If you choose a subscription with a credit card, Zenimax will not actually charge you. They simply put an authorization fee on your account to confirm that your credentials are correct. Any game or subscription that draws from a credit card on a regular basis does this. Most companies will take an auth. fee of a dollar, or a few cents. For some reason, Zenimax is doing it for 15 dollars.

So, if you are able, go ahead and subscribe with a credit card. It can take 1-3 days for the auth. fee to be revoked, but I'm sure you can call your bank and ask them to remove it. You can then cancel your subscription with the credit card and continue to use your pre-paid minutes until you pay with your preferred method next month.

The issue being- it requires you to have at least the sub amount to be withdrawn and given back. I currently do not. Already withdrew everything to cash for the trip cross-country, and closed out my account.

You do not need to wait to have the funds.

Per Jessica:
"
ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »
Upon setting up your subscription plan you may see an initial transaction against your account however this transaction is only temporary. The charge represents an authorization check against the account provided and will be removed once the authorization check is complete.

Exceptions to this general rule are Webmoney, ideal, PaySafeCard, and Giropay.


[Update]
We want everyone who purchased ESO to have immediate access to the included 30 days of ESO game time. In the event that you enter your payment information for authorization and the transaction cancels due to lack of funds in your account, please contact our Support Team. We’ll work with you to ensure you have access to your included 30 days of game time.

Please ensure that you have attempted to enter payment information and had the transaction fail due to lack of funds before submitting a help request. We will get you into the game and playing as soon as possible.

We require you to choose a subscription option and enter valid payment information. For credit cards, debit cards and PayPal there is no charge made until after your included 30 days of game time has expired. For these payment methods, there is an authorization check performed to ensure the payment method is valid. You may see a temporary account authorization hold put on funds in your account while the verification completes. Usually this authorization hold lasts a short period of time before being removed. It can vary from bank to bank.

If you prefer to use one of the following payment methods, payment is processed at the time of selecting your preferred subscription plan.

Game Time Cards [via Retailer]
GiroPay
iDeal
Paysafe Card
WebMoney"

One exception to the rule does not make the rule invalid. There is nothing stopping you from contacting support and bypassing this entirely. There is no reason to get up in arms unless you are pressed against a wall -- You are not. If you do not have the funds, contact support. If that is not a valid option for you, then you will either need to procure the funds, wait for time cards, or wait until you do have the funds.