Significance of Expiration Date on Credit Card

[kaneohe]

I know I'm always asked for this expiration date when ordering stuff online or by phone so I have assumed you can't complete the transaction if that info is not given. This month my municipal utility noted an upcoming expiration date coming up in a few months and requested the new date which seems in agreement.

Yet I have my local phone, cellphone, and CATV bills autopaid to a credit card and am quite sure they've never asked and I've never called in a new expiration date. My mail order pharmacy also has billed an order to a card to which I had never given them the new expiration date.

How are these two views compatible? Do large national companies (ATT, Comcast) get treated differently? Or is the expiration date not really necessary?

 

[hakuna matata]

Hmmm...on every account I have tied to a credit card, I have always gotten notice that the expiration date is coming up. I can't think of a single instance where I wasn't notified to be honest.

 

[audreyh1]

Expiration date is part of the card verification at first, I suspect.

I've noticed some companies insist that I give them a new date after expiry, but others not. I suspect that companies doing regular monthly billing that doesn't require annual renewal have some leeway with the credit card companies. I think once I noticed one company magically had the new expiry date.

I did have a company terminate a subscription when it tried to auto renew after the expiry date.

 

[kaneohe]

Expiration date is part of the card verification at first, I suspect.

I've noticed some companies insist that I give them a new date after expiry, but others not. I suspect that companies doing regular monthly billing that doesn't require annual renewal have some leeway with the credit card companies. I think once I noticed one company magically had the new expiry date.

I did have a company terminate a subscription when it tried to auto renew after the expiry date.

I'm beginning to suspect there are cliques whose computers talk to each other. My credit cards are autopaid via a broker checking account. Once the broker changed the account........including the bank.......but didn't tell me anything about the change. Yet the credit cards kept getting paid.
The broker told me I could continue to use the old checks at my risk.....meaning someday they might not work.

 

[RonBoyd]

All of our (scheduled) bills are paid by automatically billing a Credit Card. I have, in all cases, been asked to update" my account around the expiration date... sometimes after (Grrrrr).

BTW, the verification number on the back of the card is dependent on the expiration date (among other things).

 

[travelover]

I had a few cards replaced as a security precaution and yet some of my auto pay nonprofit donations keep rolling along on a dead, expired card.