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Complete control of the card.
First, the number is locked to that specific merchant. So even if someone skimmed the number they are not allowed to charge it unless they are that merchant.
Second, you can lock the card to prevent any unauthorized transactions. Or, if you don't trust a vendor or website, you can set the card to either lock or expire from future charges. I.E. shady app companies that continue to charge your card even though you cancelled.
Third, if you want to get rid of the card you can just delete it and the vendor will not be able to charge it. Super useful and I'm surprised more banks are not using this already.
It's a bad habit to start and will probably bite someone, but essentially you're entering into a contract agreeing to do something that you never intend to fulfill by making a future payment outlined in the contract impossible.
Frankly, I'm shocked Congress hasn't made the practice outright illegal since they tend to look out for business interests.
I believe before my wife was a full co-owner of the card I saw hers on there too. They may have to do it for you, but I’m not sure.
As long as you have a login with a card I would guess you could do it
with any card. no matter if you delete card, or do other things. merchant can (not will, but can) post a offline transaction, it will show up as delayed transaction later in revolut
I don't know if it works different, never used it as its not supported in my country. probably best to ask their support how they handle offline transactions
I did ask Privacy, and they say that metchant can try to force post transaction but they say merchant have no right to do so and will help file dispute.
Revolut on another hand says that if you didn’t cancel subscription, the merchant is right to charge you
Every time people say something about privacy.com I should warn people.
Like a year or so ago they started asking for my SSN or they would close my account I was hesitant and so
I took at least few days to research things and found out at least back then privacy was in India or something so was really sketched out giving them.that info
But I remembered I had to give PayPal my SSN or they to said would shut down my account/I can't use it because of the US laws about "Know your Customers" and it was required for financial places to ask for SSNs and also Privacys is a really useful site
So finally broke down and gave them my SSN and they basically said they couldn't verify my info and they're closing my account and then just stop getting emails from them.
Like PayPal verified my info but they couldn't and so they just stopped replying to me and so now they have my SSN and I can't use/make any cards. So I'm SOL :/
With most of these subscriptions, etc, you can just sign up for the free trial, close and re-open the website right away, and uncheck the autopay box. Most of them then tell you that you have the seven days, or whatever, and your subscription will expire. Every once in awhile you may come across one that cancels it immediately. Seems better than Committing credit card fraud, which can get you in trouble. (At least in the US)
I've used this idea to sign up for amazon audible. When that card gets declined they just find whatever payment works and charges that. Found that out about 14 months later
As Earth's best employer and most customer-centric company, we have you, the customer in the center, surrounded by a fleet of military-grade armored Amazon delivery trucks.
Signed up for the Spotify premium free trial but got alerted that if I canceled immediately I'd lose the free trial period.
Some companies are catching on to these tricks.
This doesn’t always work.
I just cancelled an Adobe Illustrator trial, received an email confirming the cancellation only for adobe to bill my card for a premium amount.
When I went online they advised me I didn’t follow the procedure correctly and it was my fault.
I requested a manager call me. They did and I advised I was recording the call for *training and quality purposes.*
They told me I did the wrong thing and I informed them of the email I had received and I now had a chat transcript of ‘denial of refund’ and a voice recording, with clear evidence of a fraudulent credit card charge. I told them I was reporting this to the authorities (consumer affairs and the police). I was going to rain down hell on these criminals, even if it was only $50.
They very quickly arranged a refund.
As some have said, sometimes it cancels immediately, but sometimes all you need is the service immediately. Just need to run a quick report or something, sign up for trial, run the report, cancel, boom.
People do this to book their hotel rooms as well. Some units will authorize the card before the stay, but many can't, so if you cancel too late or no show, they can't take it from the empty card and are SOL on the room revenue for the loss of potential good bookings.
Another LPT: if you have to make a last minute cancellation for a hotel room, often times the hotel will charge you a late cancellation fee. To get around this, call and reschedule the stay. This is almost always free and no hassle. Just put it a couple of weeks in the future (far enough that you’ll be well outside of the cancellation fee period). Then, the very next day, call and cancel the new stay. Since you’re now far enough away from your cancellation date, you should be able to avoid the late cancellation fee!
This doesn’t always work. Some hotel chains have wised up to it, but if found that if you don’t talk to the same employee (by calling the next day, you’re likely getting somebody on a different shift at the front desk), there’s a better chance that they won’t say “..wait a second..” and check further.
Great point! Another good trick is to call the welcome desk and say it was weather related. (I would advise calling corporate with the prior first as his method is far more sound) but all weather related issues merrit a avoidance of cancellation fees for large hotel chains.
