Automatic renewal with credit card

Whizzer

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How many have had a situation whereby you signed on with a program and voluntarily checked it was okay for that company to make automatic withdrawals against the credit card?

Several years ago I signed on with a company offering a music, talk show, news and information service and had them paid with a credit card and agreed to automatic withdrawal from that card. After a couple of years, I sold the vehicle that was assigned this service and notified the company but all attempts to stop automatic withdrawals met with various methods of avoidance.

One might be an email stating they are happy to address the issue without offering means to do so and to not reply to the email while another attempt was via telephone contact. This resulted in getting put into a loop and dragged from one person to another for an hour, or more, depending on how much punishment I wanted for the day, and never getting someone who would help. Or, if I was diligent, get into the loop and manage to get someone who said they could help but never seemed to direct my call to the right person or left me hanging, waiting for someone who was supposed, the magic word here is, supposed, to help, aid or assist.

After numerous futile attempts I contacted the credit card company and was told they could not prevent automatic withdrawals. I learned, by asking various questions of the individual I spoke with, the only way to end automatic withdrawals was to notify the credit card company the card had been lost, believed stolen, or to cancel the card.

I recently had a similar episode and this time, noted the company making the automatic withdrawal had two addresses, both electronic, one specifically declaring it was for registering and cancelling. When using it, the message came back it could not be found despite it being clicked on in their website. Next was an email address offered to contact them and after clicking on that email address contact them via email, a message came back, can not contact or some other thing. It, apparently, was a disguise to have them look as if they wanted to help but their avenues did not provide access to even ask questions.

So, beware of what you sign up for and if you do, read carefully how to stop automatic withdrawals when a company begins playing dodge ball with you. As to the service I had installed in my vehicle, in relaying this story to others found each who had tried to cancel the service had similar or worse horror stories to tell about those efforts with that company.

I put this out there as an advisory for others who might get sucked into the rabbit hole. Reliable companies do not use avoidance tactics to prevent subscribers from cancelling their automatic withdrawal service.
 
I remember when I first decided to have the Geek Squad at Best Buy install virus protection on my laptop and they required me to pay a fee of I think around $99.00 to join their program and they required me to pay by credit card. Sure enough they hit my card every year after that.
 
I have not voluntarily signed up for automatic credit card payments, but I have been tricked into it (gotten contracts that did not match what I'd originally signed). These companies figure that maybe you will not mind because you'll love their service forever, or won't notice, or won't want to spend the time and money to fight them.

I report them to the BBB, and any other local government offices that might be able to help (if any exist). I do carry a low limit credit card that I only use for online purchases or with companies that I get leery of - and I have cancelled it (and gotten a new one) to stop abusers like the one you described. One time I tricked an abuser by using his system to change my account to use a card that I knew would be expiring soon, and when his system later wanted an updated card I was the one who refused to respond.

There have been times when I've been face-to-face with a salesman, and been given a surprise ultimatum that I had to allow automatic drafts to my credit card (that was not part of the advertised deal). I've refused, and when he insisted I've walked out after pointing out that he has competition out there. I will not sign any contracts with people like that, even if they try to win me back by promising to withdraw the automatic drafts requirement - at that point they've demonstrated that I cannot trust them, so I do not want to do any business with them.

About all you can do is try to avoid these problem deals by researching the company first as best you can. Then, make sure you read ALL of the fine print in the contract. If you don't like anything, and cannot get them to write up a new corrected contract, or don't like their attitudes, walk away. Despite what they may say, you are the customer and do not owe them a sale.
 
Not me. Keurig wanted me to do it for automatic coffee delivery at a discount.
I’d rather pay a little extra for the comfort of knowing I don’t have a co-signer on my bank account.
 
This entire thing of automatic withdrawals is a ploy in one respect. It may be convenient for services such as Spotify, Pandora, or even computer gaming websites, but if they make it difficult to the point of impossible, is it really worth it. That is why, prior to signing up for this service, you should check to make sure you understand their stop automatic withdrawal policy.
 
I have automatic withdrawal on 2 separate life insurance policies and also on my medical supplemental insurance policy.
 
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