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"If the best practice for a merchant is to suspend an account when someone doesn't pay" no it's not!!! i prefer that my credit card stays active if i'm late.

"If the best practice for a merchant is to suspend an account when someone doesn't pay" no it's not!!! i prefer that my credit card stays active if i'm late. I prefer that my health care is active if my payment is late. I love that my cell phone is reachable if i miss my bill. Stop making excuses. 99.9% of the time, i don't want the merchant to cancel services if i miss a payment. Simply stopping payment is a bullshit way to indicate you want to stop paying for a service. This is hacker news. Thing about building a system where you had to account for people breaking a contract every time they wanted to cancel service. That's an edge case and shouldn't be encouraged.

furyg3 16y ago
The question isn't whether or not it's an acceptable way of terminating an agreement, the question is how does a merchant act properly in handling such a situation. Calling the creditors when a) the missed payment is for a pre-paid service; b) is a small amount; and c) the service hasn't been used by the customer... is completely inappropriate. Even more inappropriate is when a merchant builds their entire business model based on a combination of infrequent auto-renewing payments, a complicated cancelation process, and crazy cancelation terms. Canceling at some gyms, for example, is more complicated and requires more effort and notice than leaving an apartment. That's sneaky (and by design). Is it stupid to cancel your cards as a way of ending your contracts? Yes. Is it stupid to take draconian measures to get money from a customer who doesn't want and hasn't used your service? Yes.