People's Postcode Lottery and pay360 by Capita

skywatching

I joined the postcode lottery a couple of years ago. Their site said pay via direct debit or paypal. Easy. I remember filling in the online form and then I had to join pay360 in order for them to get their £10 per month fee. I remember thinking at the time, "why can't I just pay via the paypal" but filled that form in anyway as we wanted to play. Pay360 by capita have been taking a tenner a month since then and we have actually won, a tenner, twice.
I've wanted to cancel for a while but His Nibs kept saying "no, we might win" but I decided today is the day it stops, so I went to my online bank, searched the direct debits and couldn't find it. The payments show up as POSTCODE LOTTERY and it turns out they take the payment as a debit card payment, or recurring card payment and not a direct debit. I'll have to contact the bank directly and get these payments stopped. I hope it's easy enough as I found the following on SmartDebit.co.uk-

Recurring card payments

You give the organisation your card details. They will ask for the credit or debit card number, rather than the bank details.
Cancelling a recurring card payment could be difficult. When cancelling a credit card, the account stays open for a few more months to ensure there haven’t been any payments made on the card that haven’t been processed yet. If the recurring payment is still being requested by the organisation, it will count as a new incoming payment, causing the account to remain open and the organisation asking you to settle payment.
Put simply, having a recurring card payment means giving the authority to a company to collect payment whenever and whatever amount they think you owe them.-


I've googled pay360 by Capita and postcode lottery and can't find a thing connecting the two. No-one else did the same as me? Am I that daft? How the hell...?

Friday1989

Have you rung People's Postcode Lottery? They might be able to cancel it over the phone or tell you how to cancel it.

Taken from the website:
Our Customer Experience team can make any changes to your subscription for you. If you wish to reduce your number of subscriptions, change your subscriptions or cancel completely, simply call us on freephone number 0808 109 8765.

skywatching

Thanks for replying. I get an email receipt every month from pay360 saying they've taken the payment. I followed a link on the last one I got and it took me straight to postcode lottery's email address with a reference number, so I've messaged them wishing to cancel. It'll take up to 48 hours for a reply. I hope it goes smoothly.

I'm just surprised that I wasn't paying by direct debit when I thought I was this whole time. I should have double checked, but do we double check everything? Maybe we should.

I can say that I'm as confused today finding that out as I was when I first joined the postcode lottery and was forced to to join some Capita payment scheme in order to complete the sign up and payment setup when it clearly says (and it did back then too) that you pay via paypal or direct debit. And I wonder why nobody else has had the same problem/surprise. Or maybe I am that daft.