automatic renewals and the WSJ

[rbmrtn]

I found another blurb on this, Can an Old Credit Card Number Still Be Charged? | eHow

There maybe some loop hole in the rules. But is seems it is an individuals bank policy that allows it , BoA seems to be an offender, which is probably not what the regs intended. If they charged something on an account I closed I would not pay it. This seems crazy, there is no way to stop a recurring charge ?

 

[jerome len]

If you fly Delta you can get the wsj very cheap......about 2700 miles for nearly a year of both paper and digital editions. Just go into Delta, go to use miles section and click on newspapers. Put the paper in your wifes or kids name (they say you can't do this if you were a subscriber) and you have nearly a year for miles worth about 27 bucks. I buy people, Money, Barrons and WSJ for about 6000 miles each year. I don't know about othe airlines, but I know this is available on Delta. Anyone else ever done this?

 

[Ready]

If you fly Delta you can get the wsj very cheap......about 2700 miles for nearly a year of both paper and digital editions. Just go into Delta, go to use miles section and click on newspapers. Put the paper in your wifes or kids name (they say you can't do this if you were a subscriber) and you have nearly a year for miles worth about 27 bucks. I buy people, Money, Barrons and WSJ for about 6000 miles each year. I don't know about othe airlines, but I know this is available on Delta. Anyone else ever done this?

All the time, and not just with Delta. Almost every airline lets you do this quite easily.

 

[bUU]

This seems crazy, there is no way to stop a recurring charge ?

Apparently not. There is only lip-service paid to consumer protection in our economy, and here's a great example of the downside of that.

 

[ERD50]

This obviously a hot button for others so I think I will pursue this with the State Attorney General's office. It feels a bit foolish, since I wasn't harmed because I got all my money back. Still it is a matter of principal, and one of the joys of being retired, is you've got time to go tilting after windmills.

Good luck with that. Over 10 years ago, I got a classic Bait & Switch for some car audio (or photo?) equipment I bought on-line. They basically kept delaying my order, giving me a bunch of excuses, but then they said they could 'ship today' if I bought the bundle, with a bunch of useless over-priced junk. The whole time, their site showed the product "IN STOCK!!!!"


I manged to cancel the order, and I was so torqued that I got the complaint forms from the NY Attorney General's office (I might have even had them mailed to me back then?). Well, the form asks you to list damages. My damages were zero because I didn't fall for the Bait & Switch.

Plus, I had to send all this personal info in, and they would get a copy. I didn't like sending that to crooks, at least that shouldn't be a concern with the WSJ.

I guess this is where the Class Action lawyers make their bucks. Claim a $10 loss to a million people, and take a %.


-ERD50

 

[clifp]

If you fly Delta you can get the wsj very cheap......about 2700 miles for nearly a year of both paper and digital editions. Just go into Delta, go to use miles section and click on newspapers. Put the paper in your wifes or kids name (they say you can't do this if you were a subscriber) and you have nearly a year for miles worth about 27 bucks. I buy people, Money, Barrons and WSJ for about 6000 miles each year. I don't know about othe airlines, but I know this is available on Delta. Anyone else ever done this?

I was able to find WSJ for 2700 on United and American, but not Hawaiian sadly the infamous asterisks was also shown. *Offer only available for the 48 contagious states. I did find a couple of magazines to buy with the 1,000 odd American Airlines points.

 

[Alan]

I'm not sure that is the case. I cancelled my credit card completely with Bank of America, only to find that skype automatically renewed my premium account on the cancelled card, which reactivated the card. I called Bank of America to complain, and they told me there was a new regulation that just took effect which allows a merchant to reactivate an expired or cancelled card if the card holder signed up for a service on it that automatically renews. This was the case even if the automatic renewal was not mandatory and I had the right to cancel immediately. I tried to dispute it and they got angry and hung up on me. Since the charge was legitimate, I just paid the bill and cancelled the card a second time.

Did a web search and came up with this. Pull the Plug on Recurring Charges - NASDAQ.com
That stinks. They don't link the regs, but hey, I'm no longer doubting.

