Recurring card payments taking money even after card is cancelled

VMFmuppet384

I made a purchase from a dodgy site and since then every month I have at least one if not two transactions come out of my account every month that I haven't made. I've contacted the bank and have had my card stopped and reissued 4 times now and every time they still come out under different names. The bank keep blocking the company names but as they keep using new ones transactions keep happening. Is there a way to stop this without moving bank account?? If I move banks and all transactions will they move too??

PRAISETHESUN

VMFmuppet384 said:

I made a purchase from a dodgy site and since then every month I have at least one if not two transactions come out of my account every month that I haven't made. I've contacted the bank and have had my card stopped and reissued 4 times now and every time they still come out under different names. The bank keep blocking the company names but as they keep using new ones transactions keep happening. Is there a way to stop this without moving bank account?? If I move banks and all transactions will they move too??

Is it possible to contact the company? You might have agreed to recurring payments at some point when you made your original payment. Cancelling your payment method doesn't remove any obligation to pay the contract you've entered into. You might some that some sort of notice is required to cancel future payments. At any rate it might not hurt to ask them the question of stopping requesting the payments.

As for your bank, they have an obligation to block unauthorised payments if requested so I'd be pressing them (formal complaint) to explain why they keep failing to do so, and what steps they are taking to address the issue. If it's purely a debit card payment issue then in theory changing banks will solve the issue as card transactions are not transferred when you use CASS. But that is probably the nuclear option when all other things fail.

born_again

Sadly when these companies change name bank can not do anything. So even a complaint is not going to help.

Only option would be for them to block ALL payments of this type. But that make it hard for people, as it then means that the likes of Netflix etc can not be used.

grumpy_codger

Banks do have an obligation, but there is no any real mechanism for doing this if the company keeps changing its name. And cancelling a card doesn't work because they can get the replacement card details from the payment provider (Visa/Mastercard).
MSE article: 

Continuous payment authority: manage recurring payments

However, you can change the account without changing banks and this will solve the problem if you close the old account.