A user reports being banned from Anthropic's Claude Code tool after using a VPN and later the same credit card, and seeks advice on regaining access.
After using Claude Code at work for months I wanted to use it on my own projects too. Most probably because my vpn was on I got banned after 1 hour of usage. I got my 120$ back. 1 month later I signed up with vpn off. But this time probably because I used the same credit cart (and that's the only card I can use) they banned me again.<p>Even after I contacted support I got a generic "we have determined that we cannot reinstate your account at this time due to a violation of our Usage Policy" answer.<p>I'm not using it for anything unusal. "Summarize that markdown file", "how can i refactor payment module" kind of questions mostly. I couldn't even move to real coding because 1 hour was only enough for investigation.<p>My last chance is HN to get some visibility on my case. My Boris sees it or some other Anthropic employee.<p>Do you guys have any tips on getting my account back?
# Ask HN: Anthropic banned me from using Claude Code and I don't know what to do
Source: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48641160](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48641160)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/vote?id=48641160&how=up&goto=item%3Fid%3D48641160](https://news.ycombinator.com/vote?id=48641160&how=up&goto=item%3Fid%3D48641160)[Ask HN: Anthropic banned me from using Claude Code and I don't know what to do](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48641160)33 pointsby[ayi](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ayi)[1 hour ago](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48641160)\|[hide](https://news.ycombinator.com/hide?id=48641160&goto=item%3Fid%3D48641160)\|[past](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Ask%20HN%3A%20Anthropic%20banned%20me%20from%20using%20Claude%20Code%20and%20I%20don%27t%20know%20what%20to%20do&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)\|[favorite](https://news.ycombinator.com/fave?id=48641160&auth=8a34cf0616b91b5d8efff33cc4f1b7d3593109fa)\|[17 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48641160)After using Claude Code at work for months I wanted to use it on my own projects too\. Most probably because my vpn was on I got banned after 1 hour of usage\. I got my 120$ back\. 1 month later I signed up with vpn off\. But this time probably because I used the same credit cart \(and that's the only card I can use\) they banned me again\.
Even after I contacted support I got a generic "we have determined that we cannot reinstate your account at this time due to a violation of our Usage Policy" answer\.
I'm not using it for anything unusal\. "Summarize that markdown file", "how can i refactor payment module" kind of questions mostly\. I couldn't even move to real coding because 1 hour was only enough for investigation\.
My last chance is HN to get some visibility on my case\. My Boris sees it or some other Anthropic employee\.
Do you guys have any tips on getting my account back?
[help](https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc)
User recounts having their Claude Code account banned for two weeks despite using an Australian bank card, phone number, and long-standing email, and asks for stable usage and anti-ban tips after finding OpenAI's Codex inferior. The post also quotes a Chinese thread about Anthropic's model autonomously submitting a false tip to Philadelphia police, which Anthropic attributed to reward hacking.
A user complains that Anthropic repeatedly banned their Claude accounts despite using a US-based Mac Mini with a US IP and US bank card, calling the bans unreasonable overreach.
A user banned from Claude Pro and Claude Code without explanation is seeking alternative tools that match Claude's reasoning capabilities and agentic terminal/file workflow for teaching, content creation, and personal knowledge management use cases.