Why payment methods disappear from checkout

Availability rules

Payment methods are conditional. Each can be limited by country, currency, minimum and maximum order total, customer group or shipping method. A change to any of those — a new price, a new country, a promotion that pushes totals below a minimum — can make every method unavailable for a real customer’s cart while it still works for your test order.

Expired or mismatched credentials

Gateways need API keys, merchant IDs and sometimes webhook secrets. Keys get rotated, sandbox keys end up in production after a migration, or an account is suspended for a compliance check. Many gateway plugins respond by quietly hiding the method instead of showing an error.

Blocked scripts

Card forms are usually iframes or scripts loaded from the provider’s domain. A Content Security Policy that does not allow that domain, an ad blocker rule, a consent manager that waits for approval, or an optimisation plugin that defers the script can all leave the payment area blank. These show up only in the browser console, never in the server log.

How to check quickly

Run a checkout with a normal cart, to a normal address, and open the browser console at the payment step. If methods are missing without console errors, look at availability rules and credentials. If the console shows blocked or failed requests, look at CSP, consent and script optimisation. A monitor that captures the console and the network on every run saves you this step — the evidence is already there when the alert arrives. Related: a failing WooCommerce payment gateway and Magento orders stuck in pending payment.

Check your own store now, free: the WooCommerce checkout checker or the Magento checkout test walks the checkout in a real browser and shows the step where it stops.

If the checkout freezes at the billing or payment step, see Magento checkout stuck on billing.

For Greek banks and card redirects, read card redirect failures in Greek stores.