Recurring Payments Warning! discussion

ms29zippy

In response to flob...

Unfortunately there is nothing that you can have in writing or whatever that confirms it for only one payment, you have to kind of rely on honest companies

The one thing you can do is send the company a letter asking them to stop taking the payments, confirming their not entitled to and to ask for a response, send this recorded delivery to be signed for to confirm they have it. If they dont respond within 28 days in writing then your bank should be able to place whats called a 'chargeback' (banks may use different type of word) against the company to stop them accessing your card details for payment.

The banks cant get involved generally until there is some proof tht the cardholder knows they shouldnt be taking payments and has proof that they have tried to contact the company to request the payments to be stopped.

datlex

I have just been informed by Symantec they are automatically renewing my Norton subscription despite my cancelling the automatic renewal. I have informed my bank of what has happened. I will be speaking to them Norton/Symantec later when I get home. If I have no joy I plan on reporting the matter to the police and getting a crime number. Money being taken from my account without my permission is THEFT no two ways about that!!!!!

meer53

datlex wrote: »

I have just been informed by Symantec they are automatically renewing my Norton subscription despite my cancelling the automatic renewal. I have informed my bank of what has happened. I will be speaking to them Norton/Symantec later when I get home. If I have no joy I plan on reporting the matter to the police and getting a crime number. Money being taken from my account without my permission is THEFT no two ways about that!!!!!

Don't hold your breath waiting for the Police ! They won't be interested in the slightest. If you've already cancelled the renewal you won't have any problems getting your bank to take this up for you, it's not theft, it's a card dispute, calm down dear !!:rotfl:

secretmachines

hi everyone

it seems that a lot of car insurers use the Recurring Payment method if you make a single annual payment, rather than monthly Direct Debit.

I've just renewed my car insurance and realised that this is the case on my new policy.

What can I do to make sure that my policy isn't automatically renewed? I know that I should get a reminder from them in about 11 months' time with a new renewal price... should I wait until then and call them to say that I do not want to accept their renewal (presuming I don't) ?

In general, will most reputable companies agree without a problem, if you decide not to renew your policy, having made an annual payment?

Angel_of_Tomfoolery

My only experience of recurring payments was when we upgraded our sky to HD. The account is in my partner's name but as I was the one dealing with it, I gave my debit card number over the phone to the installation guy for the £30 one off set up fee. He then must have set up an entirely new account using those payment details (and a random mismash of details including my name, which was spelt wrong and my partner's date of birth) and set up a recurring payment. I only realised this when we got charged twice. They were on different days so it confused me for a while as I tried to work out if it was something to do with an overlap of services or something. To really grind my gears they added an extra 50p charge for it being a recurring payment rather than direct debit!

It took a few months to resolve, mainly because the customer service dept wouldn't listen to the actual problem and kept offering my 50% off for 3 months as a 'goodwill gesture' (which obviously didn't cover the 2 or 3 extra payments made before the payments were stopped) and expecting me to be happy! Some of them (understandably) wouldn't discuss it with me as I wasn't the account holder, even though others would.

It did concern me that my bank said they had no power to stop the payments - again they weren't listening when I said that I'd never authorised the payments and just assumed it was another dispute about cancelling recurring payments.

I guess I was lucky that it was a company like Sky who eventually did refund me (and give me the 3 month discount lol). I took a lot of effort though! It must be awful to feel completely powerless

I will definately be avoiding this type of payment!

Hurdler

We got caught by this when my father passed away suddenly a few years ago, and even though we cancelled all his cards, he'd subscribed to the AA for membership on one of his cards!
We got a call a month later when we were ironically having a bit of a memorial with a load of good family friends, and thus ensued a telephone call where the rep insisted on talking to the card holder. Luckily, I'd answered (not my mum) and so I politely pointed out that we'd cancelled his card and that he'd passed away - whereupon the rep demanded to speak to the card holder.
Short of a seance, I told them that would not be possible, and directed them to the solicitor... but in a macabre way it was very amusing as they were threatening to remove his access to cards, and all sorts.

Rep: I have to talk to Mr xxx now.
Me: He's dead. I'm not sure he will be coming to the phone.
Rep: I'm getting my supervisor as this payment is due; if you refuse to pay, you will also lose out on your insurance. what happens if he breaks down?
Me: I guess some golden chariot with cherubs will be along to pick him up in a while??
Supervisor: This is an annual renewal and you are liable for the payment
Me: Solicitor is handling the probate - suggest you speak to her
Supervisor: We'd prefer to handle this directly without involving legal action, please can you have the card holder speak to me?
Me: uh huh - yeah... we're his family... he never calls, he never writes, so... y'know... good luck with that!

