Going with a recurring payment option can help you with charges like a gym membership, cell phone bills, or cable bills. It is a convenient way of making periodic payments, and you do not have to worry about making these monthly payments yourself. But it can leave you with a headache if you are fed up with a particular service and want to end your subscription to a company. If you face the same situation, you might want to know, can you block a company from charging your credit card? First, let’s look at the disadvantages of the recurring payment and why one would want to stop it.
Why You Should Stop Recurring Payments
Recurring payment through a card allows the vendor to overcome CVV, card numbers, and expiration dates. Hence, they can make money from your account even if you have changed the card details. This can allow some crooked merchants to take your money even when you have canceled their services.
In a situation like that, you must know the options you can avail to avert such crises. After reading the article, you can proceed with a clear mind.
Can You Block a Company From Charging Your Credit Card?
To stop the recurring payments, contact your card issuer and tell them that you are not interested in the service provided by the particular company and do not want the merchant to make money from your card. If your financial institution is cooperative, they will further assist you with the situation.
If you are a gym rat, you must have a gym membership. Suppose the fee is raised to $20, what would you do now? Your first option can be to contact the gym owner and negotiate with them. Nevertheless, if this option fails, and the gym membership fee is more than you want to spend, you have to cut the tie with the particular gym, and that’s where this article about how to block a company from charging your credit card can help you.
As mentioned earlier, when a recurring payment is set up, the company or merchant can take your money without further notifying you. That means if you have a Netflix subscription, the particular amount will be deducted from your account every month. This may have made your life easy as you won’t have to make this payment frequently from the start of every month.
That’s all good until you want to end your relationship with the merchant. If you no longer wish to use or are interested in the services provided by a company or merchant, you may want to stop these recurring payments. If you are asking yourself, can I block a company from charging my credit card? The answer is yes. Let’s further proceed and find out how
Blocking a company from charging your credit card has two possibilities, i.e., you can either contact the merchant or your bank. The better option is to contact your merchant, especially if you want to end a service that is in a running contract with him. You see, when you avail of a service, you agree with the merchant, and now if you want to get rid of the service or end your relationship with the company, you will most likely face resistance. If you’re going to end the relationship before the contract expires, the merchant may tell you that you cannot do that unless the contract expires.
The second option you have to block the company from charging your credit card is to contact your card issuer. But if you are still in contract with the merchant, they can’t help you much even if they are willing to. In such a case, it all depends on the company’s policy you’re in contact with. Suppose you set up a recurring payment for a maid service, and a few weeks later, you come across another maid service that charges less. Now you may want to end your tie with the previous maid service. What to do? You can first call a merchant and tell them your intentions; the merchant, however, will show resistance and inform you that you are too late to cancel the contract, and they will charge you anyhow.
In a situation like this, unfortunately, your card issuer cannot help you much. They can block your charges, but still, you have to pay your recurring bill because of the contract. The accurate course of action here is to contact your merchant and request them to reduce the charges they don’t; you’ll have to stick with them till your contracts end.
If your merchant is stubborn and refuses to cooperate with you, you can call your credit card company. If they are cooperative enough, they will block the company from charging your card.
Can You Have Your Bank Block Revoked or Unrevoked Payments
Recurring your payments means that the payments done would be automatic. You do not have to do the payment process over and over again. It can be beneficial for recurring bills like a gym membership, maid service, or online subscriptions as it makes them easy and more convenient. Nevertheless, sometimes you may want to end your relationship with the company because you are no longer interested in the service or have found a cheaper alternative. Whatever the reason is, you may want to know if you can block a company from charging your account?
As said earlier, you can block a company from charging your account even if the authorization is not revoked with the company. To stop an automatic payment, you will have to give your bank a stop payment order. Stop payment order instructs the bank to stop allowing the company to charge your account.
You can also contact the company and tell them your intention of not continuing with them. This is known as revoking a payment. After that, tell your bank that you’ve revoked authorization for a company to take automatic payments from your account.
Keep in mind, stopping your payments won’t cancel your contract with the company. So even if you decide to change your credit card, the company will still be able to charge you until the contract ends. The best way is to contact the company, cancel the contract and ask them to stop charging your card.