IANAL, but I have always heard that when you do this you have not broken the legal contract obligating your payment. In practice, especially for modestly priced services, the strategy will usually work. But in theory they could come after you legally for the money if you do this. It might be a real concern for very expensive services.
I would like to have this confirmed by a lawyer, though.
> Broadly speaking, merchants only resort to force posts when they are faced with the potential for serious loss as a result of fraud. For instance, if you rent a car and don't return it, having a limit on a card or closing the card does not absolve you of the responsibility to return or pay for the car, and the merchant can force post the charge.
[1] https://support.privacy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012288214-F...
They send you an email saying, "please update your payment information." Because this happens every day. Hey, sometimes the restaurant tells you your credit card was declined, when it's perfectly good.
That email is followed by another, saying your account is suspended. At that point, they might give you an option to cancel, OR they might forward you to the same impenetrable UI that led you to do this in the first place.
In any case, you'll most likely be cancelled with no further repercussions. Yes, bad things could happen, but they don't. YMMV.
You couple the card cancellation with a message to them demanding they cancel your account. Just imagine a credit card collection company agreeing to come after you, when you made a good faith attempt to close the account.
Given the practices detailed here, I could very easily imagine it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37490241