Account, payments & subscriptions

[Portalogem]

I'm currently paying for my Hulu base plan and Add-ons through my Hulu channel provider's account and not through Roku.

When I'm in the Hulu standalone channel app on my Roku device and I click on the Paramount+ with Showtime Add-on that I would like to subscribe to, after clicking "Submit," I'm met with a Roku Pay screen that requires my Roku PIN. Thanks to Roku, this is now secure as someone can't grab my remote and make unauthorized purchases to my Hulu account anymore.

On the pay screen, it reads, "hulu Confirm order, Charges will be billed to your Roku account. Your contact information will be exchanged between Roku and Hulu." And since I don't currently have a credit card on file with Roku, above the "Cancel" selection it reads, "Add new payment method" even though I do have a credit card on file with Hulu. 

The explanation on the Roku Pay screen appears sufficient if I were purchasing a stand-alone channel app through this service, but this is a rather unique circumstance because I'm purchasing a Hulu Add-on through that already purchased channel app, so this leaves me with questions:

1) Will my Hulu base plan including all the Hulu Add-ons be transferred to my Roku account once my billing cycle renews?

2) Will my Hulu base plan including all the Hulu Add-ons remain on my Hulu account, but I would have to pay for the Hulu Add-on I added with Roku Pay through my Roku account?

3) Will my Hulu base plan including all the Hulu Add-ons remain on my Hulu account, including the Hulu Add-on I added through Roku Pay?

4) When I correctly enter my PIN, because my Hulu subscription is through my Hulu channel provider account and not my Roku account, will Roku Pay give me an error message saying I can't use it since I'm being billed through Hulu?

I'm fearful if I do this, I could potentially lose a lifetime promo -- such as what I may have with that Disney+ $2.99 Add-on, if my Hulu subscription were to transfer to my Roku account, and I'm also worried that it could be difficult to remove a Hulu Add-on if it was purchased through Roku Pay and then transferred to Hulu. I also don't want to be double-billed through Roku and Hulu. I know a workaround is to just go to the Hulu website and make all purchases there (which would most likely be my response to this question), but I want to know because I would like to have the convenient option of being able to make Hulu Add-on purchases directly from my Roku device just like I could before this Roku security measure was put in place.

Without speculating, has anyone had direct experience with this to be able to answer my question of both adding and removing a Hulu Add-on through Roku Pay when a Hulu subscriber is paying through their Hulu channel provider account? 

[RokuJohnB]

Hi @Portalogem,

Thank you for posting here in the Roku Community!

To be better assisted with your subscription inquiry, you can reach out to our Accounts and Billing team since they are the specialized department to best cater to your inquiry. To contact them, kindly refer to this link here. Make sure to select the Accounts and Billing option to be directed to their contact information.

If you need anything else, please let us know.

All the best,

John

[Portalogem]

I may do that, but the problem for me is that too much is at stake with my Hulu account and then another potential issue that could crop up is not being able to immediately link that Add-on to the Paramount Plus website. Unfortunately, I've generally found that those who work in customer service may unintentionally misguide me because they say, from their script, that it's supposed to work one way but reality has different plans. If anything were to go wrong, I do not doubt that either Roku's or Hulu's customer service would end up fixing the issue, but I may as well avoid any potential trouble by just signing up with the Paramount+ with Showtime Add-on directly through my Hulu account on the Hulu website.

My question is still geared toward anyone who had direct experience with doing this, so I would know of any pitfalls they fell into that I could avoid, so this post is still open for anyone to comment. If I don't hear from anyone by February, I'll probably end up following my advice by keeping things simple and not using one company to add a subscription to another company. I'd rather have the inconvenience of having to go directly to the Hulu website to change my subscription than not have the security measures that Roku put into place to keep anyone from being able to change my Hulu account with the use of my Roku remote. However, even after February (2024), if anyone has had direct experience with doing this and wants to comment, this will still be helpful for me and anyone else who may want to add or remove a Hulu Add-on with their Roku in the future. 

