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June
5, 2006
When
Credit Cards Expire, Businesses Can Get Your New Number Without
Your Permission
It's not new, but it might be new to you. If you use your credit
card to pay monthly charges for cable bills, club memberships,
or other recurring expenses, canceling your credit card or letting
it expire won't guarantee that those charges will stop. Through
programs such as Visa's Account Updater program, merchants can
have your new credit card number transferred directly to them
without any involvement from you.
For
businesses, this helps with customer retention, as they can
continue to bill you, even if your card number changes. And
you might even like this service--you don't have to contact
all the companies you have recurring charges with when your
credit card number changes. On the other hand, if you have forgotten
that certain monthly charges are still going on your credit
card bill, or you have trouble getting a merchant to stop automatic
billing, canceling your card or allowing it to expire may not
guarantee that the charges will stop.
This
service has been available to Visa merchants since
2003, but there are no available numbers to know how many
merchants are aware of it or take advantage of it. Index Credit
Cards spotted it via a Datamation
story this week. If and when the programs are more widely
used, it will be interesting to see if consumers take them in
stride or find them an invasion of privacy.
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