5 ms·

This seems like a great credit card benefit. CC's offer all sorts of "cash back", "insured against loss/damage", "miles", and other things to attract customers

This seems like a great credit card benefit. CC's offer all sorts of "cash back", "insured against loss/damage", "miles", and other things to attract customers. How about a "no hassle cancellations service". How about: "Switch your monthly Comcast bill to pay through us, and cancel any time with one quick call or do it online!" CC company gets a nice stream of monthly charges out of it.

matheusmoreira 6y ago
I completely agree. Cancelling a service should be as easy as asking the bank to block the payments. The problem will solve itself. Gotta be careful with online service accounts though. Doing charge backs actually violates their terms of service and will probably get people's accounts banned/deleted. Not a good idea to do a charge back on something like a Steam account with over $2000 spent on it. The woes of DRM...
- monksy 6y ago
  Sony does this big time.
- nindalf 6y ago
  Steam is justified in doing it. Their refund policy is generous. If you haven't played the game for less than 2 hours, you can get a refund, no questions asked. Normal customers generally don't need to apply chargebacks because of this policy. Credit card thieves however, make purchases that are charged back eventually. Steam goes thermonuclear on such accounts, reducing the incentive for credit card fraud on their store.
  - account42 6y ago
    Their refund policy is only generous in US terms - they were sued into implementing it by the Australian consumer protection agency.
  - matheusmoreira 6y ago
    > Steam is justified in doing it. Maybe in cases where the fraud is proven. After the consumer buys tons of stuff on an online store, the company shouldn't be able to just delete their accounts unilaterally just because of one chargeback. There's a huge power imbalance here and consumers need protection. > Their refund policy is generous. What they offer is the bare minimum really. And they had to be condemned by a court of law in order to implement that policy. They also suffered zero consequences for years of consumer exploitation with their sales plus lack of refunds strategy in order to trap impulsive buyers. It's not a coincidence that Steam sales became a lot less generous after the refunds policy was implemented.
mkskm 6y ago
Privacy.com offers this. You just generate an isolated card for the merchant and close it after cancelling.
- lmm 6y ago
  That's not legally sound. They can claim to have still been providing the services you contracted for (whether you used them or not) and get a court judgement against you.
  - mkskm 6y ago
    How so? The cancellation request has already been made in writing. This just adds protection against the merchant continuing to charge you.
    - lmm 6y ago
      If the merchant attempts to continue to charge you, it's because they have some argument that they're authorised to (e.g. they didn't receive your cancellation request). Getting a credit card charge you can dispute gives you more visibility and makes it easier to show good faith.
- heedlessly3 6y ago
  I could see this having problems for credit dispute. For example, your Chase card pays Piracy.com. Some vendor makes an unauthorized charge on your Privacy card. Now you have to deal with Privacy's policy instead of your bank's policies to dispute
  - mkskm 6y ago
    Yes, disputes have to be done through Privacy from what I understand. See: https://support.privacy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012288114-How-do-I-submit-a-dispute-for-a-transaction-made-using-a-Privacy-Card- https://support.privacy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012288114-H...
scarface74 6y ago
And then watch Comcast or the gym send your bill to collections.
S_A_P 6y ago
I would prefer this to any cash back scheme they can cook up. I would rather the card company didn’t take a significant share of the purchase and run as lean as possible. I’m sure that I am in the minority viewpoint here though.

matheusmoreira 6y ago

I completely agree. Cancelling a service should be as easy as asking the bank to block the payments. The problem will solve itself. Gotta be careful with online service accounts though. Doing charge backs actually violates their terms of service and will probably get people's accounts banned/deleted. Not a good idea to do a charge back on something like a Steam account with over $2000 spent on it. The woes of DRM...

monksy 6y ago
Sony does this big time.
nindalf 6y ago
Steam is justified in doing it. Their refund policy is generous. If you haven't played the game for less than 2 hours, you can get a refund, no questions asked. Normal customers generally don't need to apply chargebacks because of this policy. Credit card thieves however, make purchases that are charged back eventually. Steam goes thermonuclear on such accounts, reducing the incentive for credit card fraud on their store.
- account42 6y ago
  Their refund policy is only generous in US terms - they were sued into implementing it by the Australian consumer protection agency.
- matheusmoreira 6y ago
  > Steam is justified in doing it. Maybe in cases where the fraud is proven. After the consumer buys tons of stuff on an online store, the company shouldn't be able to just delete their accounts unilaterally just because of one chargeback. There's a huge power imbalance here and consumers need protection. > Their refund policy is generous. What they offer is the bare minimum really. And they had to be condemned by a court of law in order to implement that policy. They also suffered zero consequences for years of consumer exploitation with their sales plus lack of refunds strategy in order to trap impulsive buyers. It's not a coincidence that Steam sales became a lot less generous after the refunds policy was implemented.

mkskm 6y ago

Privacy.com offers this. You just generate an isolated card for the merchant and close it after cancelling.

lmm 6y ago
That's not legally sound. They can claim to have still been providing the services you contracted for (whether you used them or not) and get a court judgement against you.
- mkskm 6y ago
  How so? The cancellation request has already been made in writing. This just adds protection against the merchant continuing to charge you.
  - lmm 6y ago
    If the merchant attempts to continue to charge you, it's because they have some argument that they're authorised to (e.g. they didn't receive your cancellation request). Getting a credit card charge you can dispute gives you more visibility and makes it easier to show good faith.
heedlessly3 6y ago
I could see this having problems for credit dispute. For example, your Chase card pays Piracy.com. Some vendor makes an unauthorized charge on your Privacy card. Now you have to deal with Privacy's policy instead of your bank's policies to dispute
- mkskm 6y ago
  Yes, disputes have to be done through Privacy from what I understand. See: https://support.privacy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012288114-How-do-I-submit-a-dispute-for-a-transaction-made-using-a-Privacy-Card- https://support.privacy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012288114-H...

scarface74 6y ago

And then watch Comcast or the gym send your bill to collections.

S_A_P 6y ago

I would prefer this to any cash back scheme they can cook up. I would rather the card company didn’t take a significant share of the purchase and run as lean as possible. I’m sure that I am in the minority viewpoint here though.