Paying Matterport from India: A Case Study in Four Credit Cards
Disclosure: I run an Indian agency that’s been a Matterport Service Partner for about seven years. This is my own account. Quotes from Matterport and my bank come from written correspondence in September 2026.
The short version
Matterport makes cameras and software that capture every corner of a building in 3D. Its payment system for Indian cards appears to have a corner it can’t see.
A bit of background
Since October 2021, recurring card payments in India have followed the Reserve Bank of India’s e-mandate rules. The customer registers a mandate once with an OTP, charges under ₹15,000 then go through automatically, and anything above that needs approval each time. Before the first recurring charge, the customer has to authorise the arrangement, and only then can later debits run without their involvement.
Banks told everyone at the time what would happen otherwise. Standard Chartered warned that any recurring transaction outside the framework would be declined, including existing mandates where the merchant couldn’t send details in the format the RBI required. It also pointed out that making this work needed issuers, acquiring banks, card networks and merchants to all do their part.
That last word, merchants, becomes relevant later.
How other companies handled it
Most global subscription services have a help page for this. Adobe says Indian Creative Cloud subscribers may see payments fail under the e-mandate rules, and walks them through re-entering card details and completing bank authentication. DataCamp has new Indian users complete OTP verification on first purchase, has existing users re-verify their card to create a mandate, and now lets new Indian customers pay in rupees.
The payment processors are ready too. Stripe’s documentation says an off-session payment without a mandate will be declined, and handles Indian mandates through its Subscriptions product.
To be fair to Matterport, it’s hardly alone in struggling here. A Figma forum thread from 2022 and 2023 has Indian users reporting that cards from ICICI, HDFC, Citibank and others all failed for subscription payments, which they put down to the RBI rules. So this is a known problem with known fixes.
What happened to me
For about seven years, I paid Matterport monthly from the same card. When the account lapsed over a missed payment, I’d clear the dues and Matterport would reactivate it manually. I have emails for eight of these, from 2021 to November 2025. It was a routine, if slightly embarrassing, arrangement.
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In September 2026 I cleared the outstanding invoice as usual. This time, Matterport said it could only reactivate accounts with an active subscription term, and I’d need to buy a new subscription.
So I tried. Card from bank one: declined. Card from bank two: declined. Card from bank three: declined. At this point I did what any reasonable person would do and got a brand-new credit card for the sole purpose of paying Matterport. It was declined too. I now own a credit card whose only job is to be declined by Matterport.
Meanwhile, a one-off invoice I paid by card in August 2026 went through without a problem. The cards work. They just don’t work for this one checkout.
Who says what
Matterport said the declines came from my card issuer, with the reason “Transaction cannot be completed; violation of law,” and that it couldn’t override them. It suggested I ask my bank to authorise the charge and confirm it complies with RBI rules, or use an international credit card. It offered wire transfer, but only on an annual plan; monthly customers can’t pay by wire. Later, it said it would ask its finance team whether it could send me a payable order for a monthly plan.
My bank (IDFC FIRST Bank) looked into it and replied in writing. It said the decline wasn’t initiated by the bank. The card network rejected the charge because it was flagged as recurring and the merchant hadn’t sent the fields required under the Standing Instruction framework. Its advice was to pay as a one-time transaction, or ask the merchant to fix its recurring payment setup.
So Matterport says to call my bank, and my bank says to call Matterport. I have called both. They’re both very sorry.
The knock-on effect
While this goes on, client spaces on the account are offline. I asked to move them to another account in the meantime, but Matterport says spaces can’t be transferred out of a cancelled account. They can’t stay where they are, and they can’t leave.
Where things stand
As of 27 September 2026, I’m waiting to hear back from Matterport’s finance team. My bank’s suggestion of a one-time payment is on the table, and I’m ready to pay the moment someone sends a link.
I’ll update this post when it’s resolved. Ideally with a short, boring paragraph.
The humour mostly lives in the closing lines of sections (“the corner it can’t see,” the single-purpose credit card, “they’re both very sorry”), so the facts stay front and centre. If any line feels too sharp for you, those are easy to trim.