The solicitor gave the AA a real piece of her mind, and we got a letter of apology from the credit card firm because of their insensitivity.

It does worrry me that I have a couple of subs on my cards - so just checking now to see if I can switch to alternative ways of paying next time they're due.
Edit: at least one of my subs accepts PayPal so I've resurrected that - just searching the forums now to see what issues are with that!

macliam

secretmachines wrote: »

hi everyone

it seems that a lot of car insurers use the Recurring Payment method if you make a single annual payment, rather than monthly Direct Debit.

I've just renewed my car insurance and realised that this is the case on my new policy.

What can I do to make sure that my policy isn't automatically renewed? I know that I should get a reminder from them in about 11 months' time with a new renewal price... should I wait until then and call them to say that I do not want to accept their renewal (presuming I don't) ?

In general, will most reputable companies agree without a problem, if you decide not to renew your policy, having made an annual payment?

I have just received renewal for my wife's insurance saying they'll take the money blah, blah. This is depite me very pointedly telling them at the time that I was making a one-off payment.:mad:
They will cancel the renewal when I phone, but they hope you'll just let them steal your money. It is a scam, it should be stopped.

Fifinwa

Am not sure if anyone has experienced this, there's a company with the name of BLC UK North as it appears on my bank statement. Never heard of them, when i called my bank they said there's no info about them and they cant stop them. It will be through Visa.

How weird it is, anyway can anyone help me with this please

Cluker

Early today I noticed two strange CARD PAYMENT debits from my debit card on my current account.

I rang my bank and was told they were Continuous Payment Authorisations and they could not stop any future debits - I would have to contact the company directly.

My bank would only be able to look at this further after 30 days has passed and only then if I tried to cancel with the said company without success.

The debits were to a company we have had no dealings with or knowledge of.

Not only have we not authorised a CPA we have not even authorised a single payment.

The debits were on the 6th and 9th of September and for the same amount of just over £20.

On doing a Google search on the company name the only results are from company information sites and the like - there are no scam reports relating to the company in the search results.

Being that I have had no dealings with this company I have no address for them apart from what is shown in the search results and they are located about 10 miles away at an address also registered to a convenience store in an area we have not visited. If indeed that is the same company.

Now my bank tells me I have to contact the company to stop payments - they are a retailing company according to my bank statement.
The company was set up early in 2011 but they have no website that I can identify, no phone number I can identify ( despite being a ' retailing ' company ) and it appears likely that they are on the upper floor of the convenience store. I only have the street address.

Now with two payments of ~£20 being taken within 3 days, by the time the 30 days is up, I could be well over £200 pounds down on my account assuming they continue to debit at the same rate.
Being that they are not authorised payments I am not confident that the rate would not increase being that they have succeeded so far and that doesn't bear thinking about.

I have notified the bank who have cancelled my wife's debit card when she visited them today. I need to call in tomorrow to cancel my debit card ( was at work today ).

Early this morning ( about 01:00 am when I first noticed the debits ) I sent a secure message to my bank, notifying them of the unauthorised debits and requested information about the authorisation IE : when, how and to whom.

I have had a reply to that secure message and they state that they don't keep records of the details of authorisations for CARD PAYMENTS !!!!!!!

I was hoping this would reveal whether it was my wife's debit card or my debit card which appeared to give authorisation.

Whilst at work today I was explaining the situation to a work colleague as she could see I was mithered and she said she knows a police detective and would I like her to speak to him.
Coincidentally he polices the same town where the company appears to be located.

I spoke to him too and he recommended that I report it to the police as soon as possible. I wasn't able to do this today as I was working till 21:00 hrs - I will visit our local police station tomorrow after going to the bank to cancel my debit card.

The officer I spoke to emphasised that if this is a new scam company on his patch then the local police need to be aware ASAP.

The only way I can think of that this has happened is if account details of an authorised one of payment to an apparently legitimate company have been passed by them to a third party or the payment systems they have in place are insecure.

We rarely make such payments apart from to well known brands ( supermarkets, or long established and known companies etc ).

We NEVER authorise CPA's, in fact I purposefully listen for the tell tale signs and decline when paying for things like car insurance etc.

Tomorrow I will visit the bank and police station but I fear the £40+ already paid may be lost.
Turns out, as I found today, CPA's are not covered by the Financial Ombudsman Scheme as I understand it.
And they have the remainder of the deadline 30 days to take as they please.

THESE SCAM CPA'S ARE A SCANDAL.

The fact that I can not easily stop the debits from MY account is beyond reproach.

And I wonder whether these will be the next to join the likes of PPI etc for compensation from the banks.

Any suggestions welcome.

cluker

Hurdler

You don't mention the company ... I have all but removed every CPA that was on my credit card and where possible ... And like you - I now try and look out for tell tale signs.