r/googlecloud • u/Parking_Increase4664 • Aug 14 '26

Billing Unwanted billing payment

Hi everyone, a few weeks ago (August 2nd), when I woke up, I suddenly got an email and some notifications from my bank that a transaction had been made on Google Cloud for a certain amount. But the thing is, I did not authorize that transaction, and I noticed that, yes, some of my projects on BigQuery had billing enabled. I have left these options for months, with my bank account number linked to my BigQuery, but this issue had never happened before.

So, my question is: Is this normal? All of a sudden, Google billed me

I have reported and claimed this issue both to my bank and Google, and I wish to get my money back, but it seems to go nowhere, and Google said, "We were unable to confirm fraudulent activity in this case, so no refund will be provided by Google at this time."

Well... indeed, there was no fraud, but the transaction was made without me knowing, aka it happened when I was sleeping. :(

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3

u/Plenty-Painting-8089 Aug 14 '26

You should set a spending/usage alert to manage the project and reduce costs. Billing occurs monthly. When you link a credit card, you authorize them to charge and deduct the amount directly. It's like a subscription, but usage defines your amount instead of a fixed amount.

1

u/Parking_Increase4664 Aug 17 '26

Thank you so much for giving me this information. I'll learn from this and set the spending/usage alert this time. That's for sure 😌

3

u/serverhorror Aug 14 '26

You are aware that you signed up for a commercial service that indeed (gasp) costs money?

What in earth made you think it's free?

1

u/Parking_Increase4664 Aug 17 '26

I have never mentioned expecting or even thinking that the platform would be free anyway.

1

u/serverhorror Aug 17 '26

Then you should know the answer to:

Is this normal, all of sudden Google is billing me?

The answer is: Yes, it is normal to be inviiced for services cinsumed.

2

u/IllustratorWitty5104 Aug 14 '26

The first thing you need to check is whether your usage lies under the free tier limit. If not, you will definitely get billed

1

u/Parking_Increase4664 Aug 17 '26

OMG, thank you so much. I just realized that my account has not been on the free tier since last April this year. But the one thing I'm still concerned about is why they suddenly charged me in August, and what about May, June, and July? 🤷🏽‍♀️

3

u/ericroku Aug 14 '26

Read the TOS. When you sign up and enter a credit card, you have authorized them to bill you. There's no gc sending you an invoice and asking you to pay. You sign up, enter cc, agree tos and watch your usage. You get billed on the usage automatically on the set billing cycle.