Short answer: if the balance is lower than the card amount minus your subscriptions, the difference is almost always fees. Every successful charge costs $1, every declined charge also costs $1 (at most 3 per card per calendar month), and $2.50 is taken on the 1st of each month. A Pending charge already holds that amount from the available balance; a Refunded one is not taken at all. Add and subtract the lines in the transaction history one by one and it should match to the cent.
Written by the Pink Card team (pinkcard.cc). The rules are how our balance is calculated; the numbers come from every transaction on our own cards over 90 days, 2026-07-30 to 2026-10-27 (UTC). Fees are those shown on the purchase and top-up pages on 2026-10-28.
Where to see it
Open pinkcard.cc/en, click “Balance & Top Up” at the top, and enter the 16-digit card number and the 3-digit lookup code from your card email. No login is needed. You will see the available balance and every line: merchant, time, amount and status, and on many lines the fee and the balance after that line.
What each status means
- Success: the merchant charged the card. The amount comes off the balance, plus a $1 fee. On our cards: 595 successful charges on 275 cards in 90 days, $26,667.03 in total.
- Failed: the charge was declined, so the merchant got nothing, but the line still costs $1, at most 3 per card per calendar month (Beijing time). On our cards: 684 declines on 168 cards. The most common reason by far is that the charge was bigger than the balance or a card limit.
- Pending: the merchant has started the charge but not settled it yet. The amount is held from the available balance and no fee is taken yet; later it turns into Success or Refunded. On our cards: 6 pending lines on 6 cards at the end of the period. Four had started since 10-17; two £1 Google checks (about $1.39 each) had been Pending for 7 and 11 weeks.
- Refunded: the merchant cancelled or returned the charge, and the balance is not reduced. On our cards: 40 refunded lines on 26 cards. 19 were $5 or less on 13 cards, mostly card checks such as $1.00, $1.16, $0.54 or $0.50 when a card is added; 11 were $100 or more, mainly Claude subscription charges of $100–$200 that Anthropic reversed.
- Monthly fee: $2.50, recorded at 00:00 Beijing time on the 1st of each month (16:00 UTC on the last day of the month before). 113 cards were charged on 2026-08-31 UTC and 147 on 2026-09-30 UTC. It stops once a card is closed.
- Top-up: “Not on card yet” right after you pay, then “On card”, usually within 5–10 minutes. On our cards: 132 top-ups on 90 cards in 90 days, $13,877.80 added in total.
The $0 and $1.95 Google lines that show up when you add a card: GOOGLE *TEMPORARY HOLD and Google’s verification charge explained
Why a $200 Claude charge turned into Refunded: Claude payment reversed
How the balance is calculated
Available balance = card amount + top-ups that are on the card − successful and pending charges − monthly fees − $1 × successful charges − $1 × declined charges (at most 3 counted per month). Refunded lines are not subtracted.
Why only 385 of 684 declines cost $1
Declines come in bursts. When a renewal fails, the merchant retries the same card again and again, and each retry is a new Failed line. Because declined-charge fees stop at 3 per card per month, the 684 declines on our cards over 90 days were charged only 385 times; the other 299 were free. 54 times a card went past 3 declines in the same month.
What every decline reason in the history means: Prepaid virtual card decline messages explained
5 common reasons the balance “does not match”
- The $1 per charge was not counted: three subscriptions in a month are three $1 fees.
- Declines also cost $1: a failed renewal is often retried several times, each one a Failed line, up to $3 a month.
- The monthly fee: $2.50 on the 1st. If the balance is $0 at that moment it is still recorded and comes out of the next top-up.
- A Pending charge is holding money: it looks unfinished, but the available balance already went down. If it is refunded, the money comes back.
- A foreign currency charge: if the merchant bills in yen, pounds, pesos or yuan, the card converts it to US dollars at the network rate on the day, so the dollar amount is a little different each month. Pink Card adds no currency conversion fee.
Why a foreign currency charge comes out at a different dollar amount: Foreign currency charges on a prepaid virtual card
What to do after reading the history
- Several Failed lines because of the balance or a limit: top up to at least the next charge + $1 + this month’s $2.50, wait until the top-up shows “On card”, then retry once.
- Failed with “Blocked”: the card has been closed or frozen. Put a working card in that subscription.
- A Pending line that has stayed for many days: take a screenshot of the history and contact support.
- Still does not add up: send the last 4 digits of the card and a screenshot to support@pinkcard.cc.
Already have a Pink Card? Enter the card number and lookup code to see the history and top up this card
How long a top-up takes to reach the card, and why to wait for “On card”: How long does a prepaid virtual card top-up take
What happens when the balance reaches $0 and why a closed card shows “Blocked”: What happens when your prepaid virtual card runs out of balance
Need a card for AI subscriptions (USDT or USDC)
- Open pinkcard.cc/en and choose an amount: presets start at $110 ($110, $220, $500, $1000), or enter a custom amount from $100.
- Pay with USDT on BEP-20 or ERC-20, or with USDC on ERC-20. Send exactly the amount shown, on exactly the network you picked.
- The card number, expiry, CVV and billing address arrive by email about 1–2 minutes after the payment confirms (check spam).
Pink Card fees (as of 2026-10-28)
- Card issuance: $10 one-time, plus a 3% service fee on (card amount + $10). A $110 card costs $123.60, a $220 card $236.90.
- From the card balance after activation: $1 per transaction and $2.50 per month.
- Failed authorizations are charged $1 too (at most 3 failed charges per card per month). Refunded charges do not reduce the balance.
- Top-up of the same card: $5 plus 5% of (top-up amount + $5), minimum top-up $30, usually on the card within 5–10 minutes. Full fee table: pinkcard.cc/en/fees.
- Once the card details are emailed, the order cannot be cancelled, so double-check your email address before paying.
Several subscriptions on one card and how much to keep: One virtual card for multiple AI subscriptions
Chinese version (中文版，付款方式按中文站): 虚拟卡交易记录和余额怎么看