[Portalogem · Accepted solution]

I currently changed Hulu plans and no longer was grandfathered into my old plan, so now I can answer my question. Out of all the potential nightmarish scenarios that could occur, this was the one with the least problematic outcome since Hulu temp charged me for attempting to use my Roku device to add a Hulu Add-on. This doesn't mean that Hulu actually charged me but was instead testing my card to make sure it worked, much like when there's a free trial period -- at least I hope I don't receive a charge for doing this because I tried it twice to make sure it wasn't because of a time out issue, and I was temp charged twice for a total of $2.

So, the answer to question 4 is yes.

Perhaps I was unlucky, and I happened to try this on a day in which this service was glitchy, but I don't think that's it because you probably can't use Roku Pay for an Add-on if you're being billed through a provider's service that is not Roku.

I don't understand why Hulu allows me to attempt to use Roku Pay or even why they show their premium and partner Add-ons on the Hulu home page of my Roku device if I can't use Roku Pay to purchase any of them due to it erroring out.

Hulu--this feature just doesn't work: perhaps it never worked once Roku had to get involved by placing their Roku Pay with pin code on Hulu's app to stop anyone with the Roku remote from purchasing a Hulu Add-on without the account owner's permission. Hulu had recently added the feature of sending a link to the account owner's email to verify the identity before purchase, but the feature arrived years too late because with Roku's overlaying pay feature -- this didn't work for me as it once had before Roku Pay appeared. Since I was temp charged two dollars, this keeps me from making another attempt to try this on another day in the event this issue could potentially be fixed sometime in the future.

So, from this point on, we'll all assume that this feature doesn't work unless someone else decides to try this in the future -- you will be temp charged $1 for your effort so beware -- but seeing that no one has replied to this post in over six months, I'm just going to continue to assume that this feature doesn't work. Perhaps if you're using your Roku account to pay for Hulu, then this would work for you. This error could be happening because I'm using that new bundled service with Hulu which includes Disney+ and Max which could be the culprit -- who knows?

I was surprised, however, that it was Hulu that ran the temp charge instead of Roku, even though Roku required me to enter a credit card so I could complete the transaction on Roku Pay, so perhaps if it all worked, it would be Hulu that would have been the one to charge me for adding the Add-on through my Roku device instead of Roku.

I'm satisfied with this answer, and I will not attempt to use Roku Pay to add any Hulu Add-ons in the future; instead, I'll stick to using a web browser to add Hulu Add-ons through Hulu's website.

I found this to be such a hassle, that I've decided not to add that Hulu premium Add-on at this time, which would have been Cinemax since there are movies only on that channel that I would like to see, but I also want to watch many movies on other premium channels that I already subscribe too. So, Hulu -- enjoy that $2 temp charge instead of the amount you would have received had this feature worked. Maybe in a couple of months, I'll use your website to subscribe to that Cinemax Add-on. 

Update: Hulu refunded both temp charges.

[Portalogem · Accepted solution]

It's been almost three months, and I said I wouldn't try this again, but having two different credit cards -- one in my Roku account and another in my Hulu account makes this enticing -- which will be charged? Since Hulu instantly refunded me for my troubles previously, I'm ready to try this again because there are now a bunch of movies on Cinemax and not on Max or any other streaming platform that I want to watch. 

Also, the question continues to bother me: Was this a one-time glitch or does this feature just not work because, perhaps, Roku Pay only would work if my Hulu account was billed through Roku and not through Hulu as, therefore, I wouldn't be able to add any add-ons through Roku Pay. Instead, I would need to go through my Hulu account on the Hulu website using an internet browser to add any premium channels with Hulu. This is fine by me since that would mean my Roku is now very secure: Before Roku added this security "Roku Pay" feature, anyone could go on my Roku device, tap my Roku remote, and add a Hulu premium channel or Hulu live TV. Not anymore -- thanks to Roku Pay. 

Before I continue, I want to be clear by stating that this problem is a Disney issue (they own Hulu) and not a Roku issue since I've been able to add and remove premium channels onto my Prime Video account, Apple TV account, and Roku account (with The Roku Channel) just fine through my Roku device by using a credit card through that provider, and not having to use the credit card through two providers (Hulu and Roku Pay) to make one transaction. To be clear, I signed up with Prime Video and Apple TV directly through their respective companies and not through my Roku account, and adding premium content through them with my Roku device works fine -- neither uses Roku Pay to make purchases with their content. 

