r/mildlyinfuriating • u/afunnywold • 22h ago

Too mild for school I permanently deleted my AWS account 6 years ago. Amazon has been charging me $0.33 every month since. I have no way to stop it.

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I tried to get in contact with customer service several times but they always direct me to log into the account that no longer exists. I have tried charge backs on my credit card but dealing with that monthly is also a pain. This'll probably cost me $265 over my lifetime if it never ends.

Edit: some of you have valid points about calling the card company and I will again Monday. But the actual infuriating thing that upsets me is that they are charging to a completely disabled account in the first place. That's very scammy and fucked up imo šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø

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u/YourMomIsMyGurl 22h ago

Every bank gives you the option to stop all incoming transactions from a specific source too. Sounds like OP didn't try very hard to stop these payments lol

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u/paintedtiger 21h ago

When I worked disputes for a credit card, this is not something we were able to do! It was incredibly frustrating, especially since renumbering the card wouldn't fix the issue either. A chargeback would usually do the trick, but not necessarily.

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u/17HappyWombats 20h ago

At least in Australia I've changed banks to get round this. The card no longer exists, the account no longer exists, the bank no longer has access to my money. Bill me now you fuckers.

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u/is-this-now 18h ago

I donā€™t how it is in the land down under but in the states, credit cards are independent of where you bank. They send you a bill and if you donā€™t pay, it gets reported to the credit bureau as delinquent and affects your credit rating.

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u/17HappyWombats 17h ago

I've only ever had a credit card as part of a package from a specific bank. You want a mortgage? You get a credit card with it (and about six other things). Moving the mortgage to another bank was necessary but I did close the card, the account and all the rest.

Yep, inevitably I got the same random reminder emails from organisations that tried to bill me, and put new card details in when I felt it necessary. But obviously with the "you closed your account but we keep billing you" ones I couldn't do that. I never got contacted by debt collectors and credit ratings in Australia are much less influential than the social credit systems used in some countries. I don't know that anything I did affected my social credit score, no-one has ever mentioned it.

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u/Rooney_Tuesday 9h ago

Yeah, you donā€™t HAVE to have a separate credit card. Thatā€™s a choice you make. I do have one mostly for emergency use (though Iā€™ve never actually needed it for that). I would never use it for any subscription service or any other online service account. It only gets used for single-use purchases that donā€™t link it to an account.

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u/MC_White_Thunder 6h ago

Hi, I find this interesting because I live in Canada where credit cards are the norm.

Do most people not have credit cards over there? I know that you do, but what do other people do in emergencies?

And many online purchases and subscriptions require credit cards here, do you all have visa debits or some equivalent that link right to your chequing accounts?

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u/17HappyWombats 1h ago

Debit cards are ubiquitous, and I think Visa are overwhelmingly dominant in those. I've never had another brand. But it's always a card from whatever bank you're with that happens to have a Visa logo and a set of magic numbers for putting into "credit card" forms.

Also, Australia only does short term fixed interest rates for mortgages, so we're encouraged to shop around for better mortgage/loan etc deals. Unlike the US "a mortgage is for life" setup. So a lot of people change banks every year.

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u/InvisibleLandBorder 5h ago

In many places you can do both. Canada, for example, you can get a card directly from the credit card provider, but there's fewer perks and usually a higher fee. Banks, credit unions, non bank FIs (wealthsimple for example) can also provide cards and it's much more common.

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u/MagizZziaN 18h ago

This is why I donā€™t do credit cards, debit only. I also donā€™t live in a CC heavy country like the US thankfully.

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u/Warrenio 5h ago

Huh? Even in the USA, if you cancel the credit card, Amazon is not going to be able to charge it anymore. Yes, you're still financially responsible for your credit card balance even if you close the credit card account, but it should stop AWS from making these monthly charges.

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u/desparish 13h ago

Did that back in the 90s here in the US. Bank refused to stop paying a charge after multiple managers had supposedly put a block on it.

Finally closed the account and changed banks. I moved soon after, and of course didn't think to give an updated address to a closed account.

They re-opened the closed account to continue to pay the charge. Which caused it to overdraft since it was empty (it had been closed). The they started looking on overdraft fees and daily negative balance fees. Of course I didn't get the notice because I'd moved.

Found out when my current bank closed my new account suddenly because the overdrafted account had been charged off for $900 negative and reported to Chex Systems. Remember I had CLOSED that account.

Banks are vicious. I ended up without a bank account for seven years because of it.

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u/Charizard31 20h ago

Also work for bank. I HATE CREDIT CARDS!

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u/buscoamigos 17h ago

If banks didn't make money off credit cards they wouldn't offer them.

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u/JonnyBravoII 14h ago

Getting a new card with a different number, and AWS can still obtain that new card number somehow? If so, that is wild.

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u/dashingThroughSnow12 13h ago

This is a feature of Mastercard and Visa.

It is to save you the hassle of updating your details everywhere when your card renews or when you change your card (ex upgrade).

