3 On Your Side: Payment Taken From An Expired Debit Card
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Do you hate writing checks or having to manually pay bills online? Well signing up for auto-pay can certainly save you time. But 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan tells us about one feature of auto-pay that you might not know about.
McAfee anti-virus software protects Linda Steiger's computer. But she was shocked when McAfee managed to charge $79.99 to her Visa debit card that expired in May of 2013. "I don't think it's right," says Steiger, who never updated the card's expiration date. She doesn't think McAfee should have be able to process the charge. She says, "I can't charge on it, I can't go to a store and charge on it, so I don't think anybody else should be able to do it."
So how did this happen? Well Visa, MasterCard and Discover all have programs that'll automatically update your credit card's expiration dates if you have auto-pay with certain companies. In a statement, McAfee said all paid subscription services are automatically enrolled in the McAfee auto-renewal program, this feature ensures your virus protection is not interrupted.
Companies do have to pay the credit card issuers for this service. By the way, American Express doesn't automatically update your expiration dates.
If you don't want your expiration dates automatically updated, your best bet is to tell the company in advance. But this is yet another reason to check fine print when signing up for auto pay or auto renewals.
