Cancel subscription charged to credit card

Pat38493

Hello all - is there a way to tell the credit card company to cancel regular subscription payments that are being charged to my Visa credit card?

With my current bank account, I can cancel the direct debit to that supplier in the banking app.

I have a couple of old annual subscriptions that seem to be charged to my credit card that I want to cancel, but I have lost track of the account details or even which email the account is against.  At least one of these has continued to be charged even though my credit card expiry date changed, which I thought should not be able to happen.

Can I get the CC company to block these payments on their side (other than the obvious solution of asking them to cancel the card number and issue a card with a completely new number which then creates a lot of other admin).

CliveOfIndia

You need to contact the company that's taking the payments and cancel your subscription with them.  Getting a replacement credit card won't stop them taking the CPA.

If you've lost your account details for the subscription, give the company a call, they should be able to locate your account information.

Pat38493

CliveOfIndia said:

You need to contact the company that's taking the payments and cancel your subscription with them.  Getting a replacement credit card won't stop them taking the CPA.

If you've lost your account details for the subscription, give the company a call, they should be able to locate your account information.

So they can still charge my credit card even if I was issued a new card with a different expiry date?  What is the point of asking the expiry date when making transactions then?

I assume though, that if I completely cancel the card and get a new card with a different 16 digit CC number, there is no way they can charge the card after that.

MorningcoffeeIV

Pat38493 said:

CliveOfIndia said:

You need to contact the company that's taking the payments and cancel your subscription with them.  Getting a replacement credit card won't stop them taking the CPA.

If you've lost your account details for the subscription, give the company a call, they should be able to locate your account information.

So they can still charge my credit card even if I was issued a new card with a different expiry date?  What is the point of asking the expiry date when making transactions then?

To ensure the card is valid. 

Once you've given your authorisation, they don't need to keep popping back to check you haven't been issued a new card. 

Same with getting a different digit card. It's still the same account. 

Pat38493

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Same with getting a different digit card. It's still the same account. 

Really?  So if I get a new card with a completely different 16 digit card number, there is a "secret" account number that they can still use to charge the card?

I don't really understand that because when I signed up, I only provided the 16 digit number and the dates, and the number on the back of the card.  If all those number don't exist anymore, how can they possible charge me?

What if I completely cancel all my credit cards with that bank and move to another bank?  Can they still identify me by some magic process?

What if I had died then?  How could those kind of transactions be blocked?

CliveOfIndia

Pat38493 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Same with getting a different digit card. It's still the same account. 

What if I completely cancel all my credit cards with that bank and move to another bank?  Can they still identify me by some magic process?

That would stop them taking payments.  But it would also mean you've broken your contract with them by not making the contractual payments, which has the potential to do serious hard to your credit history.

With respect, you seem to be making this more complicated than it needs to be.  Just phone them up, ask them to locate your account and tell them to cancel it.

cymruchris

You either need to contact the companies directly to stop the payments - or completely close your credit card account - the latter will stop them taking further payments, but depending on the terms and conditions you signed up to with the companies debiting the monies, you might end up being chased for monies owed. Far easier to call up the companies and say 'hey, I need to cancel my subscription, but can't remember my original sign up details' - and through a few questions and answers you'll quickly get the outcome you need.

When you sign up to subscriptions, you're giving these companies an ongoing authority to debit from your account until you tell them to stop, it's called a 'continuous payment authority'. If you report your card as stolen, and the bank give you a new card, it links virtually to the old card, so companies that previously took money with your authorisation from the old card can continue to do so.For those that have had a genuine card stolen, it saves a lot of headaches having to contact all the companies that they deal with to update credit card details.

In your case, you're the reverse, you want them to stop. So give them a call.

DullGreyGuy

Pat38493 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Same with getting a different digit card. It's still the same account. 

Really?  So if I get a new card with a completely different 16 digit card number, there is a "secret" account number that they can still use to charge the card?

I don't really understand that because when I signed up, I only provided the 16 digit number and the dates, and the number on the back of the card.  If all those number don't exist anymore, how can they possible charge me?

What if I completely cancel all my credit cards with that bank and move to another bank?  Can they still identify me by some magic process?

What if I had died then?  How could those kind of transactions be blocked?

There are two paths for card payments... one off transaction and continuous payment authority.