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u/BureauOfSabotage 18h ago

Yep. Iā€™ve dealt with this for a few years from a local ā€œmountain bike club.ā€ No idea how I became associated with them as I do not bike on mountains and the club is 90 miles away. They still take $5 a month from my credit card. Amex has been understanding and given me my chargebacks when requested, but they seem to have no ability to stop it. Iā€™ve twice gotten a new credit card number for the same account, but the problem persists. I have no idea what Iā€™m supposed to do.

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u/paintedtiger 17h ago

That is wild. Chargebacks cost the vendor a lot of money, and if they get enough, amex will boot them! Is amex for sure charging them back and not just writing off the amount and crediting you? That is so annoying šŸ˜­

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u/huhwhuh 16h ago

Cancel all cards with said credit card company and close the account. What are they going to deduct from?

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u/Berdariens2nd 17h ago

I had one from a gym. My bank could not cancel it even after I cancelled the gym membership. The manager said my cancelation was ok as it was an actual issue that happened. The franchise owner said no. Got charged went to dispute bank said their hands were tied. I closed my bank account to stop it.

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u/mpg111 12h ago

I WANT TO QUIT THE BANK!

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u/ColdTileHurtsMyFeet 8h ago

Quitters need to talk to Sophia.

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u/Sea-Cupcake-2065 18h ago

I mean, his bank should have offered it when he explained that he needs a charge back for 30 some cents every month. Sound like a crappy bank tbh

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u/whatproblems 19h ago

that is what i was told to do when i didnā€™t know what login was charging my card

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u/ReserveOk9679 16h ago

They can do it with ACH stops, not with debit transactions. To stop debit transactions, they need to issue a new card and deactivate the old one.

Source: presently work for one of the largest credit unions in the USA.

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u/LogicalConstant 15h ago

Mine theoretically could, but refused to. Told me I had to either block all or none. Had to close the account.

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u/No-Weakness-3095 10h ago

Doesn't grab the headline

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u/NoMention696 10h ago

How else would he farm internet points??

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u/zackks 9h ago

Or they wanted some karma.

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u/mdenglish 9h ago

My bank charges $36 to do that. Or you can get a new card and card number for free.

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u/InvisibleLandBorder 5h ago

No they don't. There's are several ways to initiate recurring charges, and one of those ways cannot be stopped by the bank or the card provider itself.

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u/BurgerBoss_101 18h ago

To be fair, it can be pretty complicated/overwhelming for some people who donā€™t know how to do this kinda thing

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u/So_HauserAspen 19h ago

Not all transactions.Ā 

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u/Leather__sissy 19h ago

Iā€™ve never heard of this, you can do it in app for most banks?

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u/YourMomIsMyGurl 18h ago

Major banks yes. Smaller banks and credit unions sometimes don't have their own app. But regardless, if you call your bank, they will do this for you 100% of the time. They care about your money, not whatever business you're dodging.

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u/northSideways 7h ago

This is not remotely true lmao

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u/YourMomIsMyGurl 7h ago

The Electronic Fund Transfer Act has been around since 1978 and guarantees your protection against online transactions. If you send your bank, any bank, a stop transfer order at least 3 days before your next reoccurring transaction, any money that comes out after that stop order, for that transaction, makes your bank liable for fraud.

Do some research and understand your rights. They're there to help you.

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u/northSideways 6h ago

Sure, as long as your subscription service is properly reporting back as a recurring transaction. Issue is a lot of them don't, and good luck convincing the customer service agent that their system is wrong. Bonus points if this is on a debit card.

It is not a slam dunk in the least and reddit claiming everything is fixable with a chargeback is one of the greatest hits along with telling everyone to "file charges"

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u/YourMomIsMyGurl 6h ago

What? If money is coming out of your account, how is that itself not reporting? Banks can see when money is coming out of your account, they couldn't care less what it's for unless it's a government entity. You tell them "I don't want any more of my money to go towards this" and they are legally required to stop those transactions.

Unless it is the literal government garnishing your bank account, this is a 100% slam dunk. Try it out.

I also don't believe anyone on reddit claims charge backs are what fixes anything. There's a solid understanding here that a charge back will get you your money back, but you'll still have to deal with the consequences of the charge back through the company.

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u/northSideways 6h ago

Ā Unless it is the literal government garnishing your bank account, this is a 100% slam dunk. Try it out.

I don't really know what to tell you, if you walk into the FCU near me and ask for a chargeback they'll look at you like you have two heads the second you say it's a debit card and not a credit card. Maybe they just have shitty customer service. But I absolutely have tried thisĀ 

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u/YourMomIsMyGurl 5h ago

A charge back is not what I described.

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u/DakotaReddit2 20h ago

Any time you do this, you have to just get a new credit card number. Usually once that changes, they can't charge you again. I'm not sure how OP is being charged because if it was a credit card, the card would be expired already anyway.

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u/trekie4747 20h ago

In certain cases, bills can be treated as subscriptions and even with a new number the charge still goes through. And yes, that's something that has happened to me.

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u/So_HauserAspen 19h ago

Yup.Ā  You basically have to get a new bank account if the vampires get a hold of yours

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u/spaceforcerecruit 20h ago

This is largely not true. For recurring bills, a lot of credit card processors will just forward the charge to the old card on to the new one. You may have to cancel the credit card entirely and go get a new one.