I have 5 recurring charges on my American Express card that are some kinds of subscriptions or something that I did not do, and I have 3 that I did but canceled.?ÿ But the ones that I canceled started up again "on their own."?ÿ So I called AMEX and told them about it, and they said, "No problem, we'll send you a new card and cancel the old one."?ÿ Two days later I got a new card and activated it.?ÿ Then on my bill I see that the recurring charges continue on the OLD CANCELED CARD!!?ÿ I call AMEX, and got yet another new card and canceled the old one.?ÿ And all 8 jumped onto the new card.?ÿ So I called AMEX the 8th time in a week, and said that I wanted to cancel my entire account.?ÿ They said OK and did it.?ÿ And the old charges still show up and keep recurring on my bill I am getting after I closed my card.?ÿ I checked with them on the phone a few minutes ago, and they said that they cannot stop recurring charges unless I report them as fraud and it takes 6 weeks.?ÿ They told me to contact all 8, but I don't even have a way to contact 4 of the 5.?ÿ This is INCREDIBLE.?ÿ I wonder how many people out there don't check their bills regularly and are getting this done to them.?ÿ Suggestions?
Well, they will get rid of the charges if you file a dispute or fraud claim.?ÿ Legally they're responsible for unauthorized charges.?ÿ As they say, it takes awhile but it does get done.?ÿ I've heard there is a $50 deductible in some cases, but there wasn't on the one occasion when I filed a dispute.?ÿ My sister had her card number stolen and the thief ran up $2000 or so, but the card company eventually covered it all.
Might be all that Wells Fargo stuff you signed up for....but didn't know it.
I stumbled across a $18 a month service charge on an account with US Bank and I wasn't sure how long it had been happening, probably at least 6 months but less than a year.?ÿ I stopped by a branch to get some info and complain.?ÿ The fee was because I was not maintaining a $25,000 balance in the account.?ÿ I knew this fee would happen if I dropped below that balance but I was assured at the time of opening the account that if I did drop below that amount my account would be automatically downgraded to something without a fee.?ÿ When I told the banker this he admitted that "Yeah, that used to be our policy but we couldn't get it to work right so we just stop trying to do it".?ÿ This is one of those moments in the movies when, after a short pause, the customer dives over the counter and starts slapping the shit out of the clown on the other side.?ÿ Anyway, they refunded a few months of the fee and claimed they couldn't refund any more because "their records don't go back that far".?ÿ A bank that has 3 months of records is all??ÿ Really??ÿ It's one thing to have someone blatantly steal from you, and it's a whole other animal to do that AND lie to your face.
Great point, BStrand.
Assume that someone that you don't know (or even one of your kids at home with your credit card) buys something at Itunes that is a monthly recurring charge like a subscription to one of the apps.?ÿ Assume you don't check your AMEX statement closely, and it goes for a few months and keeps auto renewing.?ÿ Finally you question it by calling AMEX.?ÿ You get worried that somebody has your card number, so they quickly volunteer to overnight you a new card with new number and cancel the old card.?ÿ You get your new card and cut your old one up and burn it.?ÿ A few months later you look at your bills and the Itunes thing is still being charged to the number on the old card that you burned up and which AMEX canceled.?ÿ If you call them, they will tell you that they cannot stop that charge.?ÿ If you tell them that you are going to completely close out your entire AMEX card, never to use them again, they will still keep charging you whatever Itunes sends them, and if you don't pay they will turn it over to collection, etc--even if you canceled every account you have with AMEX.?ÿ So you get on the computer and try to contact Itunes.?ÿ Try it.?ÿ I cannot find a way to even contact them.?ÿ What if you don't have Iphone or even know what Itunes is.?ÿ I am sure it can be canceled on Iphone, but man is this a mess.?ÿ Itunes is not the only one.?ÿ Almost all of them are like that, ranging from Google Drive to newspapers, and so on.?ÿ There is no telling how much money is being taking from people by this.?ÿ I imagine AMEX is ok with it because they get several percent of the charges of all of this mess.
