Payments on cancelled credit cards

Superheavy

cos wrote: »

This is a good question tbh. I have sometimes bought a subscription using a card (over the last 25 years or so) and completely forgotten about it. So far, these have shown up on my debit card so no problems. But how would I know if I had any outstanding on another account, particularly a credit card account? Please accept my faulty memory!

If I called all my CC providers and asked, " Is a there a continuous authority payment on this account?" would they know? If they did, would they be able to tell me that a payment WILL be made on such-and-such a date in the future? I think not.

I would hope that scottishblondie's response is right; that the CC company will simply send you a statement. At that point you can start to sort out cancelling and so forth with the retailer.

With credit cards they don't have lists (at least the one I work for doesn't) of transactions that have been made historically that held a recurring payment indicator. Basically the merchant takes a recurring payment authorisation, which, like a direct debit, is an agreement between that individual and the merchant.

You are right to think that the card company wouldn't be able to tell you when the next payment is, as they do not get involved in the agreement between the cardholder and the merchant.

Most credit cards will indeed send you a statement if any such transactions go through.

From my experience reading threads on this site, and from working with credit cards, problems can occur when a) The customer changes address. People don't inform the companies of closed products of address changes, naturally, so communication lines can be a problem.
b) If the customer originally had online statements. I've seen examples on the forum of transactions going through, online statements being sent to an internet account for a cc that had been closed down some time previously, and the cardholder not finding out until they get a shirty letter a few months later asking for payment.

Personally, I'd avoid recurring transactions on a card like the plague. It has all the drawbacks of a direct debit with none of the protection offered by the guarantee.

chattychappy

Superheavy wrote: »

Personally, I'd avoid recurring transactions on a card like the plague. It has all the drawbacks of a direct debit with none of the protection offered by the guarantee.

But it does have legal protection - transactions must be authorised and the onus of proof is on the CC to prove this.

Provided you remember that with a CPA you must cancel with the merchant, you should be OK. This is, of course, where people go wrong.

Superheavy

chattychappy wrote: »

But it does have legal protection - transactions must be authorised and the onus of proof is on the CC to prove this.

Provided you remember that with a CPA you must cancel with the merchant, you should be OK. This is, of course, where people go wrong.

Problems tend to arise when you have merchants which are either shady or unscrupulous, or will ask customers to jump through a number of hoops in order to cancel the transactions.

Compared to Direct Debits, where you simply tell your bank to cancel and get the money back within a specific timescale, recurring authority transactions are a lot more difficult to sort out if the merchant isn't playing ball. And let's face it, the banking requirements on those who have a DD system is larger than that on a company having card processing facilities, so the companies using recurring authority transactions are likely to be smaller and therefore more volatile.

jonesMUFCforever

chattychappy wrote: »

But it does have legal protection - transactions must be authorised and the onus of proof is on the CC to prove this.

Provided you remember that with a CPA you must cancel with the merchant, you should be OK. This is, of course, where people go wrong.

Sorry but I disagree with your first part.
On a CPA the credit card has no knowledge of the agreement between you and the retailer.
As for the second part I agree totally.