Ah, the dreaded credit card that I love to hate. There is no denying that a cash-only lifestyle is the one that ultimately leads to peace of mind, but there is also no denying the convenience that credit cards offer us. When paid off every month, a standard credit card does not cost anything extra to the consumer, and some even offer rewards in the form of points or cash back that some people find rewarding. Some even offer the "Illusion" of buyer protection. However, there is a trap that is all to easy to fall into: The unwanted credit card charge.
Unwanted credit card charges are an insidious thing. One way they can work may be like this: A company offers a good or service, with the promise of no commitment and that you can back out at any time. All they need is your credit card information. This could be a gym membership, or a service that delivers skin care products. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, you turn over your information and, without knowing so or being advised of, agree to terms and conditions that allows the business to charge your credit card every month unless you go through extraordinary or even impossible measures outlined in the terms and conditions to cancel your subscription. If you try calling your credit card company, you will be advised that you need to contact the business that is charging your card to get them to stop, but when you contact the business, they give you the run-around. At this point, it seems like you're going to be on the hook for those unwanted charges every month, but there may be a quick and easy way out.
First, a disclaimer: I'm not offering legal or financial advice, I'm just saying what I would do in this scenario. If you find this doesn't work for you or causes things to end badly, then you probably shouldn't get advice from Internet web sites. That said...
If I lost my credit card, I have a responsibility to report it; the reason is simple: There is an assumption in the terms and conditions of most credit cards that I am responsible for my credit card and its information, and if I have lost my credit card, I am no longer in control of it. Notifying my credit card company of a lost credit card will cause them to stop any further charges to that card, and then they may issue me a replacement credit card with a new number and expiry date. What this means is that any future charges made to my lost credit card cannot happen. Of course, this also means that if I am using my credit card to pay off monthly bills automatically, I will need to contact those businesses to notify them of my new credit card information or arrange an alternate method of paying them.
Suppose I noticed an unwanted charge on my credit card this month, and I discovered this will be a recurring charge that is going to be impossible to get rid of. If I were to lose that credit card (preferably in a shredder), I would need to call my credit card company and tell them that I lost my card. I would be responsible for the charges made before the time and day I called them, so there may not be much I could do about the initial unwanted charge. I would pay this credit card off in full up until the date and time I reported it lost in order to protect my credit score. However, moving forward, if I did not provide a business with my updated credit card information, they cannot charge my credit card. You can be sure they would try to contact me to get this information from me, but I would be very much in control. For example, I could tell them that I no longer own any credit cards and therefore have no credit card information to provide them with.
Moving forward, there may be a threat of a penalty that must be paid for cancelling early or outside of the conditions of the terms and conditions, but without my credit card information, they would have no direct way of charging this to me. They could invoice me, or there may be threats of litigation or collection agencies, but so long as I did not explicitly consent and am no longer using their goods or services, I would think there would be little grounds for them to collect, and I most certainly would be willing to challenge them in court. At the end of the day, it's likely that if I was duped into a monthly charge that I didn't explicitly consent to, so have a good many other people, and the only way such a business can remain viable is to continually dupe people; chasing me would be a waste of their time and resources. They like credit cards because they're an easy way to get money.
As you can imagine, this is a pretty contentious issue, and possibly the most controversial topic I've ever posted on. We seem to live in a culture where consumer rights are being eroded and where businesses can create all sorts of loopholes in their terms and conditions to deny us of any consumer rights we might think we should have, so I believe in taking a stand where necessary to take back control of my finances.
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