What’s up with Crunchyroll? The clamor from South African Crunchyroll subscribers trying to get their premium memberships back is growing louder as the new anime season heats up!
Crunchyroll fans from the southern tip of Africa have been complaining about billing issues with the anime streaming platform since November 2025. The issue? Crunchyroll’s website has been declining card payments, and we’re not sure why.
South African Crunchyroll Subscribers Face Clutter and Confusion
What’s the issue, exactly?
Without useful error messages, it’s hard to pinpoint. We’re left with educated guesswork.
Essentially, South African Crunchyroll subscribers have had their card payments paused and have been unable to reapply or add new card payments to the streaming platform.
We have not yet confirmed the number of users affected. And, without reliable data, we can’t estimate Crunchyroll’s revenue losses during the holiday season. Whatever the case, a dry run during a new anime season is a bad start to the year, for fans and for Crunchyroll.
US Trade Sanctions Left Non-US Fans Jittery after 2025
Trade sanctions imposed by the Orange Haired Man can’t be the culprit. While Trump and the ANC-led South African government aren’t on friendly terms, there are no US-imposed sanctions on South Africa. Not currently.
This hasn’t stopped South African anime fans from calling foul of the Trump administration. One fan said, “[I] wonder if this isn’t just a side effect of some recent political tensions.” How likely is Crunchyroll to follow Trump’s political stirrings? Only as far as they have to. Nobody wants to lose customers. According to one Reddit post, South Africa has the seventh highest number of anime available out of all countries with access to Crunchyroll. According to market research firm Deem Market Insights, South Africa accounted for 0.9% of the global Anime market size in 2024.
Checking All the Boxes on Crunchyroll’s Support Site
The payment gateway issues may be as mundane as mismatched postal codes. Crunchyroll’s support site warns to “make sure the postal code matches what your bank has on file.” However, none of the users who reported the payment gateway issue mentioned having moved or updated their postal code with their bank.
Seemingly, all the users who reported an issue are with the same bank. Could the bank have changed its systems or the postal codes of its users? Initial reports suggest that the hiccup lies on Crunchyroll’s side, not with South African Crunchyroll subscribers’ choice of financial institution.
Crunchyroll’s Response
While there has been no official word from Crunchyroll (we’ve been trying), Crunchyroll’s support team has been most helpful. That doesn’t mean they have resolved the issue, but we’ll keep you updated.
And, if you are one of those affected and are wondering how to speak with a real person at Crunchyroll’s help desk, go through their AI Assistant and ask the machine to put you through to their support team. Mentioning a distrust for sentient machines might not help here, Sarah Connor fans!
You Can Count on Google
Many South African Crunchyroll subscribers have turned to Google Play to restore their good standing with Crunchyroll. While not a fix (and a limited option for anime fans with potato phones), using Google Play’s payment gateway to top up Crunchyroll subscriptions has been one workaround to keep the anime rolling this anime season.
If payment gateway issues have affected you on Crunchyroll’s site, we implore you to contact their support staff. Let us know if you find a fix, so we can all get back to anime. Or use this as an excuse to add to your anime Blu-ray collection.
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