Xbox subscription recurring payment

RLH33

My son has managed to set up a few accounts on his Xbox to take advantage of cheaper 30 day deals.  However he didn’t cancel them at the end of their reduced fee period and now has numerous subscriptions draining his account every month.  He only gets pocket money so it’s eating every penny every month.  In a panic he deleted all the accounts, but not the subscriptions, so now we have no account, no login details and no email address for the accounts - he can’t remember the details either.  

I’ve rung the bank to cancel but they said I need to cancel it with Xbox - but I can’t, every time it asks for the login details, which we don’t have.  I’ve gone through the website, online chat and rung them but they cut me off as soon as i said it was for Xbox saying - ‘log into your account’.
The bank has cancelled the payments but I’m really worried that he has entered into some sort of contract and that we’ll continue incurring charges in the background - any ideas or advice?
ive tried reading the Microsoft terms and conditions but they are so vague they are useless.

[Deleted User]

Presumably each account requires an email address to register? So check all his email accounts for emails about the account being setup and go from there. Presumably he does know his emails - so could get password resets emailed. If he signed up online, some browsers will also save login email addresses so that could help too.

RLH33

Apparently he ‘made up’ the email addresses and now can’t remember them or has also deleted them too!  You would have thought there was some sort of verification process but apparently not!

[Deleted User]

You can't "make up" email addresses, registration for these accounts requires you to receive a verification email at the very least so he would have had to create them. It is also unlikely he has deleted them, closing email accounts is a bit of a faff, more likely he just doesn't have the logins.

MS list a number of ways to find the email address again, have you tried these?

https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/help/account-profile/manage-account/forgot-microsoft-account-solution

RLH33

Yes but as he set up completely new Xbox accounts with new gamer tags, that he has also deleted from the Xbox, we are no further forward.

eskbanker

RLH33 said:

I’ve rung the bank to cancel but they said I need to cancel it with Xbox

[...]

The bank has cancelled the payments but I’m really worried that he has entered into some sort of contract and that we’ll continue incurring charges in the background - any ideas or advice?

It's not clear to me from this whether the bank have actually cancelled the continuous payment authorities or not, but for the avoidance of doubt they must do this if you request it:

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/continuous-payment-authorities-it-your-right-cancel

However, this doesn't cancel any contractual obligation with the merchant, so you're right to consider that angle too, as a separate issue from stopping their ability to take payments.

born_again

Could be by doing it numerous times that X-Box block the device from any more. So in effect you end up with a game machine that has no online access. 

Best option. Do not let child use your card. If they want access to purchase anything. They go to supermarket etc & by one of the cards.
No way that they can then run up big bills from your bank account.

RLH33

It was his card so the damage is limited as he can’t go overdrawn!  

All sorted now though, finally managed to talk to Xbox who had no record of the subscription from the card but confirmed that cancelling payments with the bank was the best option.
Stern talking to has been had!

pbartlett

For the avoidance of doubt, and to help anyone finding this thread in the future, @eskbanker is correct in that the bank MUST cancel any CPA facility if requested to do so by the customer.

robatwork

 Deleted_User said:

You can't "make up" email addresses, registration for these accounts requires you to receive a verification email at the very least so he would have had to create them. It is also unlikely he has deleted them, closing email accounts is a bit of a faff, more likely he just doesn't have the logins.

MS list a number of ways to find the email address again, have you tried these?

https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/help/account-profile/manage-account/forgot-microsoft-account-solution

Just a comment on email addresses. There are plenty of sites - like https://www.guerrillamail.com/ that let you setup throwaway email accounts. Decent websites won't let you use these accounts but I have no idea if the Xbox site will. But perhaps that's what the OP's son has done.