You may need to stop your credit card payment for several reasons. Sometimes a predetermined payment must be delayed if the payment is not received on time, or if an emergency financial situation means delaying this payment for a short period. Other times, you may have purchased a damaged or defective product and you can withhold or reverse payment. Can you stop a credit card payment?
Stopping card payments
The law says you can withdraw your consent and keep your future payment under the Continuous Payment Body at any time until the end of your business on the day before the due date.
To withdraw your consent, simply tell anyone who issued your card (bank, savings bank or credit card company) that you do not want the payment to be made. You can notify the card issuer by phone, e-mail or letter.
The card issuer has no right to insist that you first ask the company accepting the payment. They must interrupt payments if you ask for it.
If you request a payment suspension, the card issuer should examine each case individually. They should not apply the general principle of refusing to refund payments collected when the customer has provided his account number.
How do you stop a recurring payment?
Recurring payment by credit card occurs when you authorize the seller to automatically charge the card for a product or service at regular intervals (e.g. monthly) until it is canceled. Recurring credit card payments can be household expenses, such as a telephone or electricity bill, or a contractual fee, such as gym membership fees. Other recurring payments include loan installments and fees for subscription services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime or Spotify.
In general, you should not have problems with stopping recurring payments. But the big problem is to make sure that all the services for which you may be charged are periodically repeated, and then stop those you do not want before being charged again.
How to stop recurring credit card payments:
- Online: If you have an online account with the seller, you must log in. There should be a link under the bank information card to stop recurring payments.
- Phone: Some companies allow you to stop recurring payments by phone. Even if you cancel online, it’s a good way to confirm that your payments have been stopped.
- Get confirmation: Remember to keep the confirmation page, number or certified confirmation of receipt of mail to prove that you have submitted an application in case of problems.
- Be firm: if you call, the representative will probably try to convince you to hold your payment. Kindly insist that they cancel. If they refuse or say they can’t cancel your payment, ask for a postal address to send a request.
What can happen if I miss a payment?
Missed or forgotten credit card payments can happen to anyone. But it can help to know the potential effects. Missed payments can lead to more than just late payments. They can also affect your creditworthiness – especially if you are more than 30 days late.
If you miss a payment, your credit card issuer can send you notifications. These can be calls, e-mails, letters or SMSes.
Even if you don’t contact your credit card company, you may be charged a delay. The delayed fee may increase after the first failure to pay. In fact, this amount may increase each time a payment is delayed within six billing cycles. To find out exactly how much your card charges are, you can check your credit card terms.
