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I there a law preventing me from canceling recurring subscriptions on my credit card? Why does my bank want me to write them some letter and create a case whi

I there a law preventing me from canceling recurring subscriptions on my credit card? Why does my bank want me to write them some letter and create a case which they may or maynot look into. Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though.

pimterry 4y ago
> I there a law preventing me from canceling recurring subscriptions on my credit card? No, but there may be a contractual agreement between you and a provider where you have promised to pay for a service, and merely 'not paying' is not sufficient to cancel that. This makes far more sense in a non-digital world though, where you might pay for expensive services after the fact, rather than in advance. In practice, most digital services will happily cancel themselves if you do just block upfront transactions. Many modern financial services/neobanks I've used have some kind of built-in functionality for this, even paypal has a page where you can manage & cancel all current subscriptions directly, blocking all future payments: https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay/ https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay/. > Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though. I believe it's because the 'card details' part is effectively a fiction for e-commerce. When you subscribe, the payment provider uses your card details to get a persistent token, which they can use to authorize future payments, and then they throw away the card details entirely. They just use the token alone to authorize future charges. That token is somewhat independent of the specific card, by design, as unlike card details this means it can't really be stolen or leaked (it's only authorized for certain purchases from that one vendor) and it means all your normal ongoing payments don't break in the common case where you _do_ want payments to continue when your card is replaced. Bits About Money has some more background on this here: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/improving-cards-under-the-hood/ https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/improving-cards-under...
- dangwhy 4y ago
  > but there may be a contractual agreement between you and a provider Yes i understand my obligation to the vendor but why is the bank enforcing that ?
  - pimterry 4y ago
    That's your bank's (bad) choice I'm afraid - it's certainly not a requirement. Revolut for example will let you see & block all subscriptions directly from the app: https://www.revolut.com/subscriptions/ https://www.revolut.com/subscriptions/. In the UK, it's a legal requirement that all banks let customers block any recurring card payments on request (at least via phone/email/letter) with no questions asked, as long as you ask at least a day before the next payment: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/banking/stopping-a-future-payment-on-your-debit-or-credit-card/#h--strong-stopping-a-card-payment-strong- https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/banking/sto...
  - whiterace1488 4y ago
    [dead]
    - dangwhy 4y ago
      I want bank to let me control who i authorize payments to. Not sure why thats so hard to follow . Its pretty simple. > bank to cherry pick the transactions bank isn't doing the cherry picking. Customer is. How would the bank know what to cherry pick.
  - zo1 4y ago
    In some countries, it's legislated and the banks are obligated to treat these things a certain way.
    - dangwhy 4y ago
      Is it the case in US? I remember looking but couldn't find anything but i was also not sure what exactly i was searching for.
  - 4y ago
yamtaddle 4y ago
> Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though. Do they? My bank recently decided to send me a new CC for no clear reason (old one had like two years left to expiry) and without my asking for it, and it's been a huge pain in the ass because seemingly nothing updated automatically.
tzs 4y ago
> Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though. They update vendors because most people who get a replacement card with a new number have way more subscriptions that they want to keep going than they have subscriptions that they want to drop but for which the procedure for cancelling was too complicated to time consumers.
- MrStonedOne 4y ago
  [dead]
JohnFen 4y ago
> Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though. I wish my bank had to do that. It would make my life a whole lot easier sometimes.
ModernMech 4y ago
Nope. Use Discovercard, I've used them to cancel services for me. All you have to do is say you tried yourself and then they'll close your account, and open a new one. It's not enough for them to change your number, as the old number will still work. Problem is it will cancel every autopay connected to that card, so it's a nuclear option.
- drewg123 4y ago
  What does that do to your credit score? I seem to recall that closing and opening cards can both lower you score..
  - ModernMech 4y ago
    No impact. The thing that would lower your score would be if it resets the account lifetime. But every time I've done it, the account lifetime has been the same, and there are no inquiries on my account, so it seems like Discover has a way to do it where it doesn't impact your credit.

