US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

FYI: Everyone just use privacy.com

It allows you to make virtual cards that are single use.

So if a merchant keeps trying to charge you, it will automatically decline.

Until the powers that be gets its act together and stops allowing businesses to run all over us...this is the way.

Never heard of this; thanks for the tip!

Great, another service that collects my purchase information.

> So if a merchant keeps trying to charge you, it will automatically decline.

I learned this the hard way with the New York Times doing this, but merchants can “force settle” a transaction if they want and it’ll override the decline they get. This is a violation of the merchant agreement but companies do it anyway (like NYT did to me). Privacy isn’t as bullet-proof as you would think.

Then you risk getting sent to collections instead.

Is there anything like this that accepts EU customers?

Revolut has a disposable card feature. I'm sure there's some regular old school banks that have this as well, ING in the Netherlands does as far as I remember.

Your bank might offer this already, just to check in case you haven't already. I think all banks I've had in Spain and Sweden has offered this feature within their web portal.

revolut and others still try to charge you, even if you cancel the VIRTUAL card. when you ask them, why and how they you do that, they say you have some sort of agreement for the subs. service and you need to end it on your own via them. Bank can't do that?? they said something like that to me. So they literally support the dark pattent side, not on your side obv.

Revolut along with quite a few other modern EU banks let you manage recurring billing directly - in Revolut I can pick any transaction in the app, click "Block future payments" and that vendor won't be able to bill my card again until I unblock them. That's separate from virtual/disposable cards - you can use your normal card and still block individual vendors.

Honestly this seems like a pretty obvious core banking feature nowadays, I'm surprised it's not more widespread (even in the US - reliable cancellation features across all recurring card payments would surely make people more comfortable with subscriptions). Under the hood all banks (AFAIK) are handle recurring payments by issuing an authorization token at first purchase, and validating it on later transactions. Allowing customers to see the list of active tokens that were recently used and then revoke them explicitly seems like a no brainer.

This is why I've never used these services.

How could it override the decline if you cancel the card entirely in Privacy?

Yes, Capital One offers a similar virtual card service and when I read into the fine details it wasn't as useful as a thought. There were seemingly exceptions that could override spending limits for subscriptions and the control was mostly an illusion.

> Privacy.com prioritizes security through firewalls, encryption, and PCI DSS compliance.

That line of cyber security mumbo jumbo does not inspire confidence

Then it just gets sent to collections, and worsens your credit score, so your next car loan or mortgage has a higher interest rate.

You have to actually resolve the issue with the company charging you, and do a chargeback if necessary which requires submitting evidence. It sucks, but virtual numbers don't make your bills go away.

I can use fake name and address with privacy cards

It's an authorized recurring charge. Disabling the card only really works for sure on new charges. The only 'real' way to deauthorize it is to convince the merchant to do it for you. Every other method is just creating enough friction that you hope it will be too expensive for the merchant to fight back.

unless the value is quite high it's unlikely the bill will actually get sent to collections. even if it does, you can negotiate fairly easily with the collection company to pay less than the original amount.

I think it was 30 years ago now, but I could be off by a few. My mother "insisted" on me signing up for an infomercial product for her...I offered to buy it outright (it was in stores for less than the deal they were offering and deliver it personally) she declined and kept insisting. I did so and signed up for 1 shipment. They charged me for months afterwards and put my checking account, to which the card was tied into overdraft and refused to refund. I was lucky because I was at a small bank which still had personal bankers and she was kind and reasonable. She reversed the charges for me and got me my money back. That company stole my grocery money and didn't blink an eye.

Again: this was at least 30 years ago. Nothing was changed. The companies that take advantage are still taking advantage and the government is facilitating theft, fraud and tons of stress on those who can ill afford it. It is a major issue also for seniors who constantly get trapped in this crap. They tie people up with confusing forms and jargon and make it impossible. They have no shame. Check Rip-off Reports, if they are still allowed to exist, or webarchive...the stories are awful. It's past time for people to be able to stop this thru their cards or tactical action. The cost to pay a lawyer to fight this kind of crap also falls on the person who files-think travel if they are out of state...most of these companies are based miles away and know that people can't afford to fight them.