Companies Retain Your Credit Card Information Even After Removing Your Card
Over the weekend, I encountered a troubling issue that many of us might have brushed off as an inconvenient but typical part of online subscriptions. While reviewing my monthly credit card statement, I noticed a charge from a service I had canceled months ago. The problem? The service had resumed billing me without any notification.
The service, which had a recurring monthly subscription fee paid via PayPal, seemingly had held onto my payment details. When I attempted to remove my PayPal information from their site, I discovered that there was no option to do so — a common tactic among services that make cancellation difficult.
Customer Service Woes
Upon contacting customer service, their response was less than helpful. They directed me to their refund policy, which was stringent and unyielding, only allowing refunds under narrow conditions that did not apply to my case. It almost seemed like a canned AI response like the customer service rep didn’t even read what I was saying:
Sorry,
As per our terms, a refund can only take place when one of these 2 situations happens:
[REDACTED] customers who are unhappy with the service within the first 35 days are eligible for a refund. Before issuing a refund, we will ask customers to explain what elements of [REDACTED] they are unhappy with. This helps us gather feedback in order to continually improve the service we offer.
If your automatically recurring subscription charge to [REDACTED] occurs, and you have not taken any classes or used any services, and it is no more than 3 days since the charge occurred, you may contact us to have that latest payment, and only the latest payment, refunded. This type of refund does NOT include the extra $20 guarantee.
Read more about our terms here: [REDACTED]
Unfortunately, your situation doesn’t match any of the above as it’s been over 3 days since the last charge occurred. I will have to escalate the case to the billing team as well as your request about deleting your PayPal account, who will be in touch with you about a final resolution ASAP.
To which I responded:
Hi,
I successfully canceled the subscription months ago (please verify with your records). I’m only asking for a refund for what appears to have been erroneously pulled from my PayPal account. This isn’t a question of your policy. If you can see in the screenshot that I wasn’t subscribed to any program, then it would just be stealing. Please escalate or whatever you have to do. But I expect that this error will be rectified.
Thanks,
Frustrated, I had to manually cancel the recurring payments via PayPal — a safeguard I naively thought was unnecessary since I had already canceled the service directly through their website.
Almost immediately, another customer support person, maybe the person responsible for billing, replied to my email apologizing for the erroneous charge and authorized a full refund. For this reason, I’m not exposing the company, but the events that occurred did illuminate a very unsettling reality.
How many companies have access to charging my credit cards?
How many times, after being told I canceled a service was I still being charged?
How many companies still retain my credit card information long after I’ve canceled their services?
I sincerely believe, as you can see in my email reply, that the charge was an error, and not malicious. Could you imagine if this had been a less reputable business?
Turning to Crypto
This unsettling experience solidified my interest in a more secure, transparent payment method — cryptocurrency. One of the great fallacies people maintain about crypto is that your money isn’t safe with it, and that you’re safer entering your credit card number into some official-looking payment portal, not realizing that all it takes is a very well-done, convincing web portal to be able to phish your credit card information and do whatever with it. With crypto, you will never pay more than you authorize, and there is no well-accepted way of charging recurring payments. In other words, no one can draw from your account without your authorization, every time. They don’t have your secret pin number, which in crypto world would be your private keys. There’s nothing malicious a bad actor could do with just your public wallet address.
And that’s where CryptoCadet comes in. Unlike traditional payment processors, CryptoCadet is a blockchain-based, no-code payment processor designed for the modern e-commerce landscape. It allows users to accept a variety of cryptocurrencies without ever needing to store sensitive financial information. Some of its key benefits include:
- Security: With CryptoCadet, transactions are secured by blockchain technology, meaning there’s no central point where sensitive data is stored. This significantly reduces the risk of data breaches.
- Control Over Payments: Crypto transactions require explicit authorization for each payment. Unlike credit cards, there are no recurring billing permissions that companies can misuse.
- Ease of Use: Designed with the non-technical business owner in mind, CryptoCadet can be integrated into any e-commerce platform like WordPress, Shopify, or Wix with simple plug-and-play installation.
- Flexibility: Users can accept payments in various cryptocurrencies and set up features like affiliate links and confirmation emails directly through the API.
- No Hidden Fees: CryptoCadet operates with transparency in transaction fees, which are typically much lower than those of traditional payment processors.
The Future of Payments
The world is swiftly moving towards blockchain and cryptocurrencies and away from traditional payments and banking services. For anyone frustrated with the opaque practices of traditional online payment services, turning to a solution like CryptoCadet isn’t just an upgrade — it’s a necessity.
My switch to CryptoCadet is not just a personal choice but a strategic decision to protect myself and my customers from the vulnerabilities of conventional payment systems. In a digital age where data breaches are all too common, embracing a solution that offers security, transparency, and control gives peace of mind — a stark contrast to my recent ordeal.
Switching to CryptoCadet means taking back control of how payments are made and ensuring that every transaction is secure and transparent. For those looking to modernize their payment systems and offer their customers the best in security and convenience, CryptoCadet is the clear choice. Join me in transforming how we handle transactions, one crypto payment at a time.
For More Information: To learn more about how CryptoCadet is revolutionizing crypto payments and online security, or to integrate this solution into your business, visit ascendant.finance.
