VCP Charging CCs Today
 

Anyone who signed up for a 1 year membership last year in the few days right before VCP upped their prices might be interested to know their CC was automatically charged today or will be charged shortly for another year.

I thought perhaps an email asking if I wanted to re-up would be in order instead of just automatically running my card.

I agree Matt. Everybody should be given the option to renew or cancel. Nobody can remember when their one year membership is about to expire. I sure don't.

Pretty sure anyone wanting to cancel could drop Bobby an email and they would be refunded immediately.

I tried to do a quick mental tally of those items in my world that hit cc's automatically without notice or asking if I want to renew. It took me about two seconds to come up with:

Sirius satellite radio
AAA Auto Club (annual)
Web hosting
Cardpricer
Safe deposit box annual rental

I know there must be more, but this is what I came up with in literally < 10 seconds of thinking.

It's in the Agreement Terms in all of them, and I'm sure in VCP's as well. It's also a fairly common practice. Although a reminder would be a nice touch (my AAA has surprised me for a few years in a row, since it is on an otherwise unused card), it's not required and probably not practical. I ususally think it's on me to remember when I've entered an agreement that includes auto-renewals or subscription fees.

J

I wasn't suggesting it was illegal.

Do any of the one's you mentioned raise the rates on you automatically when they renew?

I just got the invoice for my safe deposit box. I can keep it for another year, or close it. No automatic charges.

Hmmm...if it would make both Matt and Barry happy I am certain we could beat up Bobby at next years National? Seems fitting, no?

Is it me or are there more and more threads where people just want to vent, as I am now doing? Seems some threads could be and should be handled privately. Reflects poorly on the board as a whole but I sense most don't recognize that.

Back to the all important Banning of Brandon Brown thread...Good stuff boys!

You missed the point - the contract renews automatically and as Barry mentioned most people probably weren't on top of exactly when their contract ran out. The point of the post was to let people know; not sure how that could have been done via private email...

I dislike it, but automatic renewal if the customer doesn't cancel is not an uncommon practice these days. It has to be a part of the original contract the customer agreed to for it to be valid. It's also best if it's clearly pointed out, not just part of the fine print. I belong to a health club that 'renews' monthly, and, to their credit, they clearly pointed out how it worked when I signed up.

Matt,
I did get an in-mail notice from XM stating when my CC would be charged for each radio and the price increase bc of a new fee for some kind of broadcasting rights charge.

I'm not...
 

...recommending one thing or another, but I will say that I really appreciated this thread and made sure to address my membership accordingly.

When ever a person signs up to our site there is a button they have to click on saying you agree to be automatically charged when your current term expires unless you cancel. If you do not agree to it then you will not be able to proceed. In the My VCP pulldown tab under account gives you your membership status and when your account expires, here as well you can cancel your membership if you so choose. There have been numerous times that a member has forgotten to cancel and contacted me and I refunded there membership fees.

I talked to Bobby last week when my membership expired and got re-charged without my knowing. I'm fine with the membership for now, but wish I had a heads-up of a $179 expense coming my way.

What I did (based on Bobby's suggestion) was cancel my membership on VCP, which will run through next August 2010. So when next August rolls around, my card won't be automatically charged, and I can decide what to do at that time. That way, I won't be surprised by any credit card charges for $179.

I love this thing., Especially for my XM radio subscription. When the auto-bill kicks in, the acct number's AWOL. The lady in Jamaica then calls me to renew and BINGO, another annual discount.

'Now, Citi card members can register their existing Citi credit card on the Citibank website to access virtual, randomly assigned card numbers. These numbers are connected to the card members existing account but are for one-time usage when shopping online. This way, the card member's real account number is never used in an online purchase transaction.'

Aol
 

When i saw your list i immediately thought of AOL (America Online) I remember when they were the be all end all of the getting online (though I never used them). I can remember hearing from multiple friends that AOL would actually renew their memberships on the cc's up to one month prior to the subscription ending. And to top off that AOL was notoriusly difficult to get to actually cancell your membership.....meaning you would actually tell the customer service operator to cancel your membership yet your cc would continue to get billed. i have two friends that actually cancelled their cc in order to top AOL from continuing to hound them. Wow... I had not thought of AOL for several years until this. Are they even still around??

xm
 

yep another new fee for monthly and yearly subscribers. my suggestion, lifetime membership for $500 flat and it includes the best of sirius channels as well. free internet access with it to. xm/sirius....the best tech device which has come into my life within the last few years by far!! no questions about it!

Just as an FYI, my VCP membership auto renewed last Feb. I knew I wasn't going to be buying to much this year, so I called and asked if I could have the amount credited back to my card. They did not allow a refund.

I'm not complaining since I knew ahead of time that I was on auto renew (just forgot about it). This is in reference to the post that said "Pretty sure anyone wanting to cancel could drop Bobby an email and they would be refunded immediately". Of course, in my business I would have given the credit, but I guess I understand their position.

Oh, and thanks for the reminder. I just canceled my membership effective 2/2010.

Dan