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In the UK you can simply cancel the direct debit (most regular payments in the UK happen using direct debit, not by credit card). But as far as I understand no

In the UK you can simply cancel the direct debit (most regular payments in the UK happen using direct debit, not by credit card). But as far as I understand not paying for a contract may result in damaged credit history, so the mortgage can become more expensive for example; or they may sell your "debt" to some collector company, who may start bothering you (I heard these stories from friends). So because of these reasons, I decided to try to explicitly cancel the contract instead of just stopping paying them.

artistsvoid 6y ago
Makes sense ; where I come from direct debit is also widely used for such matters. Wouldn't it be awesome if when you stop paying it would simply automatically cancel the contracts within a given time period, no questions asked, no need for any 'credit rating' et cetera ... it sounds like something akin to this would be 'doable' in law? Especially with subscriptions regarding 'digital' services that are renewed on a monthly basis.
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  > Wouldn't it be awesome if when you stop paying it would simply automatically cancel the contracts within a given time period It would be awesome, but the very business model of these companies relies on things not being awesome. I can imagine that a significant chunk of their revenue comes from disgruntled customers that have no choice but to pay even if they've been wronged because they don't want the hit on their credit report (even though it can be removed with enough effort). I actually think that overall the companies probably do lose more money (in both PR/customer goodwill as well as support & debt collection costs) due to these scummy practices but too many people within the company rely on things being the way they are to get paid, so they have no incentive by themselves to improve things. For example, allowing easy subscriptions/cancellations online would remove the need for a sales and "retentions" team as well as the multiple layers of management above them. Making contracts cancel automatically removes the need for debt collection and all the management around that and so on.
  - cortesoft 6y ago
    California actually has a law about this now... if you are able to sign up online, you have to be able to cancel online. I know some people who will set their locations to California, and the website will suddenly give them the option to cancel.
Nextgrid 6y ago
I dealt with Virgin's debt collectors twice and they were reasonable and actually offered better customer service than Virgin itself. When I explained them the situation and why I cancelled the payment they immediately dropped the case and I haven't heard of anything since (it's been 2 years since the first case). Of course, you should always aim to cancel properly, but if the company is intentionally being obtuse and you've made reasonable attempts to cancel "within the rules" then just cancelling the payment is a valid option.
- artistsvoid 6y ago
  This is absurd and really funny, well meant advice could basically be: 'if they don't make it easy to cancel the service, just stop the payment, wait for the debt collectors, reason with them instead of your provider, they treat you better' (I am not necessarily recommending that, but ... this speaks volumes)

artistsvoid 6y ago

Makes sense ; where I come from direct debit is also widely used for such matters. Wouldn't it be awesome if when you stop paying it would simply automatically cancel the contracts within a given time period, no questions asked, no need for any 'credit rating' et cetera ... it sounds like something akin to this would be 'doable' in law? Especially with subscriptions regarding 'digital' services that are renewed on a monthly basis.

Nextgrid 6y ago
> Wouldn't it be awesome if when you stop paying it would simply automatically cancel the contracts within a given time period It would be awesome, but the very business model of these companies relies on things not being awesome. I can imagine that a significant chunk of their revenue comes from disgruntled customers that have no choice but to pay even if they've been wronged because they don't want the hit on their credit report (even though it can be removed with enough effort). I actually think that overall the companies probably do lose more money (in both PR/customer goodwill as well as support & debt collection costs) due to these scummy practices but too many people within the company rely on things being the way they are to get paid, so they have no incentive by themselves to improve things. For example, allowing easy subscriptions/cancellations online would remove the need for a sales and "retentions" team as well as the multiple layers of management above them. Making contracts cancel automatically removes the need for debt collection and all the management around that and so on.
- cortesoft 6y ago
  California actually has a law about this now... if you are able to sign up online, you have to be able to cancel online. I know some people who will set their locations to California, and the website will suddenly give them the option to cancel.

Nextgrid 6y ago

I dealt with Virgin's debt collectors twice and they were reasonable and actually offered better customer service than Virgin itself. When I explained them the situation and why I cancelled the payment they immediately dropped the case and I haven't heard of anything since (it's been 2 years since the first case). Of course, you should always aim to cancel properly, but if the company is intentionally being obtuse and you've made reasonable attempts to cancel "within the rules" then just cancelling the payment is a valid option.

artistsvoid 6y ago
This is absurd and really funny, well meant advice could basically be: 'if they don't make it easy to cancel the service, just stop the payment, wait for the debt collectors, reason with them instead of your provider, they treat you better' (I am not necessarily recommending that, but ... this speaks volumes)