I am currently searching for a new insurance agent.
Last week we decided to not continue our current Health Insurance and our gameplan was to not pay for the current policy and start with a new policy.
That way we would have 30 day grace period to finalize our plan.
We did not have any automatic payment plan set up and the old plan made an automatic withdrawl anyway with old information we used to start the policy year ago.
When I met with my insurance agent, he basically told me that there was nothing he could help me with.
I spent most of an afternoon talking to the Parent Company over the phone and a lot of time on hold as I requested they listen to every one of my recorded call ins.
They promised to return my money after 72hrs.
The banks are not to allow beginning an automatic payment schedule without a written agreement signed by the depositor.
They are not able to cancel a cancel on an automatic payment schedule unless the payee agrees (insurance company or whoever the payee is).
At this point there is $25 in the account and if that goes missing, we are closing the account.
Tell them you have a $400,000 claim and see what they do.?ÿ It is not fair what some companies do to people.?ÿ Even tech support of some instrument companies treat customers like dirt.?ÿ Those type seem to have a protocol.
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1.?ÿ Delay
2.?ÿ Tech support often communicates over a poor headset.?ÿ They set up the environment to be non-cozy for the customer.
3.?ÿ Incomplete responses.
4.?ÿ Chat sessions are filled with a lot of introductory text such in the greetings, and they often are very clumsy and painstakingly slow.?ÿ And when you finally get to the root of the response, they have no response.
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5.?ÿ If it costs their company money, the tech support peoples' flow charts for responses dead end at that point and require referral.
6.?ÿ next line of defense says it violates company policy, or is an old policy, or a number of similar things.
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Frank,
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File the fraud claim(s) - they should have told you this on the first call.
Interesting, Amex is one of the few companies I've never had problems with.?ÿ
I called them six months ago to stop payment on two recurring charges that I was getting the run around from the companies on (efax and sirius radio).?ÿ Within a week I was getting phone messages from both of them saying that they needed new credit card info because my card on file must have expired because the charges wouldn't go through.?ÿ
I don't dispute what you describe, but that is exactly the opposite of what is happening to me.?ÿ Did you report them as fraud??ÿ Maybe it is a policy change.
I don't dispute what you describe, but that is exactly the opposite of what is happening to me.?ÿ Did you report them as fraud??ÿ Maybe it is a policy change.
I had signed up for both services, I has just having the devil's time canceling them.?ÿ I just explained that I was having difficulty cancel the services and asked them to stop all payments to them.
I think with a lot of telephone support for big companies like Amex, it's "luck of the draw" as to whether you get someone who actually cares about their job and wants to help you, or not
In many cases, the charges may related to a contest you entered, or a promotional offer you clicked on. Recently,?ÿI found three magazine subscription charges on my credit card invoice.
The CC company says they cannot stop the payments, because they were a contract with the "subscription company", and it has to be dealt with at that end.
After a twenty minute automated phone call, I was able to locate the subscription numbers and cancel. As luck would have it, the next tri-monthly installment had just been taken out of my account.
Same thing with my vehicle lease.?ÿI thought it would be very convenient to have the monthly lease fee taken directly out of my bank account. However, when I turned the car in early and leased a newer model, (with the auto company taking over the last five payments) the charges for the old car did not stop, even though I notified the bank. Same story, they cannot stop the payment once the contract is in effect.
Luckily, the leasing company did the right thing and refunded the payment about a week later, when all the paperwork got caught up.
The solution is that most banks will arrange to send out a payment from your account, rather than allow a third party to reach into your account and withdraw the money. This way, it's just you and your bank.
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AJF
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The bank thing is no problem here in the boondocks. ?ÿAll I have to do is stroll into the bank, issue my complaint, then swap stories with the bank president while the problem is getting eliminated. ?ÿBoom,Bang.Bing
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They make so much money off of me each year they aren't about to let some little thing mess that up for them.
