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MSE News: Beware costly subscriptions when shopping online
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I’ve just received an Email saying that my annual subscription payment to Genes Reunited has been paid (nearly £80.00). I haven’t used the site for a while & wasn’t aware that I had set up a continuous payment. The reminder Emails were in my spam folder & to be honest, I hadn’t looked as I wasn’t using GR.
They have agreed to refund my payment, but said that they would have to send a cheque as the card has expired?
This rang alarm bells, so I have checked with my bank, who confirmed that when a card expires, any continuous payments will be deducted from the new card, without having to enter the new card details.
Is anyone else aware of this? I assumed any payments would stop when the card expired.0 -
I bought a train ticket from the trainline website and i must have clicked a link because for 2 yrs shopper discount have been taking money from my account.10pnd every month without me realising which has now totalled 200 pounds.i did not know anything about this.i am absolutely gutted!it seems like u cant trust any website.i have rang them to ask for a refund which they said they will give after i fill in a claim form. We Shall Wait and See! BEWARE OF SHOPPER DISCOUNT0
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I did get a refund for my daughter, although it was only 2 months @ £10, so fingers crossed you will be successful. I didnt need to fill a form in though.I bought a train ticket from the trainline website and i must have clicked a link because for 2 yrs shopper discount have been taking money from my account.10pnd every month without me realising which has now totalled 200 pounds.i did not know anything about this.i am absolutely gutted!it seems like u cant trust any website.i have rang them to ask for a refund which they said they will give after i fill in a claim form. We Shall Wait and See! BEWARE OF SHOPPER DISCOUNT0 -
I "bought" an electric toothbrush for £1 through the paid offers site, never received the toothbrush but a company called Pointshop.co.uk have been taking £45 off my debit card for VIP membership.
No emails ever received to tell me about this membership and it seems a lot of people have been caught out by them. Their customer service is just standard replies and links that don't work and the company address is Denmark,
Asked my bank to cancel the payments and they told me it can only be done through the company so am going to go back tomorrow armed with the article mentioned above.0 -
Q: How can anyone 'accidentally' sign up for a recurring subscription with this outfit?
A: Not until after you have clicked and then provided your card/personal details.
Who in their right mind would do that, unless they knew they were doing it? You can't accidentally provide this info, after you have just bought a train ticket or paid for an ebay purchase!
I have been a 'member' of SD&R for a while. They take £10 from my bank account via debit card each month. I receive an email from them every month to remind me that I'm a member and to encourage me to keep using their site.
Once a month you forward a copy of an online purchase that you've made to them via email. They then send you a £10 cheque in the post (it would be nice if they could pay it into my bank account or credit it to my debit card, but perhaps one day...).
This means that your subscription is paid for by the £10 chq they send you - you've just got to remember to claim.
The big advantage of this site (and similar sites) is that they offer cashback that is far more generous than TopCashback or Quidco.
You receive 10% cashback on lots of online retailers who only pay a pittance through TCB or Q.
Nice!
You can also buy gift cards/vouchers for high street stores with 20% discount.
That's even better than cashback; it's instant and it's 20% off any item in Argos, B&Q, Homebase, etc.
Even if anyone managed to sign up unwittingly (and hand over card/personal details etc), I can't see why people would not notice a monthly £10 recurring payment.
Check your monthly bank statement!
And in any case, SD&R send at least one email/mth to remind you that you're a member and paying them.
Seems reasonably fair to me, or am I missing something?0 -
I_luv_cats wrote: »http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/feb/24/continuous-payments-authority-know-your-rights?newsfeed=true
you can go direct to your bank/card company and ask them to cancel the payments. The Financial Services Authority recently updated its consumer advice to make this clear (see right). It says: "Your bank or card issuer must then stop them – it has no right to insist you agree this first with the company taking the payments."
Just heard this on "BBC YOU AND YOURS" - Sandra Quinn, UK payments said Banks etc. are still getting it wrong and informing customers they can't do anything.oldforester wrote: »I’ve just received an Email saying that my annual subscription payment to Genes Reunited has been paid (nearly £80.00). I haven’t used the site for a while & wasn’t aware that I had set up a continuous payment. The reminder Emails were in my spam folder & to be honest, I hadn’t looked as I wasn’t using GR.
