You all know them, I'm sure a lot of you hate them, they are Recurring Payments.
Personally, I hate these little bastards, because even if you check your card statement with a freaking magnifying glass every time you get one, every so often something slips through.
I remember when my brother used some sort of text messaging service for like a day, and apparently they put him on some sort of subscription that charged us $10 a month, my Dad noticed it after about 18 months had gone by. We were able to have those charges reversed, but it's dangerous to know that you could be being constantly charged for years by something you forgot existed.
I know if you're really responsible you can usually avoid a recurring charge for something you don't use anymore, but I really think there should be some regulation and rules regarding recurring charges.
Here's what I think:
Every company that you set up a recurring charge with, has to give you the option to be reminded by email or physical letter one week before each charge, or the option to receive an email a week before reminding you of the charge, that you have to click a button that says "approve next charge" in order for the recurring subscription to continue. These options cannot be buried within sub-menus because you must be given the choice before the subscription starts with no default option, so that you have to choose either the reminder method, the approval method, or the traditional "no reminder no approval" method before the recurring subscription begins, with the ability to change it at anytime.
This way the very responsible people could choose to use the traditional recurring charge method, but normal people with a basic level of forgetfulness can have some basic protection against having their card charged for a service every month until their card expires without even knowing it.
What do you guys think? I honestly don't believe this is an unreasonable rule for companies to follow, it sounds long and complicated, but it would just add one more question to the recurring charge sign up process: "Do you want option A, B, or C?"
Personally, I hate these little bastards, because even if you check your card statement with a freaking magnifying glass every time you get one, every so often something slips through.
I remember when my brother used some sort of text messaging service for like a day, and apparently they put him on some sort of subscription that charged us $10 a month, my Dad noticed it after about 18 months had gone by. We were able to have those charges reversed, but it's dangerous to know that you could be being constantly charged for years by something you forgot existed.
I know if you're really responsible you can usually avoid a recurring charge for something you don't use anymore, but I really think there should be some regulation and rules regarding recurring charges.
Here's what I think:
Every company that you set up a recurring charge with, has to give you the option to be reminded by email or physical letter one week before each charge, or the option to receive an email a week before reminding you of the charge, that you have to click a button that says "approve next charge" in order for the recurring subscription to continue. These options cannot be buried within sub-menus because you must be given the choice before the subscription starts with no default option, so that you have to choose either the reminder method, the approval method, or the traditional "no reminder no approval" method before the recurring subscription begins, with the ability to change it at anytime.
This way the very responsible people could choose to use the traditional recurring charge method, but normal people with a basic level of forgetfulness can have some basic protection against having their card charged for a service every month until their card expires without even knowing it.
What do you guys think? I honestly don't believe this is an unreasonable rule for companies to follow, it sounds long and complicated, but it would just add one more question to the recurring charge sign up process: "Do you want option A, B, or C?"
