So I purchased two gifts for a friend across seas the other day, and was curious enough to subscribe to Amazon prime, since it was free. However, I didn't like the idea that at the end of a certain amount of time, they would just charge my card and continue the prime service. So I cancelled the subscription about half an hour after subscribing to it. Finally, the charges for the two gifts that I purchased were deducted from my bank balance, but there is still a difference of £1 between my balance and what is available for me to withdraw. So I spoke to my bank about it, and they said that Amazon Prime had charged £1 to my account. What the hell? Has anyone else experienced this?
With Prime as I learned, you have to physically unsubscribe after the free trial period and they don't send you a reminder either. If they sent me one I never saw it, but you would think you have to authorize it again. I haven't signed up again and made sure I unsubscribed a few days before the renewal and took off my card details in any case. That's the only way to make sure you don't get charged.
Well, I have heard the horror stories regarding Amazon Prime, and it sounds like the perfect breeding ground to scam unsuspecting customers, so I made sure that I checked the option to be reminded, and I made sure that the trial was set to be cancelled on the specific due date. I don't get why they need to authorize my card; I had JUST ordered two products with the same card, so it is not like my card wasn't legit.
You're joking, right? Do you not understand how free trials work? A) All of the terms and conditions are listed right there for you to read before signup, including the Auto-Renewal information. B) When you use a debit card or credit card to sign up for a trial, the company, Amazon in this case, charges your card an authorization of $1 (or one Euro) to prove that the card is legitimate, and then that authorization expires and refunds you the charge about three business days later. That's how all companies deal with free trials if they require you to supply debit or credit card information. There's nothing surprising about that, and anyone that has done a free trial before knows these things. It's not some scam to take a buck from every user that signs up. Amazon rakes in far more cash than that every hour of the day.
No, I was not joking when I made this thread. Just because you know something, it doesn't mean that other people know it. Also, I have signed up for trials elsewhere before, and never been charged an authorization fee before. Either way, even after my card was authorized, they wouldn't remove the charge from my bank account, and when I spoke to my bank about it they were telling me that amazon were responsible for removing it. When I went to amazon about removing it, they were telling me that my bank were the ones who were supposed to remove it. So I was stuck unable to access £10 of my money thanks to this authorization charge that would not go away. This all began on July 29th, and I have only just had the £1 returned to my bank balance.
I've never signed up for Amazon Prime, but I really don't like auto-renewing subscriptions. If I sign up for something and enjoy the service or product, I will make it a point to renew when or before the subscription period ends. I just had to cancel a magazine and have the auto-pay money reimbursed, because I wasn't aware it was auto-renewal. Whenever I've signed up for something that needed to verify payment, the fee was much less than $1, usually only a few cents, and that usually was deducted from the first purchase, if the subscription involved purchases. Personally, I find auto-renewals to be scammy, and I avoid them whenever possible.
It's only thanks to my recent issue with Prime that my mother discovered that she'd been paying for prime since last year November. She's not happy that she wasted her money, but it can't be helped now, and so she's not about to dwell on it. I really don't like how easy they make it for you to subscribe to the trial. You didn't have to enter any details or anything. I was just curious and clicked the link that said free two day delivery. Next thing I knew, I was an amazon trial member, and everything felt out of my control from there. I can understand your disdain for auto renewal subscriptions. They are so iffy to me. They are scammy. People have said that they did not receive the reminder email from amazon telling them to cancel their prime trial before they are due to be charged too.
This is why it's so important to pay attention to your bank and credit card accounts every month. Had she been looking at her transactions, she would've noticed the unknown charge in less time and been able to cancel it much sooner.
Well, I had asked my mother about any unknown charges that she may be getting, and she told me that she wasn't getting any. But then we discovered that Prime charged annually. It's £79 a year, which feels even sneakier, because if you only have one reminder a year, you are less likely to cancel or even know it is there, and then they can charge you for another year.
One of the things is that if you have any card details on file with Amazon then they will use them regardless. I had a Prime trial, but the card I used had no money on it (debit card) so they saw I had another card on file and used that one instead. If you had no cards on file the money wouldn't have gone through, but Amazon do encourage you keep cards on file for a quick check out.
I know that they do this, because the card that my mother registered her Amazon Prime with is no longer valid, and when you log into her account, it has this message prompting you to update payment settings either manually, or they will use other payment cards that you have with them in order to get your money. It is really annoying and scammy,
I'm glad that you finally got that resolved, DreekLass! It can be such a nightmare, and it's for that reason that I won't sample the AmazonPrime service. I hate the auto subscription bit, which I think is annoying because it's so easy to totally forget to cancel it before it kicks in. I think that's why businesses like to offer these free trial periods.
Thank you It was a nightmare that lasted for like two weeks. What annoyed me the most was that all of the Amazon employees that I spoke to didn't seem to know the procedure to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. They were under the impression that it was my bank's responsibility and I was much more inclined to trust what my bank was saying over Amazon, because their employees has lied to me in their attempt to placate me a few times. I cancelled my amazon prime, and if they still charge my card, I am going to be furious.
Some companies, like Amazon, will charge a small transaction to your account while you are under a free trial to make sure the banking information you gave them is correct, and that you have money in the account. It is not that uncommon for companies to charge a small fee like $1 to your account when you sign up for a free trial as it helps to protect their interests. They have to foot the bill during the trial period and so they need to make sure they are not getting scammed. The terms and conditions are normally laid out pretty well, it is just that many people don't bother to read the fine print.
I know, I've experienced such a thing from a select few other online business before. But I find that annoying, when it takes a fight to get your money returned to your account, especially when they are telling you that they are going to return a US dollar to your account, instead of the Great British Pound that was deducted. Also, I'd just ordered two items with that same card, so it was so obviously legitimate and correct.
