Not sure about the rest of your troubles, but the $40 to $30 might come from the new user credit. If you filled in your friend's number as a referral, you will get a 10$ credit on your account.
I got the same error. Just try to use that sim, sometimes there's a error on the website but the card was activated. Try to that sim card, call your number and see if that go through, if the cc was charged, the card should work.
