Auto renewal using debit/credit card vs DDI

AlwynP

We have a digital newspaper subscription paid annually.  We recently received a notification from the newspaper telling us that the automatic payment due next November had been cancelled.  I wondered if this was a scam so called the newspaper digital subscriptions department.  We didn't know if this was a debit card auto renewal or a DDI but realised that, because the bank had detected a fraud attempt, a new debit card had been issued.

We have now replaced the auto renewal with a DDI.  The newspaper employee told us that we should tell the bank that the debit card auto renewal should be cancelled.  I'm sure that this is unnecessary as it is the bank that cancelled the auto renewal.

However I think that using either debit or credit cards to automatically renew is a bad idea because only direct debits and standing orders show up in online bank accounts.

I would be interested to hear other forumites views on this.

DullGreyGuy

CPI, to give it is technical name, is a real pain, poorly understood and attempts to improve it towards a DD style system haven't moved the needle enough. 

Before taking a reoccurring payment under a CPI the vendor is supposed to use the Card Updater Service which gives one of three responses - carry on with the card, here's the new card number or don't process and a reason code. 

Normally cancelling a card for fraud doesn't prevent CPI from going through, though it is one of the reason codes and so its is possible for a bank to choose to. Many don't realise card updater exists and so intentionally change their card number and then get annoyed when the payment still goes through. 

Historically banks were very poor at cancelling CPIs and even when they did they have to block the whole merchant not just cancel the particular agreement. On the former there are some improvements in recent years but few, if any, have introduced self serving online etc (though there are plenty other deficiencies in online banking which are probably higher priority). 

elkiedee

It probably is a good idea to call your bank and make sure the subscription doesn't transfer to your new card. I have just paid off my credit cards but one of them has an old subscription service that must have transferred through several cards and it's very confusing trying to unravel it. When I got into a mess with debts generally, although the payments on that card always went through, recurring payments together with interest were just eating up my monthly repayments. Grrrr. 

born_again

AlwynP said:

We have a digital newspaper subscription paid annually.  We recently received a notification from the newspaper telling us that the automatic payment due next November had been cancelled.  I wondered if this was a scam so called the newspaper digital subscriptions department.  We didn't know if this was a debit card auto renewal or a DDI but realised that, because the bank had detected a fraud attempt, a new debit card had been issued.

We have now replaced the auto renewal with a DDI.  The newspaper employee told us that we should tell the bank that the debit card auto renewal should be cancelled.  I'm sure that this is unnecessary as it is the bank that cancelled the auto renewal.

However I think that using either debit or credit cards to automatically renew is a bad idea because only direct debits and standing orders show up in online bank accounts.

I would be interested to hear other forumites views on this.

You need to tell bank to make sure it is cancelled, or run the risk of newspaper requesting it via that method as well.

Cancelling a card does not stop recuring payments, retailer will request new card details via Visa/Mastercard system.

Only way bank will cancel a auto renewal is if you tell them.

AlwynP

Thanks for that.  I think that I need to confirm with the bank that we don't want to continue auto renewal via the card and explain that we have set up a DDI instead.