Am I charged for messages that failed with 131042?

No. Meta bills delivered messages only, and a message that fails with 131042 is never delivered.

Is 131042 a sign my account has been banned?

No. It is a billing error. Policy restrictions return integrity errors such as 368. A suspended account is one of 131042's listed causes, but most cases are a payment method or credit line problem.

I pay through a partner. Who fixes it?

Usually the partner: an over-limit, inactive or detached credit line, or a pending on-behalf-of request, can only be cleared on its side. Send it the failed wamid, the time of the first failure and the FB trace ID from any API error response.

Does it affect every phone number on the account?

Usually yes. Billing belongs to the WhatsApp Business Account, so all of its numbers are affected until the account's payment problem is fixed.

Error 131042: Business Eligibility Payment Issue

01 · Definition

What is error 131042?

Business eligibility payment issue is the name of WhatsApp Cloud API error code 131042. Meta returns it when a message cannot be sent because of a problem with how the WhatsApp Business Account pays; its list of API error codes describes it simply as an error related to your payment method. The message is not delivered and not charged, and billable messages from the same account keep failing the same way until billing is fixed.

Meta's error reference lists the usual causes: no payment account attached to the WhatsApp Business Account; a partner credit line that is over its limit, or not set or not active; an on-behalf-of (MessagingFor) request between the business and its partner that is pending or declined; the account's time zone or billing currency not being set; and an account that has been deleted or suspended. A declined card or an expired payment method ends up in the same place.

It is a money problem, not a policy, capacity or recipient problem — an account restricted for policy violations gets integrity error 368, a throughput breach gets 130429 and an unreachable number gets 131026. It usually arrives as a failed message status whose webhook error objects carry errors[0].code 131042 and an explanation in error_data.details. And it now reaches accounts that never needed billing before: service replies have been charged in India since 1 October 2026, so an account that only ever answered customers, without a payment method, needs one too.

Key takeaways

Error 131042, business eligibility payment issue, means a send failed because the WhatsApp Business Account's billing is not in order.
Causes include no payment method, a declined card, an over-limit or inactive partner credit line and missing currency or time zone.
Messages that fail with 131042 are not delivered and not charged.
Pause the account's send queue instead of retrying: every retry fails until billing is fixed.
Service replies have been charged in India since 1 October 2026, so support-only accounts need a payment method too.

See InfiQ pricing

02 · Specifications

Error 131042: key facts and limits

Error code	131042
Meta's description	An error related to your payment method
Where it appears	failed status webhook, errors[0].code
Charged?	No — failed messages are not billed
Scope	The WhatsApp Business Account's billing
Credit-line causes	Over limit, not set or inactive, MessagingFor pending
Not to confuse with	368 policy restriction · 130429 throughput

03 · Code samples

Error 131042 in code

1{
2  "object": "whatsapp_business_account",
3  "entry": [{
4    "id": "{WABA_ID}",
5    "changes": [{
6      "field": "messages",
7      "value": {
8        "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
9        "metadata": { "display_phone_number": "914842345678", "phone_number_id": "{PHONE_NUMBER_ID}" },
10        "statuses": [{
11          "id": "wamid.HBgMOTE5ODQ3MTIzNDU2FQIAERgSMEE2QkI3OEQ1RjIzRkY4",
12          "status": "failed",
13          "timestamp": "1792386000",
14          "recipient_id": "919847123456",
15          "errors": [{
16            "code": 131042,
17            "title": "Business eligibility payment issue",
18            "message": "Business eligibility payment issue",
19            "error_data": {
20              "details": "Message failed to send because there were one or more errors related to your payment method."
21            }
22          }]
23        }]
24      }
25    }]
26  }]
27}

The failure arrives as a status update for the message, not as a separate billing event.

04Playground

A working model of Business Eligibility Payment Issue. Use its controls to replay it step by step.

Why is 131042 blocking your sends?

Question 1 · up to 3

How does this WhatsApp Business Account pay Meta?

Your answers

None yet — pick an answer to start down the tree.

Path map

Depth 0 of up to 3. Circles are questions, squares are outcomes.

All possible outcomes (5)

Attach a way to pay
Add a payment method in Meta's billing settings, or ask your partner to share and attach its credit line. Billable sends fail until one is attached.
Path: “Nothing is attached, or we are not sure”
Update the payment method
Replace the card or settle the outstanding balance, then send one test template before releasing the queue.
Path: “Our own card or payment method” → “Yes”
Ask the partner to fix the credit line
An over-limit, inactive or detached credit line, or a pending MessagingFor request, can only be cleared on the partner's side.
Path: “Our partner's credit line” → “No, or we have not asked”
Complete the account setup
Set the missing currency or time zone. A suspended or deleted account needs Meta support or your partner before it can send again.
Path: “Our own card or payment method” → “No, payments look fine” → “Something is missing or the account is suspended”
Escalate with evidence
Contact your partner or Meta support with the failed wamid, the time of the first failure and the fbtrace_id from any API error response.
Path: “Our own card or payment method” → “No, payments look fine” → “Everything is set”

Work through the checks Meta's error reference points to — a way to pay, the card, the partner's credit line, the account setup — and land on the fix for your account.

