Sooner or later, all good things must come to an end, including those automatic recurring payments that you have set up.
You get a better deal on streaming services and want to switch. You move and no longer use the same utility company. Your first year subscription is ending and you want to cancel before the price quadruples. Or maybe you’ve decided to take a closer look at your money by paying your bills manually.
It all boils down to the same thing: you’ve started automatic payments and now you want them to stop. But you may find that it is not so easy. Here are nine tips to help make it easier.
1. Start with the company you pay
Whether it’s your monthly streaming service, an electricity bill, or an annoying subscription, contact the company’s billing department first, says Ruth Sasswein, deputy director of national priorities for Consumer Action. “First of all, negotiate with the company.”
Many explain the conditions for stopping automatic payments – and you can call or email. If you call, send an email and save it with any reply. It’s a handy way to showcase the date and time you stopped either the service or automatic billing, she says.
As for any subscription deals you’re struggling to complete, this can get easier. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced in 2021 that companies “will face legal action if their registration process does not provide clear, up-front information, obtain informed consumer consent, and facilitate cancellation.”
2. Read your contract
Are you ending automatic payments or ending the service entirely? It’s “very important to know” about this difference, says Wei Zhang, credit card program manager for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
If you are terminating a contract, it is useful to know its terms. When you signed up, did you make a commitment to yourself for a specific period of time – a year or two years? If this is the case, you can cancel automatic payments, but you will probably still have to fulfill the contract.
You’ll also want to look at the steps you need to take to terminate the contract, Zhang says. For example, some companies allow you to cancel electronically.
Also, pay attention to how much time in advance you must notify the company and what are the necessary ways to contact them. If you cancel a service, “you need to be sure you’re breaking the contract,” Sasswain says.
3. Be clear and get validation
When you call and write to the company, clearly explain what you are doing. Do you just stop automatic payments? Or are you shutting down completely? Call it simple.
You should also receive a follow-up email from the company confirming the action. Hold on to that too. “The bottom line is to get written confirmation of the cancellation,” Sasswein says.
4. Always contact your card issuer
Let them know you’ve stopped service or automatic payments, Sasswain says. If payments continue, report these items as unauthorized charges on your card account and dispute them.
5. Use Card Tools
Some credit card issuers offer features that make it easier to detect or stop automatic payments and subscriptions. For example, if you have a Capital One card, you can sign up for its virtual assistant and sign up to be notified when your free trial period ends on certain websites. It can also notify you if the regular fee is significantly higher within one month.
You can also use third party apps to set up mobile alerts.
6. Check with your payment service
Some wallets and peer-to-peer payment services also have built-in tools that make it easy to recognize or cancel subscriptions and automatic payments.
Using your credit card through PayPal? You can turn off automatic payments by going to your online account settings or by tapping the wallet icon in the app. Once you stop automatic payments, “PayPal will not accept any future payment requests from this provider unless the customer chooses to resume paying with PayPal as their payment method,” says Tom Hunter, Senior Global Communications Manager at PayPal.
A company spokesperson says that with Google Pay, you can go to the “Stats” tab in your account and search for “subscription” to see a list of recurring monthly payments.
7. Save your notes
Save screenshots of emails you send or forms you fill out to complete automatic payments, says Ira Reingold, executive director of the National Consumer Advocates Association. You also want to keep any confirmations you receive from the company you paid automatically to and from your credit card issuer.
If payments are recurring, you will need these records to dispute them.
8. Once you stop making payments, keep an eye on your card balance
Stopping automatic payments is only the first step. Now you need to keep an eye on your card statements to make sure those charges don’t reappear. If recurring payments appear on your bill again, call your credit card company immediately, Zhang says.
Reinhold agrees. “You have to challenge it,” he says. And if you used a credit card, “it’s much easier to dispute. You can also enable confirmation that you’ve stopped automatic payments.”
Once you cancel a recurring payment, the credit card company is required to investigate the disputed charge and refund you for any unauthorized charges, Zhang says: “They should deduct this amount from your credit card statement during the investigation. ”
Automatic payments are another good reason to read your credit card bills every month. “Often the recurring payments are small,” Zhang says. Even if you have alerts on your credit card bill, payments are sometimes “so small they might not catch the consumer’s attention.”
9. If payments continue, report a violation
What to do if you did everything right, but automatic payments do not stop? You can complain to consumer groups and report the seller to your state’s attorney’s office, Reingold says. You can also contact the Attorney’s Office of the state in which the company is located.
And you can “file a complaint with their regulator,” says Lance Noggle, senior director of advocacy and senior counsel for the National Association of Credit Unions.
For many complaints, the best bet may be the FTC, which cracks down on “illegal dark schemes that deceive or lure consumers into subscription services.” The FTC now requires subscriptions to be “clear, consistent, and easily cancelable.” If you find yourself stuck with recurring payments that conflict with the original agreement, you can report it here.
Consumers can also leave feedback about the company or share their experience on social media, Reingold said. “The use of social media can be an effective tool for forcing companies to behave well, especially if they care about their reputation.”
If none of these solutions work, “you can give us a call,” says CFPB’s Zhang. Or file a complaint [with the CFPB] online. The Bureau will work to get a response from the company.” You may be reporting credit card fraud amounts.
And if you ever have questions about the company or how it handles automatic payments, you can browse the CFPB complaint database to see what other consumers have to say.
bottom line
If you start autopay, one day you will also have to stop it. So always check how it works before registering. “Be very careful, because there is no such thing as free,” says Reingold. “Make sure it doesn’t default to a permanent offer if you don’t do anything.”
If a seller is forcing you to use automatic payments, this could be a red flag. “I would just advise being careful,” Sasswain says. “While setting up automatic payments is extremely convenient, you don’t want to use them indiscriminately.”
If you decide to continue, please make sure you keep the original agreement. Set up trade expiration alerts so you can cancel before the price rises. And if you hit a roadblock, be prepared to do whatever it takes to stop these payments.
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