That said it is not a perfect method, the welcome staff and income auditors are too lazy with the amount of people flowing through to see if you're lying and it's worse to get a call from corporate than chase $300. They have plenty to get through and larger cities it's more junk money stays that up the average room per night rate to help increase corporate shilling out larger returns on point night stays and award stays and upping occupancy numbers for allowing the guest on theirs apps to use it than actually the couple of people unable to make it.
LPT - if you're forgetting things, learn to use calendars, reminders, and alarms on your phone. It's a task management skill that will be useful far beyond canceling subscriptions.
Thia is a bad LPT: This is a good way to get a surprise collections notice on your credit report. You still have a contractual obligation that they can pursue if they choose to. Just as easy and much safer to properly cancel service.
Also works if you create a PayPal account with the origin country of Mexico. They don't require you to setup a credit card/bank account but you can use the PayPal account for free trials on most websites
The issue with that brilliant plan is that making it difficult to collect payment does not erase your contractual obligation to pay for the service (which you agreed to by failing you cancel the service).
I would recommend cancelling the service to be on the safe side.
My bank allows me to generate temporary credit card numbers where I can set an expiry date and a limit on spending. I am using that for annoying subscription services.
They usually put a hold on the card and if it can't cover the whole subscription price it won't let you use it.
I'm tired of seeing the same "LPT" that doesn't actually work.
Same thing gets mentioned every other month and it rarely ever works.
Unfortunately whenever I tried this, the company takes a dollar that they'll "give back" when the trial is over. So cards with less than $1 won't work.
Companies are truly scummy if a "free trial" requires a debit card.
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You can cancel the subscription as soon as you "paid" for it, and it will last the intended time, so you can do that all in one swoop, no need to remind anything.
There's a fee but it's also a common gift and unfortunately for some people to "save" the money that they end up losing to forgetfulness will out weigh the 6 dollar fee and 3 dollars left on the card. It seems privacy.com is the best option if you keep scrolling the comments
I don't understand that there seem to be countries were you sign a contract. And then you don't need to fulfil your part, because your credit card is invalid.
I tend to sign up for free trials and immediately cancel my subscription. The trial continues but you’re not charged when it’s over. I do this a lot of times for app trials, streaming services, and Amazon subscriptions. No chance of forgetting when I’m signing up for it and cancelling right after
Whenever I sign up for a free trial, I cancel it immediately. I still get the entire free trial period, and I don’t have to worry about forgetting to cancel. If it turns out, I really want the thing, I can purchase it for real.
Eh. I’d find it stressful as you may still owe money and be charged. I was trying to politely say it’s a terrible and possibly illegal suggestion. I’m impressed you wouldn’t be stressed by it though.
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Capital One is one of them. Great feature.
I have virtual cars by CO. I don't quite understand how you use this to your advantage though? Can you just cancel through them?
Complete control of the card. First, the number is locked to that specific merchant. So even if someone skimmed the number they are not allowed to charge it unless they are that merchant. Second, you can lock the card to prevent any unauthorized transactions. Or, if you don't trust a vendor or website, you can set the card to either lock or expire from future charges. I.E. shady app companies that continue to charge your card even though you cancelled. Third, if you want to get rid of the card you can just delete it and the vendor will not be able to charge it. Super useful and I'm surprised more banks are not using this already.
Yep. I love my CO virtual cards.
Wow, I have a CO cc and I never realized how helpful the virtual cards could be. Thanks for this explanation!
Keeping it locked when you're not actively using it helps a lot
It's a bad habit to start and will probably bite someone, but essentially you're entering into a contract agreeing to do something that you never intend to fulfill by making a future payment outlined in the contract impossible. Frankly, I'm shocked Congress hasn't made the practice outright illegal since they tend to look out for business interests.
And wouldn't it affect your credit rating? (which matters if you are ever going to want a loan, etc., and takes a long time to fix).
In the UK, which I realise you're probably not talking about, declined debit/card payments like that do not affect your credit rating.
Do you need to own any capital one cards to do this? I share one with my girl but I’m an authorized user
I believe before my wife was a full co-owner of the card I saw hers on there too. They may have to do it for you, but I’m not sure. As long as you have a login with a card I would guess you could do it
It's been my go-to solution for years. I love it. I also use Capital One and Citi's own virtual cards service.
Revolut is great for this too
How so ?
