I believe the wording to be something like it has to be possible to cancel in a similar way you signed up.
In France, Le Monde (most famous daily newspaper) requires you to send a paper mail (and not a regular mail, but a registered mail, which costs around 5-10€) to cancel your subscription. Even if you subscribed on the website, for a 100% online subscription.
It's really shady.
I learned that you can request a replacement card with the same number, which I was initially very excited about. But when you get the new card it has a different expiration date, so it still needs to be updated most places.
On top of that it wasn't even activated because we'd stopped using Citibank to simplify our accounting and just hadn't cancelled entirely yet. Backdoors exist apparently for recurring charges that roll over onto new cards for "customer convenience" because you wouldn't want to miss your bills and lose access to Netflix.
"Hi, these are unauthorised, fraudulent transactions, please revert them and block future charges from that merchant"
That's all it takes with Amex and most others AFAICT.
Another comment actually says that he managed to create a virtual credit card, change the payment method, and delete the card. Quite clever. It's a shame that methods like this have to be used instead of just the click of a button.
Report the transactions as fraudulent, they'll soon stop.
Works every time.
And if you want to rub salt in the wound, request a detailed gdpr information about you and your account. gdpr even applies if it is not a european country based media company.
And at the end of the day, all law fits into the cross-section of jurisdiction and motivation. If you’re a Singaporean company offering global services, there’s no jurisdiction and (unless your activities are especially egregious) no prospect of motivation.
But if you do business in the EU - i.e. have advertising from EU companies inside your media website or you are already dealing with the EU AND you have readers/users in the EU that pay for your service, it makes you instantly responsible for being GDPR compliant if you like it or not.
This is why some media companies block EU ip-address ranges not to fall into that "trap".
Yes, that’s exactly what I said. I’m confused about what you’re think you’re clarifying.
The court may struggle to apply it's judgements, especially if there isn't an applicable extradition situation, but all it takes is one representitive of the company to go to Europe and they are open to things like arrest for not following the judgement of the court
They stopped last year after I wrote to them I considered I didn't own anything (a human probably read the file and dropped it).
Reaaaaaally big smile on my face
I’ve been using this not only for subscriptions, but also when I’m making an online purchase at a store that I think may not have the best security in place.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/security-center/accounts-cards...
I think I pay for everything online with my privacy cards now. It's just easier to keep track of stuff when you get alerts after a company charges a closed card, or tries to charge you more than your card limit that you set up.
In my case they froze the account preventing me from moving domains. I called support and they unfroze it. The next night the system it froze again. It became a race, manually moving 200 domains over in 12 hours. They don't allow bulk moves and you can't quickly open each domain for editing in a separate tab.
Fyi: Why move. There prices went up to some crazy amount $30 for a .org 60% more for[a .ca it ended up costing me hundreds extra one month. Glad I caught it...
What is it with French companies? BlueCity, the UK arm of the French "Autolib" car sharing service, had this same ridiculous "send us a letter in the post to cancel" policy. Since they charged to a credit card rather than use direct debit like most UK companies would, you couldn't easily cancel the payments through your bank either.
Since I'm quite lazy I never got around to sending them the letter and the £5/month continued (and I did use the service, occasionally). Finally a few months ago they went out of business and the charges stopped.
If you’re struggling to cancel a subscription, contact your bank and ask them to block the subscription.
Washington Post gives you upfront yearly billing and cancellation is a few clicks, and I am a happy paying customer for them.
The signup page mentions canceling subscriptions several times, which isn't false, but it isn't what you expect from a subscription-based page in 2020. This is in my opinion a dark pattern today. It probably would have been ok...20 years ago!
Ironically they even shed light on these things a few years back, warning about different patterns: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/technology/personaltech/w...
But never the card. Reading such user horror stories, or Terms & Conditions, makes me turn around and never come back.
Not to say that Paypal won't screw you over, just that it doesn't do so all the time.
Relatively few monthly statements on it make anything funny stand out, and it's easy to just report/cancel the card.
Some banks have web/mobile banking where you can restrict actions/limits/transactions, so it's a good option too.
Others have virtual cards for this purpose, but these are not offered in a lot of countries (revolut, privacy, yandex money, etc).
You apply for the card online and get it in the post.
I want to resubscribe eventually, as they put out a lot of good journalism. But there is no way in hell I'm doing it until it's as easy to quit as to join.
1. https://support.stripe.com/questions/2020-visa-trial-subscri...
In the end I just canceled the recurring payment contract at PayPal. A few weeks later I received a 'Sorry to see you go' email from them and that was it.
I'm not sure if credit cards also allow you to cancel recurring payment contracts, but sepa directdebit does (which is the payment method used if you used for example the Dutch iDeal payment method as initial payment.
Depending on the law if your jurisdiction, an email may be enough. Then cancel any future charges on your CC.
IANAL. IANYL.
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
I cancelled my card and somehow they managed to rescind access.
In the end I took the offer of 25 cents a week for a year, waiting to see how they'll charge my PayPal.
On the other hand I cancelled and re-enabled netflix a number of times. I’m currently subscribed and happy that I can change it anytime.
Shady, shady.
I remember it didn't exist when I signed up a few years back, and they made a big deal about announcing that I could now cancel/change my subscription online when it launched.
Also, I live in California.