Be careful when you set up continuous payments

If you set up a regular payment on your credit card you have no automatic right to cancel, Money Box has learned.

In some cases, it can be practically impossible to end the agreement and disputes can take up to six months to resolve.

The problem is occurring because most people do not understand the difference between normal direct debit and the credit card equivalent, called "continuous payment authority".

Continuous payment authorities are becoming more common due to the internet.

By simply entering your card details, regular subscriptions to content providers can be set up immediately.

But while setting up these payments is easy, stopping them can be a nightmare.

Debts example

Moneybox listener Robert Webster signed up for a range of business services costing about £60 a month using his credit card.

Everything was fine until he tried to cancel. He called the retailer - that did not work, so he called the card company.

"They said they could not do it without the supplier instructing them that they would not be taking any more direct debits," he said.

Robert decided to cancel his card but his account with the card company carried on, so the debts kept piling up.

While direct debits are a relationship between customers and their banks, credit card regular payments are an agreement between customers and the retailer.

No warnings

To cancel a continuous payment authority, you must first contact the retailer.

If the retailer does not reply, cannot be contacted or refuses to stop collecting the payment, contact the card company,

I having the above problem wit AOL, I have not been using their service for months but their still charging me. the bank can't cancel and aol say they have no record so they can't cancel. I feel I’m in this circle and getting nowhere. I will just put a small claim, but would like to know if anyone has had problems with this type of transaction

Also when i do put a claim should i also include the bank charges, which incurred as a result of these unauthorized transactions to AOL as compensation.

The simple solution to stop them taking any more money is to report your card as stolen. This places you without a card for a few days but will stop the unauthorised transactions dead in their tracks

If taking AOL to court, do remember they are not (in the UK) owned by Carphone Warehouse, so any action would be against CW, t/a AOL.

A new thread has been started for Rob Wills.. Please click on the link below.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?461132-Re-Problems-with-Continuous-Payment-Authority