This story was originally published and last updated .
On Thursday, many American Express customers that had their cards loaded into Google Pay received a notice that their cards had been removed from the app. The cause was apparently a certificate issue, and over the next day or so, some customers had intermittent problems attempting to re-add their cards to Google Pay. We’re told the issue has since been resolved, and though your disabled cards probably won’t automatically reappear, you should be able to add them back now without any issue.
Several American Express customers have reported receiving emails similar to the one depicted above, explaining that their American Express cards have been removed from Google Pay on their phones as a payment option. And true to the email’s words, the cards themselves have also disappeared from the Google Pay app.
At least one of us here at Android Police had the same problem and received notice from American Express regarding the removal at around 4 AM ET on 4/15 — which seems to be when the emails started going out.
Interestingly, not all phones with American Express cards in Google Pay seem to be affected. For one of us that ran into the issue and received the notice, only a OnePlus 9 Pro and Mi 11 Ultra had the offending card removed, though the card remained a payment option on other Android devices.
Although the cause for the issue wasn’t initially understood, Google has since confirmed to Bleeping Computer that the problem stemmed from an expired certificate:
“Earlier today we discovered that American Express cards of some of our users got automatically removed from Google Pay due to an expired certificate. We are working to fix this and people will be able to add their cards back soon.” – Google spokesperson
Paired with this explanation, Bleeping Computer extrapolates that an expired TLS certificate could be to blame, interfering with communications between Google and American Express.
A representative from American Express tells us that the issue should now be resolved. Though it doesn’t sound like cards will be automatically re-added, you can do that process manually now and expect success (though a handful of people report running into an error, and we aren’t sure if it’s related to this issue).
