Ordered by how often each turns out to be the cause. The first two account for most cases — and cause 3 accounts for most of the rest if your store is in the US or Canada.
1. The method name does not match exactly
The rule matches the label you typed against what checkout renders. A near-miss saves, activates, and does nothing.
Open your live checkout, copy the label exactly — punctuation, capitalisation and all — and compare it to the chip in the rule. Cash on Delivery (COD) and COD are different strings; so are Standard Shipping and Standard shipping.
Paste, don't retype
Copying from the live checkout eliminates this whole class of problem. Retyping from memory is how the mismatch gets introduced.
2. The rule is not Activated
A saved rule is not a live rule. Rule Status must read Activated.
3. Shopify is ignoring it (US / Canada, credit cards, non-Plus)
In the US and Canada, payment customizations on non-Plus plans are limited to non-credit-card methods. A rule targeting the credit card option is accepted, activated — and then discarded at checkout with no error.
Alternative methods are unaffected. See Shopify limitations.
4. The Condition Match Type is inverted
- All Conditions Pass — more conditions, fires less often.
- Any Condition Passes — more conditions, fires more often.
Not firing when you expect? “All” plus one quietly-false condition will do it.
5. A condition is narrower than you think
| You used | It actually means |
|---|---|
| Cart total | Includes what Shopify adds on top |
| Cart subtotal | The items alone |
| Customer country | From the customer’s own address |
| Shipping country | Where this order is going |
| Customer is logged in | False for guest checkout |
Customer is logged in is the frequent surprise — it silently skips every guest checkout, and guests are usually the majority. If the rule behaves for you but not for shoppers, that difference is usually why.
Also check that tag conditions match the tag as stored, including case.
6. You are testing a stale checkout
A checkout opened before the change keeps its original options. Close the tab, rebuild the cart, open checkout fresh.
7. The store has hit Shopify’s limit
Shopify allows 25 active payment customizations and 25 active delivery customizations per store, across all apps. At the ceiling, new rules may not take effect. See platform support.
Still not working?
Send support two things and it’s usually one reply: the rule name plus a screenshot of the editor with conditions visible, and the method label copied from your live checkout.