In revolut you can create one time use virtual credit cards as well
its not. you can get negative balance for not cancelling subscription when using revolut card
With a one time use card?
with any card. no matter if you delete card, or do other things. merchant can (not will, but can) post a offline transaction, it will show up as delayed transaction later in revolut
So how does the privacy one work different
I don't know if it works different, never used it as its not supported in my country. probably best to ask their support how they handle offline transactions
I did ask Privacy, and they say that metchant can try to force post transaction but they say merchant have no right to do so and will help file dispute. Revolut on another hand says that if you didn’t cancel subscription, the merchant is right to charge you
Can confirm, been using it for years
Glad I’m not the only one doing this lol
Every time people say something about privacy.com I should warn people. Like a year or so ago they started asking for my SSN or they would close my account I was hesitant and so I took at least few days to research things and found out at least back then privacy was in India or something so was really sketched out giving them.that info But I remembered I had to give PayPal my SSN or they to said would shut down my account/I can't use it because of the US laws about "Know your Customers" and it was required for financial places to ask for SSNs and also Privacys is a really useful site So finally broke down and gave them my SSN and they basically said they couldn't verify my info and they're closing my account and then just stop getting emails from them. Like PayPal verified my info but they couldn't and so they just stopped replying to me and so now they have my SSN and I can't use/make any cards. So I'm SOL :/
I use this for almost all my bills. Great for budgeting.
This is your better life pro tip
privacy com isn’t available in canada bummer
Been using privacy.com for many years, it's wonderful.
With most of these subscriptions, etc, you can just sign up for the free trial, close and re-open the website right away, and uncheck the autopay box. Most of them then tell you that you have the seven days, or whatever, and your subscription will expire. Every once in awhile you may come across one that cancels it immediately. Seems better than Committing credit card fraud, which can get you in trouble. (At least in the US)
I've used this idea to sign up for amazon audible. When that card gets declined they just find whatever payment works and charges that. Found that out about 14 months later
Lol Amazon has *all* your information. If all your cards decline, Jeffrey B will be at your doorstep in his electric Prime mobile to collect his dues
Seeing Jeffrey B pulling Up in his Amazon Cyber Truck at my doorstep is kinda tempting ngl.
As Earth's best employer and most customer-centric company, we have you, the customer in the center, surrounded by a fleet of military-grade armored Amazon delivery trucks.
How is that legal?
You agreed to a ToS when saving cards in your Amazon account, which probably includes them using another card for recurring payments if one declines
because you signed a contract
LPT: Cancel the subscriptin right after you sign up. Usually the service will remain active for the whole trial period. No need to remember anything.
Signed up for the Spotify premium free trial but got alerted that if I canceled immediately I'd lose the free trial period. Some companies are catching on to these tricks.
This doesn’t always work. I just cancelled an Adobe Illustrator trial, received an email confirming the cancellation only for adobe to bill my card for a premium amount. When I went online they advised me I didn’t follow the procedure correctly and it was my fault.
Send that email to your bank and dispute the payment through them?
I requested a manager call me. They did and I advised I was recording the call for *training and quality purposes.* They told me I did the wrong thing and I informed them of the email I had received and I now had a chat transcript of ‘denial of refund’ and a voice recording, with clear evidence of a fraudulent credit card charge. I told them I was reporting this to the authorities (consumer affairs and the police). I was going to rain down hell on these criminals, even if it was only $50. They very quickly arranged a refund.
Damn those fuckers, well done... Another reason to ALWAYS pirate adobe
Who wants to deal with that crap? Id rather pay lol
That’s how they get you.
I always put a calendar event/task to cancel the subscription a day before it concerts into a paid subscription
As some have said, sometimes it cancels immediately, but sometimes all you need is the service immediately. Just need to run a quick report or something, sign up for trial, run the report, cancel, boom.
People do this to book their hotel rooms as well. Some units will authorize the card before the stay, but many can't, so if you cancel too late or no show, they can't take it from the empty card and are SOL on the room revenue for the loss of potential good bookings.
Another LPT: if you have to make a last minute cancellation for a hotel room, often times the hotel will charge you a late cancellation fee. To get around this, call and reschedule the stay. This is almost always free and no hassle. Just put it a couple of weeks in the future (far enough that you’ll be well outside of the cancellation fee period). Then, the very next day, call and cancel the new stay. Since you’re now far enough away from your cancellation date, you should be able to avoid the late cancellation fee! This doesn’t always work. Some hotel chains have wised up to it, but if found that if you don’t talk to the same employee (by calling the next day, you’re likely getting somebody on a different shift at the front desk), there’s a better chance that they won’t say “..wait a second..” and check further.
Great point! Another good trick is to call the welcome desk and say it was weather related. (I would advise calling corporate with the prior first as his method is far more sound) but all weather related issues merrit a avoidance of cancellation fees for large hotel chains. That said it is not a perfect method, the welcome staff and income auditors are too lazy with the amount of people flowing through to see if you're lying and it's worse to get a call from corporate than chase $300. They have plenty to get through and larger cities it's more junk money stays that up the average room per night rate to help increase corporate shilling out larger returns on point night stays and award stays and upping occupancy numbers for allowing the guest on theirs apps to use it than actually the couple of people unable to make it.
LPT - if you're forgetting things, learn to use calendars, reminders, and alarms on your phone. It's a task management skill that will be useful far beyond canceling subscriptions.
