If you have a subscription but you’re going in circles trying to log in and read paywalled articles, let’s fix that. Click whichever applies to you:

A. I pay via cheque, e-Transfer, or PayPal

B. I do not pay for my subscription

C. I did not miss payments

D. I missed payments

E. I do not know what’s wrong

Please do your best to solve this before you contact Iris. Thanks!

A. I pay via cheque, e-Transfer, or PayPal

Contact Iris and she’ll get you sorted. (If this doesn’t apply to you, please look at the other solutions before emailing Iris.)

B. I do not pay for my subscription

If you’re

  1. a member of a Family (formerly “Plus-one”) subscription 
  2. a member of a Group Business/Government subscription 
  3. a Founder, contributor, or recipient of a complimentary or gift subscription

contact Iris and she’ll look into it.

C. I did not miss payments

Your billing info and card number are probably missing from your account.

(This site has better security, and your billing address probably wasn’t on the last site to migrate over, so it needs to be added. Stripe — the payment gateway — needs your address and other info to prove it’s you using the card. Also, cards weren’t stored on the last site. So the site pauses your access in lieu of a better message.)

Iris can’t add them for you, so please follow these steps.

  1. Log in to the Examiner site with your username or email address
  2. On your Account dashboard, click Addresses
  3. Add your billing info so it matches your card statement; skip the shipping info
  4. Click the little box at the bottom which reads “Update the billing address used for all future renewals…”
  5. Click Save Address
  6. On your dashboard, click Payment methods
  7. Add the card (cards aren’t stored or processed on our site, but encrypted and sent directly to Stripe)
  8. Click “save card for future payments” if you see that
  9. On your dashboard, click My subscription
  10. Under Related orders, check to see if there’s a “pending payment.”
  11. Click Pay.

That should unpause your subscription. If it doesn’t, email Iris.

D. I missed payments

  1. Log in to the Examiner site with your username or email address
  2. On your Account dashboard, click Addresses, and make sure your billing info is there. If it’s not:
  3. Add your info so it matches your card statement
  4. Click the little box at the bottom which reads “Update the billing address used for all future renewals…”
  5. Click Save Address
  6. On your dashboard, click Payment methods
  7. Check that the card’s there; if it’s not, add it
  8. On your dashboard, click My subscription
  9. Check if it says “manual payment”, or if it’s automatic. You may want to set it to automatic, otherwise you’ll have to manually make the payment each month or year.
  10. Under Related orders, click Pay next to the “pending payment”.

This should unpause your subscription, but if you still can’t access the paywalled articles, email Iris.

IMPORTANT:

If you have 4 or more failed payment notices in your email, or it’s been over a month since your last payment, it’s unlikely you can restart the subscription.

But you can easily cancel it and resubscribe, and keep the same username and email address: 

Cancel:

  1. Log in with your username or email address
  2. On your Account dashboard, click My Subscriptions
  3. Find the subscription, and click Cancel 

Resubscribe:

  1. Click Subscribe on the main menu bar at the top of the page
  2. Choose your type, frequency, and price
  3. Add your card and billing details, etc.
  4. Check out

You’ll get an emailed notice when you’re successful.

E. I do not know what’s wrong

  1. Please make sure you’re using the correct spelling in your username or email address, or the right password.
  2. You can send yourself a new password to the email address you subscribed with.
  3. Clear your browser history, or try a new browser. If you’ve never done this, you can find great instructions on Google or YouTube.

If you’ve tried these instructions with no success, fear not. There’s a human on the other end to help you: email Iris. (And remember to put your email address in your note.)

Thank you!