They have agreed to refund my payment, but said that they would have to send a cheque as the card has expired?
This rang alarm bells, so I have checked with my bank, who confirmed that when a card expires, any continuous payments will be deducted from the new card, without having to enter the new card details.
Is anyone else aware of this? I assumed any payments would stop when the card expired.
My son set up a Lovefilm subscription for his girlfriend, but being paid by continuous payment from his debit card. When they split up he requested that they cancel the account. Lovefilm refused to do this without receiving notice of cancellation from the account holder. She wasn't playing ball and they continued to take the money from my son's account.
He went to his bank (Lloyds) and requested that they stop the payments. They said they couldn't do that, so he cancelled the debit card and ordered a replacement. Lovefilm then wrote to him saying that they were unable to take the subscription, and asked for the new card details, which of course he failed to provide.
It was the only way to stop it. Lovefilm also lost him as a customer too.0 -
I am appauled that Trainline have been taking £10/month from me after I inadvertently, apparently, signed up with them. I will never use trainline again. I recommend Red Spotted Hanky for train travel. I have to say that it was very easy to cancel the subsscription.0
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oldforester wrote: »I’ve just received an Email saying that my annual subscription payment to Genes Reunited has been paid (nearly £80.00). I haven’t used the site for a while & wasn’t aware that I had set up a continuous payment. The reminder Emails were in my spam folder & to be honest, I hadn’t looked as I wasn’t using GR.
They have agreed to refund my payment, but said that they would have to send a cheque as the card has expired?
This rang alarm bells, so I have checked with my bank, who confirmed that when a card expires, any continuous payments will be deducted from the new card, without having to enter the new card details.
Is anyone else aware of this? I assumed any payments would stop when the card expired.
I had a similar difficulty when I signed up (unawares) to Shopper Discounts, after a transaction with Argos. [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM].
When I realised what had happened I called the card issuer to cancel, to be told that I had to contact SD to stop the payments being taken. As that card was about to expire, I didn't bother, assuming that once the card was no longer valid the payments would automatically cease.
It was some time later that I realised this wasn't the case, so I attempted to email them to cancel. I received no replies to my emails. It seems that you can't send emails to them from a web-based address!
I eventually managed to find a 'phone number & called them to cancel. Despite the fact that I had never used the 'service' & they had taken a substantial amount in payments which I had not authorised, they couldn't even be bothered to apologise, never mind give me a refund!
[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]. Like others on this forum, I can't understand why there is no concerted campaign to stop this kind of thing.
If you must use Argos it's better to go to a store. If you need to use them on-line, DON'T whatever you do, click on anything to do with discounts - it's a whole lot of hurt!!0 -
I tried to claim £15 cash back from Argos through shopper discount. [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]. I noticed after two payments had been taken, even though I had still not received my £15 cash back! I rang the number on the MSE website, quoting your refund claims, and shopper discounts have told me they will refund the two payments taken from my account. Thank you.0
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I've just been caught out by the redsave scam. When I googled this, I couldn't believe how many thousands of people this had happened to.
I flagged the issue with my bank as soon as I saw the continuous payment on my statement. The bank stopped any future payments after I provided the FSA's information to them "In most cases, regular payments can be cancelled by telling the company taking the payments. However, you have the right to cancel them directly with your bank or card issuer by telling it that you have stopped permission for the payments. Your bank or card issuer must then stop them – it has no right to insist that you agree this first with the company taking the payments"
Don't be fooled into believing you have to contact the company first.
I was denied a refund from my bank but I pushed it by asking for my case to be escalated on two occasions. I stated the terms and conditions had not been made clear (buried in the fine print at the end of your transaction, if you don't come into the site via their homepage) and I was not informed of the monthly fee by post or email, which is in breach of Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations. OFT “A Guide to Distance Selling” (September 2006) “If you provide pre-contractual information in a form that does not allow it to be stored or reproduced by the consumer, such as during a phone call or on a website, then you must confirm in writing, or in another durable medium (such as e-mail or fax) accessible to the consumer that can be kept for future reference and which cannot be edited. We do not consider that information on a website is durable as it can be altered after the consumer has accessed it.”
The bank refunded me in the end. I hope the above is of some use to others who are in a similar situation.0
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