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Comment by defterGoose | Hacker News Reader

Don't trust changing your card either. I had a predatory LA Fitness membership. When they made me jump through one too many hoops to cancel, I called up WF and had them issue me a new card (Visa). Well, Visa, in their infinite wisdom, gave my new credit card number to LA Fitness and they kept on charging me for almost two years before I noticed. I don't remember the name of that program at Visa, but I'm sure they and other CC companies continue to do this. Should be illegal.

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Netflix does this as well, and is how I found out about it. They claim that since you didn't cancel the service, it was clearly a lapse in your updating of the new number so they just helped you out. Of course it is in everyone's favor except yours when this happens.

It's only not in your favor if you changed your card to cancel Netflix specifically, in which case you should've just logged in and canceled.

If someone steals my card, and uses it to pay for Netflix, how will I log in and cancel?

The simplest, safe route is to not give companies the newly updated number. If my Netflix lapses because I forgot to update the number after a card change (whatever the reason), they can email me, and then I will log in to my account and update the card on file.

Do companies that do subscriptions know when multiple accounts are using the same card number? Just curious if they try to use something like that for fraud detection or anything. Then again, I don't think they'd care. Just take the monies and let the card people deal with it.

During the whole clamping down on password sharing era, I'd be very surprised if some folks haven't had to pay for multiple Netflix subscriptions (for summer houses, or their kids off at college, that sort of thing...)

> If someone steals my card, and uses it to pay for Netflix, how will I log in and cancel?

You dispute the charge, just like any other unauthorized transaction. That's quite different than changing your card number under their feet, and will be received as such by Netflix.

Don't you cancel your card when it has been stolen?

Don't trust cancelling your card either. I closed my account at Capital One, paid the final balance, and six months later I noticed a steep drop in my credit score. I had a $3 monthly charge that kept recurring even though I had closed my account.

Also, because my account was "closed," I didn't receive any statements notifying me that I was being charged. I only discovered this issue when my credit score dropped by 100 points.

The bank allowing a charge on a closed account is some bullshit.

Closing a credit line penalizes your credit score in general. It's why the standard recommendation is generally to leave the accounts open, forever.

Another thing for the FTC to investigate/stop.

Closing a personal credit card, in my experience, temporarily drops the score a few points and then it goes back to normal. It's a myth promulgated by banks to keep accounts open.

If so, that just raises the question: of what benefit is it to the banks to keep unused accounts open? The maintenance costs may be low, but they're still nonzero.

Ask Wells Fargo -> https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-bill...

And yet if you have a "dormant" checking or savings acccount, many banks will start charging you a monthly fee.

You have to report the card is lost or stolen then the new number will not propagate. You likely asked for a replacement card which will propagate the new number through the network.

Great tips thanks.

That bank-facing service from Visa is called VAU - Visa Account Updater.

https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vau

I am really amazed how people can go years with not knowing what companies are regularly charging them money.

American Express asks you (or at least used to) if you want to allow recurring billing when canceling.

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