So many gym membership cried out and then were silenced forever.....
Hopefully, this will put a final nail in the coffins of the companies that pull this crap...
Last year, I had to call my CC company 3 times to get a certain company banned from charging my MC for stuff I never ordered or subscribed to.
The 1st time, the bank cancelled my card & sent me a new one. 1 month went by and somehow the offending company starting charging me on the new card.
When I called the CC company & asked how they got my new CC number, they had no answer, but they again cancelled the new card and sent me another new one.
The charges stopped for 1 month, then last week, I saw them STILL attemting to charge me again, the only difference now being that MC automatically denied the charges.
So I had my attorney send a very strongly-worded hard-copy letter to MC & my bank, demanding an explanation of how the offending company continues to get hold of my new card numbers and attempt to charge me for their services....and that I will now be charging MC and my bank for not only my attorney's time but mine also until this is resolved to my satisfaction....
I had someone steal my credit card last June and then use it for a membership to LA Fitness - including paying for several back months that they owed. I called my bank, and I called LA Fitness. LA Fitness told me that they would refund my money and that they would get my card out of their system. LA Fitness also told me that the individual that had used my card had "used several different credit card numbers". Gee, I wonder where he got them from?
I also told my bank about it, and they said that they would prevent LA Fitness from using my card. The bank sent me a new card and a new number, so I thought that I was through with this. And while on the phone, my bank asked me, essentially, maybe someone used the card that you had given permission to use the card to which I said NO, and grilled me about whether I had ever had an LA Fitness membership. Like I would be calling them if I gave permission to for someone to use my card, or if I had legitimately signed up as an LA Fitness member.
Then, the next month, there is the charge again for LA Fitness, this time, it is for the charges they had refunded and for the next month, too. I called the bank yet again and this time I got someone on the phone who actually knew how to permanently deny LA Fitness any use of my card, yet they still had to send me a new card again. I called LA Fitness again, and they also refunded the charges again.
Finally, the next month comes along, and LA Fitness yet again tried to charge my card. So I called my bank again and they assured me that the charges were denied. A few days later, the pending charges dropped off my card. Now, LA Fitness could never charge this card - not that I care. I looked into them and they sound like a nightmare for members that quit.
Your bank knows exactly why this merchant was able to charge your card as they did mine - this is because merchants are allowed to tell them that your payment is a subscription - without your permission - and they automatically get your new credit card number. It is a "feature" that MasterCard and Visa both offer. F'ers. So it does not surprise me that whatever company you were dealing with for the trial flagged your account as a subscription.
IMO, it is extremely unfortunate that this does not, as the update to the article says above, apply to every and any subscription. All of this will certainly make me extremely cautious about signing up for any subscription in the future.
