I just got slammed twice in less than a month. I gave a donation of $30 a year to a charity. Somewhere back in June, it changed to $30 a month. The charge posts on the first of the month, but it didn’t post on my account until the wee hours of the 8th. By the time it goes from pending to cleared it slips back to the first of the month in your account. Unless you’re going back to the first of the month, you won’t even know it was there. Only found it because I was up at 5AM and saw it in pending. I called my credit union. They won’t cancel ANY automatic charges because you obviously okayed them all. Only thing they can do is close out your account and issue new cards. Fortunately, I called the charity and I got back the $120 they had taken. My bank advises closing out your account once a year to kill automatic renewals. Real convenient!
I also just had a magazine auto renew FOUR months before the subscription ran out. Another tactic they use…multiple emails a day touting sales, etc. They swamp you with spam. I went back for 6 weeks looking for a renewal notice. Nothing. Be very careful.
Thanks for posting your experience. Yes, unscrupulous companies use a lot of really dodgy tactics around auto-renewals. Glad to hear you were able to get a refund from the charity. It can sometimes be a good idea to use a third-party payment platform, such as PayPal, for subscriptions, as it can be easier to cancel recurring payments.
I have done the turn off automatic renewal and set up a reminder and sometimes I still get burned! Great advice though!
Yes, I hear you! :) It happens.
I just got slammed twice in less than a month. I gave a donation of $30 a year to a charity. Somewhere back in June, it changed to $30 a month. The charge posts on the first of the month, but it didn’t post on my account until the wee hours of the 8th. By the time it goes from pending to cleared it slips back to the first of the month in your account. Unless you’re going back to the first of the month, you won’t even know it was there. Only found it because I was up at 5AM and saw it in pending. I called my credit union. They won’t cancel ANY automatic charges because you obviously okayed them all. Only thing they can do is close out your account and issue new cards. Fortunately, I called the charity and I got back the $120 they had taken. My bank advises closing out your account once a year to kill automatic renewals. Real convenient!
I also just had a magazine auto renew FOUR months before the subscription ran out. Another tactic they use…multiple emails a day touting sales, etc. They swamp you with spam. I went back for 6 weeks looking for a renewal notice. Nothing. Be very careful.
Thanks for posting your experience. Yes, unscrupulous companies use a lot of really dodgy tactics around auto-renewals. Glad to hear you were able to get a refund from the charity. It can sometimes be a good idea to use a third-party payment platform, such as PayPal, for subscriptions, as it can be easier to cancel recurring payments.
Been there more than once :) Thanks for sharing this, Brett. A timely reminder.