So why do I continue to use Hulu to add premium channels like Cinemax when I can just as easily use Amazon, Apple TV, or Roku as my provider -- all of them play well with my Roku device? You would think I'd join them on the digital playground instead. 

The reason I use Hulu instead of the other providers when subscribing to premium content like Cinemax is that Hulu lists their content in alphabetical order which helps me to easily find movies. And when I can easily find movies, I keep subscribing to the premium channel through that provider. Cinemax has movies that Max(HBO) doesn't have, and good movies, but it's extremely difficult to find those movies because they are clumped together with other movies that are also on Max (HBO). Having them in alphabetical order helps me to sort through all of them to find the Cinemax movies I want to watch. It would be nice if there was a category: "Movies Only On Cinemax" and it would also be nice if I could lucid dream on demand, yet (sigh) neither seems to be happening anytime soon. 

Hulu also has more live channels than Roku or Apple TV, so for the same price, I'm going with Hulu. I don't go with Prime Video channels because when I cancel Amazon Prime, I don't want to then have to resubscribe to all my premium channels on other platforms as I may as well do that to begin with. I guess the same could be said with Hulu, but Hulu is so much cheaper than paying for Prime. I do like that Roku has a shortcut of their premium channels on their home screen and they don't require a base subscription, but with the live channels that Hulu has and Hulu alphabetizing their content makes Hulu the winner despite this current issue I'm posting about since the workaround is simple -- use a web browser and log into Hulu.

Besides, I'm posting all of this because I'm more interested in security than functionality, so either way this is a win for me as I don't want some random person or animal (insect?) adding premium content to my Hulu through my Roku device.

So, I fired up my Roku (plugged it in), clicked on Hulu, scrolled down on the home screen to add Cinemax, and after attempting to make the purchase, I received this response:

"This Hulu account is not authorized to make purchases on this Roku device."

It appears that on the digital playground, Hulu just isn't playing well with Roku when it comes to adding their premium Add-ons. And yet my Amazon account, my Apple account, and my Roku account (obviously) allows me to make purchases on my Roku device as any account owner can easily subscribe to Cinemax or any premium channel through them, which most probably do. And each was very secure when I purchased premium content with them. 

But guess what? I was still temp charged. But by whom? And this is where things become interesting: the charge was with the credit card associated with my Roku account, yet on my credit card account, the temp charge said it was through Hulu. I tried this again by changing the credit card so that it was the same for each account, in case that was the issue, and I was still denied. And it wasn't because I entered the wrong pin code since Roku won't let you go past the pin code screen by showing an error. 

Why is this not working Disney? This is after four attempts in about three months. Do you not want your subscribers to easily add premium channels to their Hulu account with their Roku device? Do you want them to instead turn to another provider like Amazon, Apple TV, or Roku since it's easy to add and remove premium channels through them -- especially if account owners don't have access to an internet browser? 

And no, I couldn't find any way to remove a premium channel with Hulu from my Roku device when this was working as I had to go into my Hulu account on a web browser. Perhaps this is the issue on why authorization is denied since subscribers complained that they couldn't easily unsubscribe to premium content once they subscribed; after the complaints, Amazon changed this by allowing subscribers to unsubscribe to premium content on their Roku device. So perhaps Disney also has to allow subscribers to unsubscribe as well on their Roku devices before allowing account owners to make purchases through their Roku devices. This isn't the case if you subscribe to Hulu through Roku, since you can go to the home screen on your Roku device and unsubscribe to Hulu, which unsubscribes you from all the Add-ons as well.

So, until this is fixed, if it's ever fixed (I'm not trying this again), the answer to my question is:

"4) When I correctly enter my PIN, because my Hulu subscription is through my Hulu channel provider account and not my Roku account, will Roku Pay give me an error message saying I can't use it since I'm being billed through Hulu?"

The bottom line: You can't purchase an Add-on through Roku Pay if you're account is through Hulu; instead, use an internet browser to log into your Hulu account to purchase the premium Add-on there.