I had a recurring Microsoft Office subscription of $123.17 CAD per year, but forgot the account associated with it. I contacted TD to lock my TD Access Card permanently and get a replacement card. But the problem is that in the past when I had recurring subscriptions they could still charge me from the new card as it is linked. Under what circumstances can you be charged for a recurring subscription on the new card? Is this only possible if you provide Microsoft with the card number, and not possible if you pay with Paypal? I want to ensure that no further charges are made. In case I provided the card number (I do not know for sure), what can I do to ensure no further payments are made?
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1Related: my answer to How can a retailer automatically get details of my new payment cards explains that both Visa and Mastercard offer services that allow companies to receive replacement card details.– TripeHoundCommented Apr 28, 2023 at 11:14
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@user253751 What? That's an outright absurd scenario. Subscriptions are a pay-first model. You pay, then get access to the service. A missed payment just means the service shuts off. Companies can't just randomly fabricate collateral and take your stuff. They'll have to successfully sue you for it first, and then the court applies various judgments. It is extremely unlikely for someone like Microsoft to end up repossessing your stuff due to a missed subscription payment.– NelsonCommented May 2, 2023 at 2:06
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@user253751 Yeah, that's how a threat works. It's not the actual event happening (lawsuit), but a threat of it. You haven't actually been sued by anybody. The most likely scenario is that the debt is sold to a debt collector, and the collector will hound after you. They won't actually file a civil suit because it'll get thrown out, and they can't arbitrarily repossess your stuff because that's just not how these contracts work.– NelsonCommented May 3, 2023 at 1:53
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1 Answer
This "feature" is something that the bank / credit card company does automatically. They automatically associate the subscription with your new account number. The exact details are not relevant, but I worked with Point-Of-Sale systems, specifically with payment processors, so this is something that's just baked into the subscription charges and is fairly standard.
You're supposed to be able to contact the bank to block this specific payment. However, if that fails, you can turn off overdraft (get it in writing that it is disabled), open a new account, and move the money away from it. This will trigger a failed payment the next time the charges go through. You can hope they will stop attempting to charge your account, but that's on the vendor side of things and you can't control that.
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Thank you for answering. But is it correct that the automatic association with the new number is only possible if you provide the card number, and not if you use Paypal? Commented Apr 28, 2023 at 1:49
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@user402525 Depends on how PayPal are charging for this subscription, I would imagine that it isn't true. Another thing to consider - Microsoft may block or disable your account. Even if you don't use the Office subscription, you may lose access to other features if you just trigger chargebacks and failed payments. Try to call Microsoft to figure it out Commented Apr 28, 2023 at 1:56
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The technical detail involves PayPal having something like a subscription code. They do NOT (not supposed to) have any of your banking/CC details at all. When they charge that subscription code, the payment processor works out the actual charge. They have no problems linking it back to your new card at all. This is almost universally standard due to PCI compliance, so it really is the exception that the subscription breaks if you change your card, and not the norm.– NelsonCommented Apr 28, 2023 at 2:54
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2If you think about it more, outstanding credit already does this. Just because you replace your card, all your bills are still attached to you, so there's no reason for the subscription side of things to break, and they don't anymore. It is an expected behavior; don't get a new card to break subscriptions, because they don't.– NelsonCommented Apr 28, 2023 at 2:56
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If you want to stop a subscription, talk to the company first. If they don't respond reasonably quickly, you can consider contacting the bank and asking them to charge back the bills. Of course that only works if you can legitimately cancel; if these are recurring payments on a legitimate debt you can't charge them back and need to pay off yat obligation.– keshlamCommented Apr 28, 2023 at 13:34