Before You Order: A Pre-Checkout Checklist

Every order placed with NoBull Networks passes through automated screening before a server is built, the same as at any host that accepts card payments. The rules are not published, and most orders clear without a person ever looking at them. The orders that get flagged are usually legitimate ones with a single detail that did not line up, and a flagged order is cancelled on the spot, so it is worth two minutes to avoid. This checklist covers the everyday reasons it happens, plus the parts of the order itself that are easier to get right before you pay than after.

Use your real details#

• Your legal name, as it appears on your payment method. Nicknames, initials only, and a company name in the personal name field all read as mismatches.
• The billing address your bank has on file for the card, exactly. Not the address the server is for, not a mail drop, not the place you lived last year. If you have moved recently, update the bank first or use the address it still holds.
• An email address you actually check, at a provider that will still exist next month. The welcome email, invoices, and any question about the order all go there. Disposable and throwaway addresses are one of the most common reasons an order is flagged.
• A phone number that reaches you. We rarely need it, and when we do it is because something is time-sensitive.
• A company name only if you are ordering as a company. Business orders are welcome. Put the company in the company field and keep the account holder a real person; Contacts and Sub-Accounts covers adding colleagues and accounts payable afterwards.

Order from a normal connection#

Turn off your VPN, proxy, or Tor before you open the checkout, and turn it back on afterwards. A checkout that arrives from a datacenter or an anonymizing network, especially one in a different country from the billing address, is the single most common reason a legitimate order gets flagged. That includes always-on privacy VPNs, corporate VPNs that route your browser through another office, browser extensions that do the same thing, and ordering from a server you already rent somewhere else. Your home or mobile connection is the right place to order from.

Pay with a method in your own name#

• The card or PayPal account should belong to the person or company placing the order. If a colleague's or a family member's card is the only option, the cleanest path is for the cardholder to hold the account and add you as a contact. Otherwise expect us to confirm the charge with the cardholder before the order is released.
• Expect your bank to ask. Many banks push a confirmation to your phone or app the first time you pay a new online merchant. Approve it promptly. A payment the bank declines never reaches us, and retrying the same card several times looks worse, not better.
• Prepaid, gift, and single-use virtual cards often cannot be checked against a name and address the way a normal card can, so they make a flag more likely. A regular debit or credit card, or PayPal, clears with far less friction.
• Keep the country consistent. The card's issuing country, the billing address, and the place you are ordering from should agree. Ordering while traveling is fine; say so before you order (see below) and the review is a formality.

The accepted payment methods, and how they are stored for renewals, are covered in Billing Cycles and Automatic Renewal and Manage Payment Methods and Invoices.

One account, one person#

• Do not create a second account to try again, to use a promotion twice, or because you forgot the password. Two accounts sharing details is a strong signal on its own, and a password reset takes a minute: Reset Your MyNobull Password.
• Buying a server someone else will run and pay for? Let that person hold the account and add you as a contact or sub-account, not the other way round.
• Resellers and agencies are welcome. Order from your own company account with your own payment method; never place orders with a client's card.

Check the order itself#

Screening is only half of it. A few choices are much easier to make before checkout than to change afterwards.

1. Pick the right line. Performance VPS, Foundational VPS, or VDS. Choose Between VPS and VDS explains the differences without the marketing.
2. Choose the billing cycle you actually want. The day you order becomes the renewal date for every cycle, and longer cycles are billed in full up front. Billing Cycles and Automatic Renewal has the mechanics; Yearly VPS Specials Explained covers the annual deals.
3. Choose the operating system you will use. You can reinstall from the cloud portal later, but picking the right image now saves a rebuild on day one.
4. Enter any promotion code in the cart before you pay. Discounts apply at checkout; asking afterwards means a billing ticket, and a retroactive discount is not guaranteed.
5. Read the two documents that govern the order. The acceptable use rules say what the server may not be used for, and the Terms of Service set the refund windows. Refunds and the 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee is the short version.

If your order will look unusual, say so first#

A corporate card in a director's name, a billing address on another continent, an order placed from a hotel abroad, a second server for a client: none of these are problems, but all of them look like mismatches to an automated check. Tell us before you order, through the contact form or live chat, with the order you are about to place and what will look odd about it. Knowing in advance is the difference between a cancelled order and a formality.

What happens next#

Pay, and a Performance VPS is typically provisioned in under 90 seconds; other products follow within minutes. What Happens After You Order walks through the welcome email and your first login. If checkout instead tells you the order failed the fraud screening and was cancelled, that is recoverable: My Order Was Flagged for Fraud Review explains what to do, and it is usually settled in a single ticket.