MBNA allowed a transaction after I cancelled CC

RobertoMoir

dfh wrote: »

This forum seems to be riddled with lovers of Credit Card Companies and anyone who dares to challenge their practices is met with derision.

Not in the slightest. Credit Card companies deserve to be challanged very heavily in some areas of their business but "Credit card companies are teh evil!!!!111!!one!one!!" is not really an adequate response to every little thing.

Sometimes Credit Card companies are wrong.
Sometimes Credit Card companies are unhelpful.
Sometimes people need to take responsibility for their own actions.
Sometimes people have to realise that credit card companies, like all companies, exist to make a profit and therefore it is up to the customer to limit their liability to legal but "sharp" practices.

This particular subject, in my opinion, falls somewhere between those last two goalposts. Other items fall in different areas.

sman_uk

dfh wrote: »

This forum seems to be riddled with lovers of Credit Card Companies and anyone who dares to challenge their practices is met with derision.

Indeed it would appear that most of the people that replied do work for the banks or are major bank butt_kissers.

If you can do it with a direct debit then you should be able to do it with a CC. If a bank can flag a payment as fraudulent effectively stopping it until the customer can confirm it then banks should also be able to stop a CPA from going through. And it would be as simple as that. Are we the customers?

Alex_LS

sman_uk wrote: »

If you can do it with a direct debit then you should be able to do it with a CC.

That doesn't follow at all. Direct debits are intra-border and controlled by the national association. Credit cards are inter-border and controlled by international associations. The relevant systems and messaging are completely different and not connected at all.

buglawton

Never never never add subscriptions to a credit card as the recipient (as happened to me with Setanta Sports once) can and does ignore your request to cancel.

chattychappy

Alex_LS wrote: »

Credit cards are inter-border and controlled by international associations.

In the UK, they are governed by UK legislation. In other jurisdictions they are governed by other law. They are surprisingly configurable to suit local requirements. Eg in the US, the chargeback mechanism is used much more frequently than in the UK, particularly in California.

Alex_LS wrote: »

The relevant systems and messaging are completely different and not connected at all.

In the end, they are both reversible and merchants are aware that they "on risk" for cardholder not present transactions just as DD scheme members know that just because they've got the money doesn't mean it can't be reversed.

As a merchant it was made perfectly clear to me that if a customer queried a CCA, it could be charged back notwithstanding I might have evidence that a service had been provided in accordance to what has been agreed.

In the end the banks play both ends - tell consumers that CCAs cannot be stopped by the bank, whilst telling merchants that they are not guaranteed if the customer raises a query.

Incidentally, I closed an account (CapitalOne) forgetting a CCA on it (it was £15 a year). Sure enough the merchant emailed me to say the transaction had been refused. Yes, they might resurrect an old CC account, but they don't always and don't have to.

marmitedog

Why pay for "overseas internet services"? The internets are full of it for free you know!

Chrysalis

bengal-stripe wrote: »

Continuous Payment Authorities’ or ‘Recurring Payments’ cannot be cancelled by the bank,
only by the company receiving the payment.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/recurring-payments

Even if the account is closed, the bank is duty bound to re-open the account again.

Those payments have to be cancelled at the beneficiary’s end. You failed to advise them of the change,
so they collected the money in the usual way as it became due.

Don’t blame the bank!

They do have the power but by law they are not supposed to do it.

Setanta wouldnt cancel my payments on my card after I cancelled, capital one then told me tough luck nothing they can do. I wouldnt accept it so told capital one they can carry on making the payments but I will NOT be paying them back the money, suddenly they changed their tune telling me to write setanta a recorded letter and if within 2 weeks the issue was not resolved they would mark all payments as under dispute and contact setanta on my behalf. (under dispute meaning I dont have to pay them and no interest charged). Funny enough within a week I got a letter of setanta stating they had been contacted by my card provider saying the payments have been cancelled.

Also reporting a card as lost stops the payments with capital one, when I lost my card at the start of this year I had to setup a new continous payment with my broadband isp.

chattychappy

Yes... agree with this totally.

I'm curious about what they meant "by law" bit.. that sounds a bit of smoke and mirrors from the CC companies, or at most something to do with contractual obligations they are claiming have. As I mentioned, when I signed a merchant agreement it was perfectly clear to me from the T+Cs that CCA amounts were very reversible if the customer queried. Of course CC companies don't want to do this so easily because the system would break down.

Full marks for not taking no for an answer.