This Is Why Everyone Already Has an Expiration Date for Your New Credit Card.
You just received a new credit card in the mail, just before your old one expires. Does this mean you need to rush to update your recurring subscription payments?
Maybe not. Someone must have gotten ahead of you. And I’m not even talking about scammers ! Everything is fine.
How Automatic Updates Work
The auto-renewal service can update everything from expiration dates and account numbers to CVV numbers and closed account notifications for businesses that process tons of credit cards. Provided by a network of credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, etc.), the Service allows retailers to regularly send a list of invoices for updates.
Depending on when these listings are sent back and forth, your subscriptions may renew before you receive your new card in the mail. Some account renewal services even offer real-time updates, which are triggered after the card has been declined for a second payment.
Auto-renewal services “are designed to keep customers running smoothly,” said Beverly Harzog, a credit card author for US News and World Report. “So you don’t have to worry about being rejected if something has changed in your card information.”
And this hassle-free experience ensures that there are no income interruptions for those services for which you have agreed to invest money on a regular basis. Ted Rossman , an analyst at CreditCards.com, said the services became more popular a few years ago when everyone started receiving new chip cards . “Netflix even mentioned during a teleconference that this is a threat to business,” he explained to a series of new card mailings. “So many people got new cards and some forgot to renew their subscriptions.”
You probably signed up for this
What if you didn’t want your next Jelly of the Month surprise box? “Some consumers are unhappy that they don’t want to update this information,” Rossman said. “You think your card is about to expire, you don’t need to cancel, and your subscription will just disappear.” But this is not the case if this business uses an update service.
The Harzog said that you probably agreed to this action when you signed the terms for the card. But you can still refuse the service. “If you feel uncomfortable with that, you can opt out and still have complete control over your information,” Harzog said. “There is nothing wrong with that, but you need to know when changes are taking place.”
“Even if you have some things that update automatically, you still need to know,” she advised. “You need to check your online accounts at least every few days.”