Global Roaming/Barclays?

[solomondogs]

Good morning all, I am new to this site, and I'm hoping that someone will be able to help me out here. The problem is with a company called Global roaming Spain or formally iPassConnect. I am asking on behalf of friends who have just moved to France and, while waiting for broadband to be sorted out, joined the above company to gain access to the internet through their dial up service. The original deal was for £50 to be transferred to GRS account to cover internet charges, the company would then send a reminder when the account was getting low so a top up could be authorised. However during the last two months GRS have taken aprox £2000 from my friends account at will at the rate of about £250 per week! His internet usage has been about 4hours per week, by my reckoning that is some massive charging. These payments to GRS have been taken without authorisation from my friends and appear on the statement as 'card transaction'. Barclays bank whom the account is with have been contacted and they have said there is nothing they can do to stop them taking the money, which seems odd to me so the plundering continues. Any help would be much appreciated as my friend is now getting very worried. He is about to close the account to try and stop these unauthorised payments, but he is still £2000 out of pocket for a 4 hour per week usage. Many thanks

[buzby]

He must have agreed at some time to give a continuous mandate on his credit card. This is extremely dangerous as there is no way the consumer can ever be in control of his CC account again, and as he found out, his CC company is a useful as a chocolate teapot.

His only recourse is to find out what the charges were for, and challenge them for a refund if they are incorrect. I'd also suggest he changes his payment method quickly to stop this happening again.

[solomondogs]

Thanks Buzby, he has contacted Global Roaming Spain but they will not give him details of his tariff or their charges. at the moment I am communicating by phone as he obviously doesn't want to use the internet. The money is coming straight out of his bank account, so presumably he must have given them his bank card details as it comes up as 'card transaction'. He also says he is certain that a maximum of £50 was authorised, is there any way at all that he can try and rescue some of his money?. Even though it is coming out of his personal account the bank Barclays are either unable or unwilling to help

[buzby]

First thing is to find out how they are actually taking the money. If it shows as a 'card transaction' then he could have given his debit card - again this is the same as a CC, BUT he can ask for a replacement card with new number that will stop them billing to the old number - the same will hold true if he's got close to the expiry date. Getting refunds are still within the gift of the merchant, NOT the bank (unless there's been fraud).

[davethorp]

As Buzby says if they are taking it out of the card the simple way to stop it is to request a new card number (or if the bank is funny about that, hang up, call back and this time report it stolen- same result)

You need to find out why they have billed the card and get a complete breakdown of what has been charged to the card and why. If they have taken something they shouldn't have then the bank should be able to obtain a chargeback. Your protected slightly more on a credit card than a debit card.

My priority would be to get the card number changed (as I said cut it up and report it stolen if you must to get a new card) to stop any further withdrawl of funds and then work out what has happened and act accordingly

[solomondogs]

Thank you both for your help, I have phoned through the information this morning, and the card, which is his debit card, will be cancelled and a new number requested. I managed to find out the tariff yesterday which I believed to be $8.99 per hour for western europe. At this rate it would mean he has spent just over 440 hours on the internet in the last two months which he just hasn't. Once he has his phone records then we will be able to see exactly what has been occuring and try to get some money back, but at least we've stopped it going out!! Many thanks again, I will keep you posted.

[PKea]

Just a stupid thought but, with dial up access you have to disconnect when you have finished unlike broadband
Could they have forgotten to disconnect and this is how the charges have mounted up?

[solomondogs]

Yep we thought of that one too, phone is disconnected after use. A new card has been requested this morning so hopefully we can now start to find out where his money has gone and why its so much, will keep you posted, thanks for the help.