Manage Account and tap Change Card.

Inside the iPhone app, Apple handles the payment, so you pay with whatever your Apple account allows. Tinder points you to Apple Support for the options available to you.

The upside is that Apple keeps the whole record. Your subscriptions, your order history and any refund go through your Apple account, not through Tinder.

Inside the Android app, the usual route is Google Play, which uses the payment methods in your Google account. Tinder points you to Google Play Support for what is available.

Android has one extra option. Tinder lets you pay by card inside the Android app instead of through Google Play. A purchase made that way is billed by Tinder, not by Google, which changes where you go to cancel or change the card later.

Tinder also sells extras on their own. Super Likes, Boosts and Super Boosts come as consumables in a la carte packages, and Tinder says you can buy Boosts at any time, in the app or on Tinder.com.

Two rules apply to these whichever way you pay. Tinder's Terms of Use say purchases of Super Likes and Boosts are final and non-refundable. And consumables cannot move from one account to another, so they stay with the account that bought them. Buy small amounts you will actually use, and spend them on the account you plan to keep.

Having money on a card does not mean it will work for a subscription.

Tinder warns that some gift cards, prepaid cards and select debit cards do not support recurring payments for subscriptions. A Tinder plan renews on its own until you cancel it, so it needs a card that accepts a charge that repeats. A standard credit card or a regular bank debit card is the safer choice.

The other common failure is a billing address and zip code that do not match what your bank has. Copy them exactly from your bank's records.

Where you pay decides where everything else happens. Cancelling, changing the card, finding your history and asking about a charge all go through the same company that took the money.

So choose once and note it. When you are unsure later, check the receipt before you do anything else. Tinder's order numbers help if you forget. MK means Apple, GPA means Google Play, and TNDR means Tinder.com or a card inside the Android app. Men who pay one way on one phone and another way on the next can end up with two plans running, and each one has to be cancelled where it was bought.

How you pay is a five-minute question. Whether paying helps is the one that affects your dates.

a dating coach thinks refusing to pay for anything on principle is a handicap, because the apps are businesses that look after the members who pay them. His rule is to test any paid feature once and drop it if it makes no real difference. So paying is not a weakness. Paying and never checking the results is a waste.

He also calls paid features multipliers, and multiplying zero still gives zero. If the free account brings in a few matches on an ordinary week, a plan has something to multiply. If it brings in almost none, fix the lead photo and the opening line before you spend anything, then decide which card to use.