Recurring Payments Warning! discussion

SteveG2010

I have home insurance with Budget (BISL Ltd). They set up my payment as a recurring payment on my debit card, which I detest, so I rang them up to cancel the recurring feature on my account (as it says I can in the documentation) because I don't want to be caught out next year. They flatly refused to do so, saying it is now their policy not to cancel recurring payment instructions. Is that legal?

di3004

Hi there

Woke up this morning and always make a phone call to my disabled mum, we have not long lost my dearly beloved dad age just 69.

Anyway, my hubby is the account holder of AOL, so we get the broadband and calls with them, and obviously we pay for the line with BT.

When trying to ring my mum this morning, it went straight to AOL customer service, so I was baffled about this, they explained there was an owing payment on the account, so I said well I will have to talk to my hubby about this with him being the account holder.

However, the internet is still providing service.
So I checked online with my hubby, the statements etc and could see no payments have come out since December 2010, then it clicked.
My hubby mislaid (although found it later on) his debit card and cancelled it with a bank, then sent him a new one, so of course it slipped our minds about updating AOL, luckily all other direct debits are coming out ok, but AOL has details of the long number.

Anyway, checking on the billing site of AOL, it still confirmed status as active and been members with them since 2002, but it does not allow us to check any billing, or previous bills.

Unfortunately we been checking through e-mails, spam folder, old emails and there is no emails to let us know about this!
So when hubby backpaid the bill and set up his new card account on the phone to them today they said it could take up to 48 hours to have the phone put back on to ring out!!!

I am checking now and again just in case, but its so damn annoying, I have an autistic son has well, but with not being able to ring mum obviously she would be worried. Mum does not know how to use a moby, so I had to use my son's moby to pass on the message to my sister.

I think AOL should give notice, in our case there was none, and now we have to wait to have the phone switched back on again!!!

Terri31

Andy_Spoo wrote: »

Hi all.


It's ridiculous that we can't stop someone from taking money from our accounts.

Andy

Agreed 100%. It is appalling too! Please stop them now Martin! :money:

Terri31

dotlill wrote: »

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Hi Guys,
Would really appreciate your help here. Has anyone ever signed up for something that you thought you were getting a real bargain and not read the small print where actually they take money out of your account on a monthly basis and quite a substantial amount?
I can't believe I got roped into this but yes it’s happened to me, the worst thing is I can't even remember when I did it or which company it was for?
Basically every month I am getting payments coming out of my account from a company that changes their name each time they take money out.

The bank has told me there is nothing I can do apart from closing my whole account. I am also worried about declaring it as fraud because it was something I signed up to originally!
Please help
Thanks Guys xxx

Yes. I have, and in my case it was Vistaprint. I noticed - by chance - a payment going out to them which shouldn't have been there. I'd inadvertently and unknowingly signed up for a website offer while thinking I was getting free business cards!

Beware of free offers which charge just for postage and ask for your card details, check and check again the small print!

I think the best thing you can do is report your card as lost and get a new one. Notify your bank in writing that you were not made aware you were signing up for a monthly payment and therefore consider the withdrawal of your money as fraudulent. Which it is if you were not aware of it and it was only stuck in the small print. This is clearly wrong! Hopefully the payments will stop.

meer53

If you provide your card details for a "free trial" or for a subscription service, the retailer will debit your account until you cancel your agreement with them. Stopping the card used does not always stop the payments as authorisation was given before the card was stopped so these payments can still come through, even on to closed accounts. It is up to you to read the small print and the terms and conditions that you are agreeing to BEFORE you give your card details to the retailer. Banks will not treat this as fraud as you have willingly given your details for a purchase, banks cannot be held liable for their customers lack of common sense. These retailers nearly always explain, fair enough in the small print, what you're signing up to. If the payments are returned by the bank for whatever reason, there is the possibility that the retailer may then pursue you for the money, sometimes by legal means. This has probably already been discussed in this thread, hopefully if it's discussed enough, people might stop doing it !! Continuous authority payments are the bane of my life, if it sounds too good to be true, it always is !