05 · Operation

How does error 131042 work?

Detect it on the first failure
Watch failed statuses for code 131042 (and API errors with the same code) and raise an alert on the first one per WhatsApp Business Account, rather than waiting for a dashboard to look odd.
Stop retrying and pause the account
Every retry fails for the same reason and burns throughput. Pause the send queue for that account and hold messages until billing is fixed.
Find out who pays
Either the business pays Meta directly with a WABA payment method set in Meta's billing settings, or a partner's credit line pays Meta while the business pays the partner, for example from a prepaid wallet. The fix depends on which.
Clear the cause
Add or replace the card and settle any outstanding balance; ask the partner to raise or re-attach its credit line or approve a pending on-behalf-of request; set a missing currency or time zone.
Resume carefully
Send one test template, then drain the queue. Drop time-sensitive messages — expired OTPs, offers that have ended — instead of delivering them hours late.

06 · Cautions

Common mistakes with error 131042

Retrying in a loop
Automatic retries treat 131042 like a transient error, fail again and flood logs and throughput. Classify it as an account-level stop and pause.
Treating it as a code bug
Nothing in the request is wrong. Route the alert to the person with admin or finance access to the account's billing, and write down who that is before you need them.
Forgetting the partner's limit
Accounts paid through a partner's credit line can hit 131042 when that line is over its limit or detached. Ask your partner how limits and low-balance warnings work.
Assuming a support-only account needs no payment method
Since 1 October 2026 service replies are charged in India, so an account that only answers customers needs a valid payment method like any other.
Replaying stale messages
Draining a held queue blindly delivers expired OTPs and ended offers. Re-check each message's relevance, or rely on time-to-live, before releasing it.

07 · Worked example: An expired card at a Kochi lab

Example: An expired card at a Kochi lab

A Kochi diagnostics lab pays Meta directly with a company card that expires at month end. The next charge is declined, and on a Saturday morning its report-ready utility templates start coming back as failed statuses with code 131042. Its webhook handler pauses the queue and alerts the finance manager, who adds a new card in Meta's billing settings within the hour. A test template is delivered, the 640 queued report notifications are released, and 90 login OTPs that had expired in the meantime are discarded rather than sent late.

08 · Questions and answers

Business Eligibility Payment Issue FAQs

Am I charged for messages that failed with 131042?: No. Meta bills delivered messages only, and a message that fails with 131042 is never delivered.
Is 131042 a sign my account has been banned?: No. It is a billing error. Policy restrictions return integrity errors such as 368. A suspended account is one of 131042's listed causes, but most cases are a payment method or credit line problem.
I pay through a partner. Who fixes it?: Usually the partner: an over-limit, inactive or detached credit line, or a pending on-behalf-of request, can only be cleared on its side. Send it the failed wamid, the time of the first failure and the FB trace ID from any API error response.
Does it affect every phone number on the account?: Usually yes. Billing belongs to the WhatsApp Business Account, so all of its numbers are affected until the account's payment problem is fixed.

09 · Rationale

Why does error 131042 matter?

131042 stops revenue-critical traffic — OTPs, order updates, support replies — for a whole account at once, and customers never see an error; the message simply does not arrive. Because the fix lives in billing settings rather than code, the developers who see the error are rarely the people who can clear it. Knowing the causes and routing the alert straight to whoever owns payments turns a day-long outage into a short fix.

10 · Recommended practice

Best practices for error 131042

Keep a second payment method on file so one declined card does not stop sends.
Alert on the first 131042 per account, and send the alert to the billing owner as well as engineering.
Ask your partner for a warning before its credit limit or your wallet runs out.
Check currency, time zone and payment method on every new account before its first production send.

Business Eligibility Payment Issue

Properties

What is error 131042?

Error 131042: key facts and limits

Error 131042 in code

04Playground

Why is 131042 blocking your sends?

How does error 131042 work?

Detect it on the first failure

Stop retrying and pause the account

Find out who pays

Clear the cause

Resume carefully

Common mistakes with error 131042

Retrying in a loop

Treating it as a code bug

Forgetting the partner's limit

Assuming a support-only account needs no payment method

Replaying stale messages

Example: An expired card at a Kochi lab

Business Eligibility Payment Issue FAQs

Why does error 131042 matter?

Best practices for error 131042

See how this works on InfiQ

Put Business Eligibility Payment Issue to work

See how this works on InfiQ