If you don't check every last item on your credit card statement in detail, then you should. I used to, but, just lately, have just scanned through the monthly statements, focusing in on the larger sums.
And anyway, everyone must have had the experience of the company name on the credit card statement being different from that of the shop, actual or online, where the purchase was made......
Those are my excuses anyway
For whatever reason, earlier today, I paid closer attention than in the last few months to every single debit, including, when I checked earlier statements, regular monthly debits by "VPRewards.com" and "Clubprem.com", £9.95/month for each, totalling, over a 7 month period, £139.30
OK, hands up, I should have picked these up before, but they were, each month, relatively small amounts.
The source? 7 months ago I succumbed to a "free" offer from Vistaprint, - I write "free" since the P&P charges would have paid for the P&P at least three times over; but that meant that VistaPrint now had my credit card details.
Contact with my credit card company and mentioning "VPRewards.com" and "Clubprem.com", produced the immediate question "Have you bought anything from VistaPrint?", the answer, obviously, being in the affirmative
The agent then went on to explain to me that, had I read every last word of the small print, I'd have discovered that unless I checked a certain box, I was automatically signing up to monthly suscriptions to "VPRewards.com" and "Clubprem.com", at a rate for each of £9.95 .
That's verging on the illegal in the UK, - i.e. positive action is required, - which was why, when I rang the telephone nmuber provided for VistaPrint by my credit card number, my memberships of "VPRewards.com" and "Clubprem.com" were not only cancelled with immediate effect, but all charges made to my credit card refunded, - except that it could be a few weeks before the credit appears on my statement, so that I'm still interested to see if this promised refund does really materialise ................
BTW, that special telephone number was required as the telephone numbers given on the websites didn't work, neither was it possible to login by giving my telephone number or the number of the credit card involved, - just my bad luck, I suppose, to try on a day when the sites were having problems <insert here "tongue in cheek" smilie
![[help]](./images/smilies/help-sos.gif "[help]"){kind=small}
>Watch this space.
What am I supposed to have received from my memberships of "VPRewards.com" and "Clubprem.com"?, - the most exciting regular emails informing me of new, special offers at VistaPrint, and, I suspect, a few other company names,- aye, that'll be right
![[5 cups]](./images/smilies/sm-5cups.gif "[5 cups]"){kind=small}
One good outcome was picking up on another such "subscription", this one to freedownloadzone. com, again for £9.95/month, but this one had been running for just two months. I did sign up to lifetime membership of this site for a one-off payment, and bought one piece of software, but once again, I somehow missed the fact that by not checking a certain box, I was automatically signed up to £9.95/month for "technical support"
Contact, but via the cost of a transatlantic telephone call (then connected to a call centre in the Indian sub-continent
), resulted in a cancellation of the subscription and the refund of the last month's £9.95, but no more; and then the credit card company themselves cancelled the other £9.95. Interestingly, for disputed sums of less than £10, there's no longer a long drawn out dispute procedure, just an immediate cancellation.
A cautionary tale indeed .....................
David
