Hacker News Reader

Comment by massysett | Hacker News Reader

"They recognized that getting a new card is one of the rare times you must actively renew your automatically renewing subscriptions, since you have to update the payment information on file with those companies."

This isn't true: I've had subscriptions roll over to the new credit card number - and not just for a month or two. Apparently the bank will continue to process them (I'd rather they didn't.)

View on HN

Visa calls this "Visa Account Updater (VAU)" [1]. MC and AMEX have something similar.

[1] https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vau/overview

It's easy to decide it's malicious, but after replacing a lost card that was on file for what must have been fifty different payments, I would rather they did.

Even incurred some chargeback fees in the process because I forgot to update a few vendors.

Exactly. My cards have been getting replaced on average once a year, either due to expiry or some new security feature or whatever else. It would be a monumental pain to keep updating every online account, so I'm glad this feature exists.

There's apparently some kind of service that automatically updates payment processors when you get a new card. Seems kind of stupid since one of the main reasons to get a new card is that is compromised and you might just end up sending the new card info to the same company that lost it or is refusing to cancel your subscription.

presumably if you report a card lost/stolen, the bank will report that to these services

The bank will "helpfully" tell retail partners the new expiry date, and 3 digit code. It's to help you, supposedly.

I get the concern. At the same time, when my card was stolen last year, it was helpful to not have to update my billing info on 8,000 different vendor websites or risk having an account cancelled. I think tying a credit card to an account number versus an account as an entity is becoming somewhat antiquated.

It goes both ways, a couple years ago I had to deal with a scammer who the bank kept "helping" with each new card they issued me. It happened like 5 times before it stopped, nothing I could do.

You issue a chargeback. It's been a while since I've worked on these systems, but IIRC back in the day you would get a refund and they would be penalized an extra $25 or so on top of it. If they get too many they can loose their merchant account.

We always made cancels easy in our system, and if someone issued a chargeback we would ban their email from signing up again.

I did, the charge back process wasn't the issue. Each time I would call, they would give me a new card and number, I'd go update everywhere. Then a few days later there would be a new fraud charge on the new card.

If you use the iOS app for Bank of America, there's a "dispute this transaction" button for every charge. If you click on that, you'll be informed that your card will be cancelled immediately for your own protection, and a new one issued. When what I want is to charge back to a vendor who never shipped and won't refund when contacted. You have to get on the phone, wait for half an hour, and then be very nice about the whole thing, while trying to avoid a card replacement, which is easy and safe for them and very hard for you.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy using PayPal and Google Pay. Because my payment card details simply aren't on file with any vendors anymore. And I get a dashboard full of recurring payments where I can unilaterally cut anyone off. And I can modify which payment card they're using for each.

Missing a payment and having to pay a late fee or interruption to an important service seems bad in fairness.

Yes, miraculously my EZ-Pass bill is still being paid perfectly successfully even after two replacements for the *original* card expired since, and one was canceled due to theft. Magic!

That happens in case an existing card renews (or is replaced after getting lost etc.) If you get a net new card then retailers aren't getting that info.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com