To set up a CPA the merchant must first do a one off transaction where they need the CCV, expiry date etc once they have done this they can, with your permission, then take the subsequent payments for a subscription via the CPA process which only requires the card number.

In the old days, even when a card number changes due to a lost card or expired card etc the old number continues to be associated with the account for a number of years before being released back into circulation for reuse. In the modern days the three card networks operate an "updater service" which the merchant can query before attempting payment and they get one of three responses 1) Number is current  2) Heres the new number or 3) Number invalid and reason code 

You can block a CPA with a merchant by contacting your bank but its a much cruder instrument than a DD as it will block all CPAs you have with that company not just one specific one so wont work if you had two subscriptions and only wanted to stop one of them.

Obviously the fundamental issue here however is all you are doing is refusing payment, that doesnt cancel your contract, just breaches it. There are plenty of people on here who have cancelled their DD or CPA and not cancelled the service with the merchant and found bailiffs/ debt collectors on their door steps and threats of CCJs for non-payment.

MorningcoffeeIV

Pat38493 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Same with getting a different digit card. It's still the same account. 

I don't really understand that because when I signed up, I only provided the 16 digit number and the dates, and the number on the back of the card.  If all those number don't exist anymore, how can they possible charge me?

What if I completely cancel all my credit cards with that bank and move to another bank?  Can they still identify me by some magic process?

What if I had died then?  How could those kind of transactions be blocked?

You bank still have a note of your old numbers so they can match it up to your account.

If you died, payment would stop once your executors told the bank of your demise and the account frozen.  If there were any outstanding charges that could not be collected, they would be paid from your estate.  Depending on the debt, some providers may write off the balance.

Pat38493

DullGreyGuy said:

Pat38493 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Same with getting a different digit card. It's still the same account. 

Really?  So if I get a new card with a completely different 16 digit card number, there is a "secret" account number that they can still use to charge the card?

I don't really understand that because when I signed up, I only provided the 16 digit number and the dates, and the number on the back of the card.  If all those number don't exist anymore, how can they possible charge me?

What if I completely cancel all my credit cards with that bank and move to another bank?  Can they still identify me by some magic process?

What if I had died then?  How could those kind of transactions be blocked?

There are two paths for card payments... one off transaction and continuous payment authority.

To set up a CPA the merchant must first do a one off transaction where they need the CCV, expiry date etc once they have done this they can, with your permission, then take the subsequent payments for a subscription via the CPA process which only requires the card number.

In the old days, even when a card number changes due to a lost card or expired card etc the old number continues to be associated with the account for a number of years before being released back into circulation for reuse. In the modern days the three card networks operate an "updater service" which the merchant can query before attempting payment and they get one of three responses 1) Number is current  2) Heres the new number or 3) Number invalid and reason code 

You can block a CPA with a merchant by contacting your bank but its a much cruder instrument than a DD as it will block all CPAs you have with that company not just one specific one so wont work if you had two subscriptions and only wanted to stop one of them.

Obviously the fundamental issue here however is all you are doing is refusing payment, that doesnt cancel your contract, just breaches it. There are plenty of people on here who have cancelled their DD or CPA and not cancelled the service with the merchant and found bailiffs/ debt collectors on their door steps and threats of CCJs for non-payment.

Thanks as I like to understand exactly how these things work.  Assuming I can find a valid phone number for a large company with just the reference info from the CC bill I can call them, but often these companies make it next to impossible for you to even find the number to call if you cannot log in to your account.

Even so, this still leaves the question of an unscrupulous supplier who continued to charge amounts after being asked to stop, so I glad to know there is a way to block all payments to that supplier from my side.

What I am talking about here is a subscription for an online service that costs about £20 per year in advance, so when it doesn't get paid I am sure they will then block my access to the service.  I highly doubt they would pay for debt recovery services for a £20 debt for a service that in any case wasn't provided as they will have blocked my account.

hildasmuriel

My husband hit this problem when his card was cloned.

The fraudsters set up a CPA with Deliveroo and it kept coming out of his Lloyds credit card account every month. 

He couldn't ring Deliveroo as he didn't have any details so they wouldn't deal with him.

So every month he had to contact Lloyds and ask them to refund the money - they always did and always said they would put a stop to it.

This went on for about 6 months until he started to quote bits from this https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints-deal/banking-and-payments/continuous-payment-authorities 

It finally stopped