I'm thinking that the next time I want to cancel a card I will first of all report it as lost getting the issuer to send out a new card with new number, then cancel the new card.

Surely an issuer cannot allow a recurring charge to a card that has been previously reported as lost or stolen.

 

[bUU]

That's an interesting idea.

 

[pb4uski]

Rather than pay the cost for WSJ, I chose to just get the weekend edition for $52/year.

When I got the WSJ daily I noticed that the weekend edition had much of the same news and I was having trouble keeping up with the daily paper anyway (playing too much golf I guess).

Once that expires, I may try the using miles to order it.

 

[jetpack]

I've occasionally seen free offers for 1 yr of the WSJ in print. I already get the digital edition through T Rowe Price for keeping investments there.

 

[jwkde]

I gave up on the WSJ for this very reason - the auto renewing and the annual dance to get a better rate.

I think their price increases over the past few years have been outrageous

 

[samclem]

I think their price increases over the past few years have been outrageous

This is one of "those things." Is the WSJ worth a buck per day? To me, it probably is--I enjoy the paper and it's amazing they can print it and get it to my door for this price. They are even good about temporarily changing my delivery location when we travel: One call and it starts showing up at my MIL's house when we visit. So, by this reasoning I shouldn't mind paying the full subscription price. It's worth it (to me).
But . . . Paying over $250 for a product my neighbor may be getting for $99 does not sit well. That's the price I'm used to paying, and I've got some internal resistance to paying a lot more. And then, as clifp notes, there's the sneaky way that the increases are implemented.

 

[braumeister]

FWIW, I switched last year from the paper (delivered) WSJ to only the iPad version. It's exactly the same as the paper copy, and their iPad app is the best implementation of a newspaper I've ever seen. I'm completely happy with it, and the cost is far lower than the full normal subscription.

 

[pb4uski]

This is one of "those things." Is the WSJ worth a buck per day? To me, it probably is--I enjoy the paper and it's amazing they can print it and get it to my door for this price. They are even good about temporarily changing my delivery location when we travel: One call and it starts showing up at my MIL's house when we visit. So, by this reasoning I shouldn't mind paying the full subscription price. It's worth it (to me).
But . . . Paying over $250 for a product my neighbor may be getting for $99 does not sit well. That's the price I'm used to paying, and I've got some internal resistance to paying a lot more. And then, as clifp notes, there's the sneaky way that the increases are implemented.

That is where I am. I enjoy the paper and $1 a day isn't a lot in the whole scheme of things but it is a lot more than the $99 game I played for a while. I did find that i had trouble keeping up with the daily paper - I would sometimes have several days in a pile to read. I don't think the $99 for a year deal is available any longer - I could only find a 12 week deal which is not worth the effort to me.

FWIW, I switched last year from the paper (delivered) WSJ to only the iPad version. It's exactly the same as the paper copy, and their iPad app is the best implementation of a newspaper I've ever seen. I'm completely happy with it, and the cost is far lower than the full normal subscription.

That may be a possibility for me but I'm still having trouble getting used to reading a newspaper or magazine on a tablet - silly I know, but... I guess I like the tactile feel of a magazine or newspaper - hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

 

[rbmrtn]

I gave up most paper/magazine subscriptions a while back. I use the local library. They have WSJ, Barrons, S&P Outlook, Value line survey, most of the major newspapers like NYT, USA today ( fluff mostly ) etc. They also have a good selection of magazines I like to read like Consumer Reports, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, Handyman, Scientific American etc. I can kill an afternoon once a week for free.

 

[clifp]

Just a quick update. After not hearing anything from the WSJ for several day I located the website for the Hawaii consumer protection agency.

The complaint form was pretty straightforward and I posted a shorter version of my original post. I had to submit via docusign and but I pretty sure it was delivered.
Sadly 10 later no response from the State. I will call next week and see if that gets better results. It is seem pretty symptomatic of the problem of our government we got lots of laws, not much in the way of enforcement.