Sula

Andy_spool asked: Does anyone know of a current petition of any kind that relates to Recurring Payments ??

Hi Andy - I know your post was made a while back, but just to say - yes!

New one just started:

Ban CPAs

Err, as a new user I'm not allowed to post the link, so it's:

|-| double-t pee + colon-slash-slash bancpas . blogspot . abbreviated community

Could someone kindly re-post that in a sensible form?

Or search for Ban CPAs as a FaceBook page (not the person!).

It's a blog and FB group trying to garner support to reform laws on Continual Payment Authorities which are increasingly being used on internet scams, plus causing all sorts of overdraft bothers even with legitimate companies.

Please spread the word - time for a collective movement

andysm

meer53 wrote: »

If you provide your card details for a "free trial" or for a subscription service, the retailer will debit your account until you cancel your agreement with them. Stopping the card used does not always stop the payments as authorisation was given before the card was stopped so these payments can still come through, even on to closed accounts. It is up to you to read the small print and the terms and conditions that you are agreeing to BEFORE you give your card details to the retailer. Banks will not treat this as fraud as you have willingly given your details for a purchase, banks cannot be held liable for their customers lack of common sense. These retailers nearly always explain, fair enough in the small print, what you're signing up to. If the payments are returned by the bank for whatever reason, there is the possibility that the retailer may then pursue you for the money, sometimes by legal means. This has probably already been discussed in this thread, hopefully if it's discussed enough, people might stop doing it !! Continuous authority payments are the bane of my life, if it sounds too good to be true, it always is !

Fair enough, but what happens when you write to the company to cancel the payments and your letter is just ignored? Perhaps at that point any further payments should be treated as fraudulent since authority has now been withdrawn.

System

Hello,

Signed up to a gym a few months ago (which shall not be named, but let's just say it's probably the one on your mind).

Just read the article about recurring payments and thought I'd check my existing paperwork for various bills (phone, etc). I thought ok, no problem, they all seem to be Direct Debit.

But when I came across the gym contract, I found that the monthly fee IS by Direct Debit but they have also taken down my full card number as an 'alternative payment method'.

Unfortunately when I signed up, I wasn't fully aware of this !!!!.

Does this mean that if I cancel my membership (after my contract expires, which I am perfectly entitled to do), the gym could just take the money by recurring payments if it wanted to?

A quick Google search shows this gym chain has had many problems with members being charged excessively and other payment related issues.

Also, the VISA Debit card in question expires before the gym contract ends so can I be safe in the knowledge that even if they try, they won't be able to successfully take money from me?

Regards

zppp

rikesh wrote: »

Does this mean that if I cancel my membership (after my contract expires, which I am perfectly entitled to do), the gym could just take the money by recurring payments if it wanted to?

No, but you need to ensure you cancel and that it doesn't automatically renew. Therefore cancel and request confirmation from them, and keep the evidence if you are concerned.

rikesh wrote: »

Also, the VISA Debit card in question expires before the gym contract ends so can I be safe in the knowledge that even if they try, they won't be able to successfully take money from me?

Continuous card payment authorities mean that they can attempt the card payment. Although a card expires, it is not necessarily invalid as such, and it is possible for refunds and payments to continue.

You have however got protection with Visa Debit, so after your contract has expired, and you have cancelled, so does the CPA, and any further payments can be charged back.

flobbalobbalob

JohalaReewi wrote: »

But how can you tell that the company won't set up a recurring payment when you are only authorising a single transaction? Am currently in the middle of such a situation. CC company not interested at present.

This is a valid question not answered by this forum. CPA detail is often hidden in the terms and conditions.

It seems to me if you buy anything using your card's 16 digit number it can be considered a Continuous Payment Authority.

When I phoned RAC to cancel, they said "no problem, no need to put anything in writing, it's all done now". Of course they still tried to renew but luckily it was a direct debit and easily sorted.