privacy.com is probably what you want.
You're making it a pain in the butt to cancel? That card is no longer valid.
You're making it a pain in the butt to cancel? That card is no longer valid.
You don't get out of contracts just by ghosting on them.
Eventually services will be cut off, but contractually you're likely responsible for charges up to that point and the companies involved may end up selling that debt to collection agencies (often for pennies on the dollar).
For utilities, you always pay much later after it was consumed. At least a whole month usually. It's a fundamental constraint with distributing water and electricity. You're always in debt with the utility provider.
For a newspapers subscription, you always pay in advance. They can cut it anytime. There is no reason for them to give you access if you didn't pay.
I think they were threatened with regulation and so stopped being so blatant, but they make money off holding customer's cash.
The provider certainly allows debt when moving in, while the contracts and payments are setup. Afterwards, I am not sure if the last bill if for the next or past period, probably a bit of both.
Planet Money had a good podcast episode on it: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/08/354591198/epis...
6 months in, you cancel your credit card (or it expires or whatever).
The fact that they can't bill you doesn't change that you agreed to the plan and that you owe the second 6 months anyway. That's a debt and the gym can (and some do!) choose to go after you for it in whatever legal way they feel. That's collection agencies, and direct lawsuits.
An open ended agreement ($10/month for a newspaper) often will have this same style - you agree to pay $10/month for access, they give you access. Valid until cancelled. If you simply ghost - is that cancellation? Probably not, and it's up to the contract. Of course, most consumer things just drop it and shrug, but that is not a given.
--amend yes it's (close to) fraud so be careful. Lots of things were illegal before they weren't; union strikes come to mind.
Still, everybody should routinely use nyms when interacting with parties that needlessly ask for them - if for nothing else than to hinder the surveillance society.
Services that care about cancellation and charge backs always charge the full duration upfront at the reduced price. Not month to month.
The gym, the newspapers or tinder will charge you ahead for the next month. If they can't charge you, they terminate your access and it ends the contract. You stop paying and you stop being able to use the service.
Maybe it's different in the UK but many people have got caught out assuming this is the case for gyms.
If you sign a contract saying you will pay £X each month until you cancel then just stop paying, you still owe the money.
As in, suppose a service advertises it open endedly as you stated, but I only needed 3 months of the service, then forgot about it or was traveling, is that considered illegal?
If you do this with any sizable company, you will just end up accumulating the original charge along with late fees until it is sent to collections and hits your credit report. Even if you get lucky and they just cancel your service, your lack of payment will still be reported to payment networks and eventually you will be deemed high risk when paying for other things.
Cancel the service properly and always have proof.
I doubt any court would go against the consumer in that situation. Especially if you never login or use the service again.
It's extremely useful though, and they say all the right words when it comes to their revenue and their management of user data. The way I see it: they're basically a credit-card company that gives you much finer control of your online payments; they could probably screw me over, but so could my actual credit-card company. They at least make it harder for other companies to screw me over.
Anything primarily online? They don't. Netflix, hulu, most credit card subscriptions that are VC funded (I've done with with countless SAAS providers), etc. I've ghosted them with no repercussions on my credit score or collections calls.
Edit: I also use paypal and click the remove merchant authorization button from there; that might also trigger some kind of forced cancellation?