My CC expiration changed so I tried 2x to renew my membership last week.  Everything seemed smooth but after I answered the image questions  my cc still declined.  This morning I tried again and it appears the system is down.

I've been having the same issue for the last month.  Contacted customer service and was told they were having issues with the third party billing site.  Was given a complimentary two week extension and then had the same problem.  I would suggest contacting customer service to let them know you are having this issue.  I was given the following link to renew and it worked out.
http://www.date-check.com/renewdate-check.asp
Hope this helps.

Usually it is the credit card co. when your making a purchase out of state or out of country.   Check with them.     I had to call them with Canadian purchase of P411, medicine routed from India through a second party, TER. ,  $ 7 salt block in another state,  etc.

Just get a lifetime membership so you won't have to go through this again.

agreed
It was very little more than the annual if I remember correctly.