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Comment by bink | Hacker News Reader

I've never owned a credit card that would allow me to "block" a merchant from charging me (not saying they don't exist). With a conventional card you can dispute the charge and perform a charge-back, but it's still up to you to ensure that the merchant does not keep charging you. I can see why the rep was confused.

Normally if a merchant is charging your card without your permission you contact them first. If it's a recurring fraudulent charge and they won't respond you contact the police, report it to the bank, and have the bank issue a new card.

Now if this is a subscription service offered through the News app I have no idea what the proper procedure would be beyond simply cancelling the subscription and requesting a refund. But even then you aren't "blocking" a merchant.

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I do not miss the US banking system... with my bank in the EU, I can block merchants, approve or deny direct debits (ACH equivalent), and I’ve set my debit card with two pins: one draws from my account, and the other from my joint account.

And direct debits and transfers are free ( barring potential currency exchange )

Could you share what bank this is?

https://www.bunq.com/benefits

Couldn't see anything about merchant blocking on there. This would be an excellent feature (I like control). I signed up years ago and never really used Bunq as I didn't see what it added.

How have you found support? I've found Monzo to be fairly lacklustre as they've grown, so considered making my Starling my primary. However, Starling don't really have any particularly exciting features that would motivate me to switch.

Edit: Their site no longer accepts UK numbers. Yet again, FUCK BREXIT.

Edit 2: Managed to reactivate my account, and for obvious reasons they don't seem to support FPS or have an account number either, so not really great for a primary UK account.

> How have you found support?

There was one time an ATM machine ate my money. Ten minutes later I got my money back, after sending pics of the error, receipt, etc.

The only other time was trying to set my son’s account up and I screwed it up pretty bad and accidentally created duplicate accounts.

> they don't seem to support FPS

It adheres to the Dutch and EU instant payments system, I don’t know how compatible that is with the UK’s. I can send you a £ and you can send me a £ and we can see how long it takes to get there.

> or have an account number either

As in you don’t have an IBAN?

Aye, I forgot it was EU only rather than EU+UK (ala Revolut), and as a UK resident it would be a bit silly having my primary account be an EU one (if even allowed).

I like Revolut, a bit expensive now that flying isn't a thing anymore (I loved their lounge access).

> I've never owned a credit card that would allow me to "block" a merchant from charging me

American Express will let you do it, but it can (as far as I can tell) only be done with a phone call.

Barclaycard was able to do that over the phone as well.

+1. Credit Cards are not PayPal. You can only cancel recurring transactions on PayPal because those are set up directly on PayPal.

If you find someone is charging your card, ask them to stop, and to refund you. Only if they refuse should you attempt to cancel the charge via your card. This results in a chargeback to the place that charged you, which typically comes with a hefty fee for them.

Several credit cards allow you to generate a new card number to use with a specific merchant. This allows you to shut down that number once you no longer want to be billed by them.

It's a little more work, but foolproof.

That's not limited to credit cards, Revolut( UK) and Aumax (France) fintechs offer it on regular debit cards.

I've done it with Wells Fargo and Ally Bank in the US, they just made me put an expiration on it years in the future. What banks have you been unable to do this with?

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