Cancel subscription charged to credit card

Pat38493

CliveOfIndia said:

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.

I see your point, but in my mind, when we are talking about £20 once per year for an online service, it should have been a lot quicker to block the transaction on the CC side (like with direct debits) than to spend hours on hold to a company and then argue with them about whether they can interact with me when I don't know my account details and I only have a short reference info from a payment made to a CC. 

I now understand that for a credit card the process seems to be more complicated than simply going online and cancelling a DD.  As an aside, I recently cancelled a DD for a life insurance policy that I didn't need anymore after I told them to cancel it and they didn't and still charged me the next payment.  

If it was for physical services delivered to my house or something I would be more concerned but this is for a payment in advance topic on an online service that they can simply block my account online when it isn't paid.

As said in my other reply I highly doubt they would send bailiffs round for this as it would be ridiculous, and by the time they got the money from me, I would then counter claim on them that they had not provided the service in the meantime.

CliveOfIndia

Pat38493 said:

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.

Even so, this still leaves the question of an unscrupulous supplier who continued to charge amounts after being asked to stop,

This is why you should only ever authorise a CPA with a company you trust.  And if things did go wrong and the company ignored your complaints to them, a complaint to the FOS would sort things out.

born_again

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?

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.

Yes, they can.
Check out Visa Account Updater.
This allows retailer to request new card details. 

Speak to card provider. Advise them you want to put a stop on the transactions going forward.
It will not cancel the contract, but should prompt companies to contact you.

Who are the companies?

DullGreyGuy

CliveOfIndia said:

Pat38493 said:

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.

Even so, this still leaves the question of an unscrupulous supplier who continued to charge amounts after being asked to stop,

This is why you should only ever authorise a CPA with a company you trust.  And if things did go wrong and the company ignored your complaints to them, a complaint to the FOS would sort things out.

The complaint to the FOS would be about your bank not following your instructions not about the company ignoring your complaints to them (in this example of a magazine subscription)