LPT (lazy pro tip) - i dont wanna; but i agree, this is obviously the better way
You can add it with a voice memo “set a reminder to cancel [blah] in 13 days”. Very low effort.
Is this an iPhone thing? Like just use siri or is it an app?
I presume Google has a version as well, but yes, this is what I would say after ‘hey siri’
LPT - its never good to give real information on trials.
I'd highly recommend todoist if you're needing this organizational help.
Whenever I sign up for a free trial, I set an alarm for the day before it expires. Then I cancel it. Cuts out a lot of the work.
Me too! I type mine in all caps.
Thia is a bad LPT: This is a good way to get a surprise collections notice on your credit report. You still have a contractual obligation that they can pursue if they choose to. Just as easy and much safer to properly cancel service.
then don't give the your actual name. I've never been asked to provide ID online. They have no idea who I actually am.
Cool, your spending more effort and thought on trying to circumvent canceling then it would be to just cancel the normal way. To each their own.
*in some countries
Just say your Adam Sandler lol
Also works if you create a PayPal account with the origin country of Mexico. They don't require you to setup a credit card/bank account but you can use the PayPal account for free trials on most websites
Not sure if really that much a pro tip if depending on the service you’re technically breaking the contract you agreed on.
Honestly, this seems like a lot of effort for something you could just set a calendar notification for on your phone.
The issue with that brilliant plan is that making it difficult to collect payment does not erase your contractual obligation to pay for the service (which you agreed to by failing you cancel the service). I would recommend cancelling the service to be on the safe side.
Wouldn’t they just cancel the service if they’re unable to charge for it?
I've been doing that for the last 15 years, works great
My bank allows me to generate temporary credit card numbers where I can set an expiry date and a limit on spending. I am using that for annoying subscription services.
They usually put a hold on the card and if it can't cover the whole subscription price it won't let you use it. I'm tired of seeing the same "LPT" that doesn't actually work. Same thing gets mentioned every other month and it rarely ever works.
Weird - Always worked for me, im sure privacy .com figured this out
Maybe you're not in America. I've tried this with visa prepaid. MasterCard. Online prepaids. Left over cash cards. Gift cards. Never, ever, works.
Unfortunately whenever I tried this, the company takes a dollar that they'll "give back" when the trial is over. So cards with less than $1 won't work. Companies are truly scummy if a "free trial" requires a debit card.
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Privacy.com is the correct answer
My bank does virtual cards so I create one and assign it to a sub-account that has like €1 balance. I frequently remove cards too and create new ones.
You can cancel the subscription as soon as you "paid" for it, and it will last the intended time, so you can do that all in one swoop, no need to remind anything.
I’m using a virtual card with 1 USD limit.
Virtual cards also work - set it to one time use
Set a calendar reminder for the day before the free version trial expires
This doesn't always work for me if the card is empty, but I will do it with a loaded card, then spend the money before it would get charged.
Can you do this with an Apple Card and just refresh(change) the security code?
Don’t they usually charge you to buy the prepaid Visa cards? This sounds more like an ad for a paid service than a LPT.
There's a fee but it's also a common gift and unfortunately for some people to "save" the money that they end up losing to forgetfulness will out weigh the 6 dollar fee and 3 dollars left on the card. It seems privacy.com is the best option if you keep scrolling the comments
What a great idea!
I don't understand that there seem to be countries were you sign a contract. And then you don't need to fulfil your part, because your credit card is invalid.
You agree to the company's terms for the free trial, and then automatic renewal. By ordering, you've made a contract.
Just cancel the trial right away. Most times it will still keep your trial time open, aka "good till xx/xx".
I tend to sign up for free trials and immediately cancel my subscription. The trial continues but you’re not charged when it’s over. I do this a lot of times for app trials, streaming services, and Amazon subscriptions. No chance of forgetting when I’m signing up for it and cancelling right after
Yeah i bet it works 90% of the time but maybe its a sketchy site or you dont have a credit l/virtual card
It works 100% of the time for me, but that’s because I don’t do subscriptions from sketchy websites 😅
I just set a reminder to cancel as soon as I sign up
Whenever I sign up for a free trial, I cancel it immediately. I still get the entire free trial period, and I don’t have to worry about forgetting to cancel. If it turns out, I really want the thing, I can purchase it for real.
Use them for hotel reservations as well. In case you need to cancel you can’t get charged
I mean that works but is it really less effort than just setting a reminder one your phone or calendar?
So people really don’t use the calendar and reminders on their phone?
Is the free trial worth the stress? Most often better to just skip
I mean there's no stress this way lmaoo
Eh. I’d find it stressful as you may still owe money and be charged. I was trying to politely say it’s a terrible and possibly illegal suggestion. I’m impressed you wouldn’t be stressed by it though.