6 ms·

I fix this by using a one-time card number for any subscription or recurring purchase. Citi and Capital One offer them for free (the latter has a much better UI

I fix this by using a one-time card number for any subscription or recurring purchase. Citi and Capital One offer them for free (the latter has a much better UI), or a lot of people use Privacy.com. Even a Visa/MC gift card works well if you happen to get one for a rebate or something. It would be great if merchants all abided by #2 and gave notice of impending charges, but ultimately I prefer to shut off the taps on my timeline rather than theirs.

kube-system 4y ago
Gyms figured this out long ago and now many require EFT.
- NullPrefix 4y ago
  EFT?
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Electronic Funds Transfer — an electronic transfer from a bank account.
  - immibis 4y ago
    Electronic Funds Transfer, also known as... credit card payment?
    - lupire 4y ago
      No, it's a debit account payment, like a check.
- __derek__ 4y ago
  Interesting. My climbing gym accepts credit cards. It also allows me to cancel or freeze my membership online, though. If I were in that situation, I suppose I would open a new account just for that purpose, turn off overdraft, and transfer money into the account as needed.
- brewdad 4y ago
  Guess I'll never be joining a gym then. No one gets to pull money from my checking account.
bluepnume 4y ago
This is great. We're actually considering building a product like this at OneText. 1. You get a virtual card number to use for subscriptions 2. We detect recurring charges 3. We send you a text 24h before any refills 4. If you reply 'skip' we block the next charge, if you reply 'cancel' we cancel the card entirely
- theturtletalks 4y ago
  I’ve heard that even if the charge doesn’t go through, some companies don’t cancel your plan. They keep the plan active with an outstanding balance that keeps growing.
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    Yup. I've heard of gyms trying to send people through hoops to cancel, so they just call their bank and tell them to block charges in the future from the gym. So the gym just lets them collect a balance and then threatens to send the bill to collections if it's unpaid.
jkqwzsoo 4y ago
I used this tactic to break up with WSJ. However, I think they technically reserve the right to try to collect fees if you don't cancel through their system. Another time, I had a service continue to try to bill me monthly for 2 years. I just let it keep saying "your order is about to ship" and "there was a problem with your card". Eventually, they found a way to charge me (I'm really not sure how) and had an order go through, after which I cancelled through an option buried in their website.

kube-system 4y ago

Gyms figured this out long ago and now many require EFT.

NullPrefix 4y ago
EFT?
- kube-system 4y ago
  Electronic Funds Transfer — an electronic transfer from a bank account.
- immibis 4y ago
  Electronic Funds Transfer, also known as... credit card payment?
  - lupire 4y ago
    No, it's a debit account payment, like a check.
__derek__ 4y ago
Interesting. My climbing gym accepts credit cards. It also allows me to cancel or freeze my membership online, though. If I were in that situation, I suppose I would open a new account just for that purpose, turn off overdraft, and transfer money into the account as needed.
brewdad 4y ago
Guess I'll never be joining a gym then. No one gets to pull money from my checking account.

bluepnume 4y ago

This is great. We're actually considering building a product like this at OneText. 1. You get a virtual card number to use for subscriptions 2. We detect recurring charges 3. We send you a text 24h before any refills 4. If you reply 'skip' we block the next charge, if you reply 'cancel' we cancel the card entirely

theturtletalks 4y ago
I’ve heard that even if the charge doesn’t go through, some companies don’t cancel your plan. They keep the plan active with an outstanding balance that keeps growing.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  Yup. I've heard of gyms trying to send people through hoops to cancel, so they just call their bank and tell them to block charges in the future from the gym. So the gym just lets them collect a balance and then threatens to send the bill to collections if it's unpaid.

jkqwzsoo 4y ago

I used this tactic to break up with WSJ. However, I think they technically reserve the right to try to collect fees if you don't cancel through their system. Another time, I had a service continue to try to bill me monthly for 2 years. I just let it keep saying "your order is about to ship" and "there was a problem with your card". Eventually, they found a way to charge me (I'm really not sure how) and had an order go through, after which I cancelled through an option buried in their website.