Regular Payments off a Credit Card Discussion

laminki

If you ring up and request the card be blocked as "lost or stolen", THERE IS NO WAY ANYONE CAN EVERY CHARGE ANYTHING TO IT

mmmmartin

This is the second time (at least) that you have stated this.

It is factually incorrect. It was the first time and remains so.

Reporting the card lost/stolen does not necessarily terminate all CPAs in all circumstances as other posters (including divadee) have already said.

I've had a card cancelled only for a bill for a forgotten CPA to arrive the next month (In my case it was an advantage as I'd forgotten and it was an important CPA)

Galstonian

I'm not sure how a CPA can be paid once the card has been reported as lost. I thought the number then becomes invalid and only transactions up to the date it was withdrawn will continue to be posted to the account. Perhaps Martin can use some of his industry contacts to find the truth?

metime

Woah - I used to think of myself as relatively financially savvy - until I came here. I had no idea about this CPA issue. I'll be contacting Freeserve and my gym to move those on to DD asap.

Many thanks for pointing this out.

Galstonian

The direct debit scheme has its own safeguards but a CPA with any reputable company should be almost as safe.
The important thing (as always) is to check your statements and if there is any problem use the procedures that are in place to deal with it, personally I don't think there is any need for panic.

alexj2002

Of course it's possible (depending on Credit Rating of course) to have a credit card especially for these - and to stop it don't just cancel the card - cancel the account. It's really the only way you can be sure of getting rid of it.

Galstonian

This truly is overkill, you can dispute any transaction on a credit card and in my experience the card issuers freeze the transaction, you don't pay anything until it is resolved and then, if you did not receive the goods or services, you should still not have to pay anything.

Cancelling a card should be okay if you feel there is a chance of card fraud but this is effectively saying your card has been stolen (or strictly speaking that your card details have been stolen).

Cancelling an account just seems to me to be paranoia and even then, some card issuers will not fully close an account for up to three months to allow any late transactions to show up.

JoeTeeee

I've also just found out the hard way about the perils of a Continuous Authority on a credit card.

Yesterday I received a credit card bill, with a payment taken from it, for a credit card that I had cancelled FOUR years ago!

The address the credit card company used was one that I had moved out of a similar number of years ago, and it was only by luck that there are still people at that address who knew how to contact me. By the time I got the bill, however, the minimum payment date had already passed, so I am now expected to pay interest on a payment for a credit card that I cancelled ages ago.

The reason for this payment is that I had my AA membership put into hibernation when I received 3 years free RAC cover when I bought a new car, and this month is when the hibernation, and the remaining period of cover, elapsed. So this is the first time the AA had taken out payment in over four years.

I don't have any problem with the AA over this, but I have a real problem that a credit card company (The Halifax in case you're wondering, but I'm sure they're all alike) can take payment, and sent out a bill, for someone for whom the last details they had are over four years old, on a cancelled card.

If I hadn't had the good luck to still be in contact with the people at that address I would currently have interest accruing on a credit card that I no longer have. How can that be right??!

To add insult to annoyance I phoned the AA to get them to refund the payment to the old card and take payment from my current card, and they said they can't refund onto the old card as it has been cancelled!

I can't imagine I am the only person that this sort of thing has happened to, and how many people currently have old credit cards running up interest and bad credit scores without their knowledge? Scary.

It's Direct Debit for me from now on.

Galstonian

I really don't know what can be done about this, it is perhaps the only aspect of CPA which is disturbing. It is, as far as I am aware, the only type of payment that can be processed with a card expiry date that has passed.

Maybe in future a letter to cancel your card which states that you no longer wish any CPA's to be accepted would be sufficient but having reread the T&Cs of some of my cards it basically states that CPAs remain in force until you request the retailer stops them (not the card issuer). It also states that closure of the account is subject to you paying them all outstanding amounts including any "not yet posted". Surely there has to be a limit to this?

What to do now? I would write a letter to both the AA and the Halifax explaining the situation and suggesting an outcome that would suit you. Perhaps: AA give money back to HFX and terminate CPA, HFX completely close the account without billing you, HFX ensure that any late payment records be removed from CRAs, AA charge new card.

JoeTeeee

I spoke to the AA, and they tried to refund the money back to the card but the transaction was refused as the card is cancelled. I've changed any future payment to be by DD from now on.

I've paid off the VISA bill now, and the Halifax claim they will waive the interest and penalty charges as I've only just received the bill. I'll wait and see if that happens or not.

I've written a letter to the Halifax's complaints department stating that this is a ridiculous situation, and also stating that I will be closing my current Halifax Credit Card (just as the introductory 0% interest comes to an end - conveniently) and that I'm looking out for a new bank as my current account is with the Halifax too. Might get their attention.

I also commented that it might be worth them informing customers of the companies that have CPAs on a card when a customer closes the card, in order that the customer can contact the companies directly. Again, I'll wait and see if that happens, but I won't be holding my breath.

The whole CPA idea seems to be another example of big business looking out for big business at the expense of the rest of us.

PhilWales_2

A bit off topic but I ended an AOL account.

Sometime later I opened a new one but someone had checked the email account or something of the old one and th e both accounts were running for almost a year!

Even though the account hadn't ever been logged onto!

Cost me hundreds, all they would give me is a free month of broadband if I upgrade, !!!!!!.