Not reoccurring, BUT my business debit card was hacked in November and the replacement card hacked this week, no idea how this is happening, BUT watching your accounts closely is a must these days.?ÿAnother card was also recently hacked, the credit card company was on top of it very quickly and so was my bank the 1st time, the bank card fraud this week was discovered by my bookkeeper who noticed about $3k in pending charges at a Lowes on the other side of the USA.
Unsure if I am just unlucky or what, BUT 2-3 times a year with various accounts seems normal to me, I think these crooks are getting more clever and somehow skimming account numbers from a database, my cards have never been lost or in the hands of others. This weeks bank card fraud kind of surprised me, I have only had the new card about 2-3 months, getting faster at accessing new cards somehow.
SHG
In many cases, the charges may related to a contest you entered, or a promotional offer you clicked on. Recently,?ÿI found three magazine subscription charges on my credit card invoice.
The CC company says they cannot stop the payments, because they were a contract with the "subscription company", and it has to be dealt with at that end.
After a twenty minute automated phone call, I was able to locate the subscription numbers and cancel. As luck would have it, the next tri-monthly installment had just been taken out of my account.
Same thing with my vehicle lease.?ÿI thought it would be very convenient to have the monthly lease fee taken directly out of my bank account. However, when I turned the car in early and leased a newer model, (with the auto company taking over the last five payments) the charges for the old car did not stop, even though I notified the bank. Same story, they cannot stop the payment once the contract is in effect.
Luckily, the leasing company did the right thing and refunded the payment about a week later, when all the paperwork got caught up.
The solution is that most banks will arrange to send out a payment from your account, rather than allow a third party to reach into your account and withdraw the money. This way, it's just you and your bank.
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AJF
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Shelby, that is exactly what happened to me.?ÿ I found out that the fine print agreement stuff in the multiple pages of conditions has something like that hidden in it.?ÿ It seems to me that if they had something like that they should be required to put their contact number on the AMEX charge so we can stop it.
I should also do a better job combing through my credit card statement each month.
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Setup the email / text message notifications for every single card that you have.
All of my cards immediately send me a text message when I use them (except at gas pumps which I don't understand). It really works well. When I got off the plane in Amsterdam for layover to InterGEO this year, I stopped at a cash machine to get 300 euros. When the cash door opened, as the money came out, my phone got a text message showing the transaction.?ÿ
I had some cards that did not have this option, I canceled them in favor of cards that fully support it. I still am shocked every time I look at a text message and find that I just bought $400 worth of cosmetics in Belgium, but it only take 10 seconds to shut the card down with the app; and then a couple minutes to cancel the charge and arrange to get a new card sent. The thing I am noticing now is the CC card company claims that "a physical card was used Belgium, am I sure I am not there with my card?" Yup, pretty sure.
The best CC that I have is 'Discover', many of the customer support folks are here in SLC and they really are just nice folks. Their app works perfectly. The notifications are perfect too. And you can report the fraud from the app without talking to anyone.
This is good.
Sorta kinda along the same lines: a few years ago, my father was at home, on his computer reconciling his bank account. He noticed that some money went missing ($500 I think), then a few minutes later, noticed more money gone.
He promptly called the bank number and explained the situation. Apparently, his account had been hacked somehow (my guess would be a card reader placed over the regular one). All money was replaced, thief never caught that I heard of.
This is how modern crooks are stealing your credit card info. Unfortunately similar technology can also be used to 'clone' electronic ignition keys on a lot of newer vehicles. They don't have to physically access your wallet or keys. They scan it when they pass by in close proximity.
I've never set up an automatic payment or recurring thing at any bank or credit union I've dealt with.?ÿ It just smelled like a recipe to get ripped off.?ÿ The interesting thing about this thread is I expected the problem to be having a payment sent out for $1000 instead of $100 when it looks like stopping the payments is the actual scam.
As Mark said above, Discover card has been excellent to work with, real people on the phone who speak English.
