can they do this?

moneybags_3

I wanted to close my credit card account as I found the staff of the credit card company very unhelpful. My problem was that I gave my details to a service provider to pay for a 3 month period for use of their product, and no more. However, at the end of the 3 months the service provider took another payment from my account, for another 3 months period, which I had not authorised. I telephoned my credit card company, gave them all the details and asked them not to allow this service provider to take any future payments from my account as I had tried without success to cancel my account with them by email, letter etc.

My credit card company told me that even if I closed down my credit account this company could still get payments from my account. Has anyone had such an experience. It seemd to me a bit odd that even if an account is closed someone can still take payment from the account.

YorkshireBoy

You've authorised a Continuous Payment Authority (CPA). Whether the service provider has broken the T&C's of your agreement will be of no (initial) concern to your credit card supplier.

You need to approach the service provider, preferably in writing, to ask them to stop charging your card. Only after you have done this, and providing they have actually debited your card in error, will your card provider want to get involved.

There's a thread just a little higher up the board that may help...

Regular Payments off a Credit Card

Astaroth

The CPA system at the moment is very lax as unlike direct debits etc the company need only have taken a payment previously and had it authorised and then can take as many additional payments afterwards simply saying they are under a CPA.

With a CPA payment your card issuer no longer checks the expiry date or address once the original payment has been authorised - obviously in cases where you have authorised the continuous payments this saves you having to phone every company up to advise them of the new expiry date on your next card however it does also mean that effectively these payments can go on forever.

As to a bank still paying them on a cancelled card.... it depends on the bank. A few years ago they would have all continued to pay irrespective of if the card had been cancelled or not. Now there is a growing number of banks that are refusing to pay but at the same time there is also a growing number of people that have a payment bounced for a service they have (eg car insurance) and so are either having late payment fees or in some cases being prosecuted for fraud (no intent to pay).

The system for CPA on credit cards is due to be changed to one similar to the DD scheme where a formal mandate has to be established. The date that I heard for it was mid 2007 but given that the exact details havent been agreed yet and realistically you have to give companies at least a year to change their IT systems I dont think this date will be hit