pimterry 4y ago

> I there a law preventing me from canceling recurring subscriptions on my credit card? No, but there may be a contractual agreement between you and a provider where you have promised to pay for a service, and merely 'not paying' is not sufficient to cancel that. This makes far more sense in a non-digital world though, where you might pay for expensive services after the fact, rather than in advance. In practice, most digital services will happily cancel themselves if you do just block upfront transactions. Many modern financial services/neobanks I've used have some kind of built-in functionality for this, even paypal has a page where you can manage & cancel all current subscriptions directly, blocking all future payments: https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay/ https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay/. > Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though. I believe it's because the 'card details' part is effectively a fiction for e-commerce. When you subscribe, the payment provider uses your card details to get a persistent token, which they can use to authorize future payments, and then they throw away the card details entirely. They just use the token alone to authorize future charges. That token is somewhat independent of the specific card, by design, as unlike card details this means it can't really be stolen or leaked (it's only authorized for certain purchases from that one vendor) and it means all your normal ongoing payments don't break in the common case where you _do_ want payments to continue when your card is replaced. Bits About Money has some more background on this here: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/improving-cards-under-the-hood/ https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/improving-cards-under...

dangwhy 4y ago
> but there may be a contractual agreement between you and a provider Yes i understand my obligation to the vendor but why is the bank enforcing that ?
- pimterry 4y ago
  That's your bank's (bad) choice I'm afraid - it's certainly not a requirement. Revolut for example will let you see & block all subscriptions directly from the app: https://www.revolut.com/subscriptions/ https://www.revolut.com/subscriptions/. In the UK, it's a legal requirement that all banks let customers block any recurring card payments on request (at least via phone/email/letter) with no questions asked, as long as you ask at least a day before the next payment: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/banking/stopping-a-future-payment-on-your-debit-or-credit-card/#h--strong-stopping-a-card-payment-strong- https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/banking/sto...
- whiterace1488 4y ago
  [dead]
  - dangwhy 4y ago
    I want bank to let me control who i authorize payments to. Not sure why thats so hard to follow . Its pretty simple. > bank to cherry pick the transactions bank isn't doing the cherry picking. Customer is. How would the bank know what to cherry pick.
- zo1 4y ago
  In some countries, it's legislated and the banks are obligated to treat these things a certain way.
  - dangwhy 4y ago
    Is it the case in US? I remember looking but couldn't find anything but i was also not sure what exactly i was searching for.
- 4y ago

yamtaddle 4y ago

> Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though. Do they? My bank recently decided to send me a new CC for no clear reason (old one had like two years left to expiry) and without my asking for it, and it's been a huge pain in the ass because seemingly nothing updated automatically.

tzs 4y ago

> Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though. They update vendors because most people who get a replacement card with a new number have way more subscriptions that they want to keep going than they have subscriptions that they want to drop but for which the procedure for cancelling was too complicated to time consumers.

MrStonedOne 4y ago
[dead]

JohnFen 4y ago

> Merely changing the card number wont work because bank updates vendors with the new card. I've asked but they they have to update vendors, i don't understand why though. I wish my bank had to do that. It would make my life a whole lot easier sometimes.

ModernMech 4y ago

Nope. Use Discovercard, I've used them to cancel services for me. All you have to do is say you tried yourself and then they'll close your account, and open a new one. It's not enough for them to change your number, as the old number will still work. Problem is it will cancel every autopay connected to that card, so it's a nuclear option.

drewg123 4y ago
What does that do to your credit score? I seem to recall that closing and opening cards can both lower you score..
- ModernMech 4y ago
  No impact. The thing that would lower your score would be if it resets the account lifetime. But every time I've done it, the account lifetime has been the same, and there are no inquiries on my account, so it seems like Discover has a way to do it where it doesn't impact your credit.