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Credit card expired, but exercise club billed the card for months

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ottawascammed

Junior Member
Hello,
This past spring , my landlord relocated me to another place in order to renovate my house, and I was living at an apartment for eight months

My VISA credit card expired in September. I was still living at the other apartment. I had a biweekly debit payment to an exercise club automatically deducting $20 every two weeks from my credit card. I was not using the club as it was too far away from my temporary address, so I decided that I would let the credit card expire and not renew it, and thought that it would also cancel my payments to exercise club.

I made the error of not cancelling my membership , on the assumption that when the credit card expired, the exercise club's charges to the card would also not go through. What I did not know was that the credit card company, Visa, had, without my permission, sent me a replacement (renewed) VISA card in the mail. I was not aware of VISA having sent me this card, and due to the renovations at my original address, the card was lost in the mail. (I periodically checked the mailbox while the renovations were being conducted, and never took possession of this card.)

Though I had not been to the exercise club in months, the exercise club never called me, and instead 'forced through' the charges to the expired card.
I never validated/activated the renewed VISA card that VISA sent, because I never received it, and was not aware that it had been sent.

Only today did I found out that I now owe hundreds of dollars on what I thought was an expired and inactive VISA card.

I called VISA and asked if they would do something about this, since this problem was partially caused by the apparent theft of a card that I had never requested.

The young female customer service agent was extremely rude, and insisted
that the entire thing was all my fault.

please help if you can, I need some advice
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Hello,
This past spring , my landlord relocated me to another place in order to renovate my house, and I was living at an apartment for eight months

My VISA credit card expired in September. I was still living at the other apartment. I had a biweekly debit payment to an exercise club automatically deducting $20 every two weeks from my credit card. I was not using the club as it was too far away from my temporary address, so I decided that I would let the credit card expire and not renew it, and thought that it would also cancel my payments to exercise club.

I made the error of not cancelling my membership , on the assumption that when the credit card expired, the exercise club's charges to the card would also not go through. What I did not know was that the credit card company, Visa, had, without my permission, sent me a replacement (renewed) VISA card in the mail. I was not aware of VISA having sent me this card, and due to the renovations at my original address, the card was lost in the mail. (I periodically checked the mailbox while the renovations were being conducted, and never took possession of this card.)

Though I had not been to the exercise club in months, the exercise club never called me, and instead 'forced through' the charges to the expired card.
I never validated/activated the renewed VISA card that VISA sent, because I never received it, and was not aware that it had been sent.

Only today did I found out that I now owe hundreds of dollars on what I thought was an expired and inactive VISA card.

I called VISA and asked if they would do something about this, since this problem was partially caused by the apparent theft of a card that I had never requested.

The young female customer service agent was extremely rude, and insisted
that the entire thing was all my fault.

please help if you can, I need some advice
This is not Visa's fault and this is not the club's fault. You failed to cancel your membership.
 

efflandt

Senior Member
Even if you close a card in writing, it is automatically reopened if charges you authorized arrive. And you authorized the reoccuring charges while your card was active. You certainly cannot assume a credit card is closed out just because the one you have is expired.

So you cannot blame the club for charging you for a membership you did not cancel on a credit card you failed to cancel. Even if the card rejected the charges from the exercise club, you would still be liable for those charges.
 

ottawascammed

Junior Member
This is not Visa's fault and this is not the club's fault. You failed to cancel your membership.
I had hoped that it would be less a question of 'finding fault' in this than a question of finding a decent resolution.

I am on a disability pension with extremely low income, and I had hoped that Visa might have some kind of insurance recourse to cover such things as this.

I never requested a replacement card, and the replacement card that they sent to me against my wishes was stolen, which was a factor in this, though not the direct cause of this.

If I had received the card, I would have known that it was necessary to cancel the membership.



Even if the card rejected the charges from the exercise club, you would still be liable for those charges.
Yes, but I would have at least been alerted to the situation.
Visa sent me a card that I had never requested, and it was stolen.
Visa deal with compensating victims of stolen cards all the time,
so this situation, though different, should not be automatically ignored.

This exercise club is questionable for 'forcing through' the charges and not contacting me though I had not set foot into the club in months, and the least they could have done was called me or emailed me to check on the situation.

I know, the mechanics of the thing allow the club to legally conduct themselves this way, but could Visa take all of these factors into consideration in some sort of appeals process?
 

Settle4Less

Junior Member
Recurring Memberships

I had hoped that it would be less a question of 'finding fault' in this than a question of finding a decent resolution.

I am on a disability pension with extremely low income, and I had hoped that Visa might have some kind of insurance recourse to cover such things as this.

I never requested a replacement card, and the replacement card that they sent to me against my wishes was stolen, which was a factor in this, though not the direct cause of this.

If I had received the card, I would have known that it was necessary to cancel the membership.





Yes, but I would have at least been alerted to the situation.
Visa sent me a card that I had never requested, and it was stolen.
Visa deal with compensating victims of stolen cards all the time,
so this situation, though different, should not be automatically ignored.

This exercise club is questionable for 'forcing through' the charges and not contacting me though I had not set foot into the club in months, and the least they could have done was called me or emailed me to check on the situation.

I know, the mechanics of the thing allow the club to legally conduct themselves this way, but could Visa take all of these factors into consideration in some sort of appeals process?
The auto-charging recurring memberships are in place specifically to ensure ongoing revenue regardless of usage. Even though it is somewhat convenient to the consumer not having to remember to send in payments every month; the company should have in place a non-use clause in the contract that allows for a credit or automatic pausing of the account, which could be reactivated upon your return.

I would not feel too bad about continuing to fight the charges and keep calling and trying to find someone at the gym or visa who has some compassion and will help.
 

I'mTheFather

Senior Member
The auto-charging recurring memberships are in place specifically to ensure ongoing revenue regardless of usage. Even though it is somewhat convenient to the consumer not having to remember to send in payments every month; the company should have in place a non-use clause in the contract that allows for a credit or automatic pausing of the account, which could be reactivated upon your return.

I would not feel too bad about continuing to fight the charges and keep calling and trying to find someone at the gym or visa who has some compassion and will help.
While that may be useful information for others having this issue, I'm quite sure that the OP in this thread has resolved this problem sometime within the past 7 years. :rolleyes:
 

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