When Costco switched credit card issuers, cardholder accounts were transferred from the Card from Costco and American Express to the Costco Anywhere Visa®Card by Citi. Bill Halpin was one customer who was taken aback to hear that the automatic payments he had set up on his previous American Express card would not follow him to his new card.
All of those charges would have to be transferred to the new card manually by him. The number is higher than 40. I've accumulated all these monthly fees over the past 16 years. It took him hours to erase the charges he set up to streamline his bill-paying process, which he finds amusing.
Recurring charges cannot now be promptly transferred from one card to another, which is an issue. An overdue fee may be assessed if you fail to submit one. What's even worse is that critical services could be abruptly terminated. Not only Costco members are impacted by these complex changes. If one of your credit cards has been compromised due to a security breach, loss, theft, or hacking, you may need to go through this procedure.
Examine your recent credit card statements
To quote a Costco representative, "there is currently no complete solution for any credit card company to automatically migrate all recurring payments to a new credit card or credit card number," explains Bev Akada. She recommends that anyone with a Costco American Express card look over their historical records and circle any charges that appear to be reoccurring. This was a significant challenge for Halpin. AmEx should have provided him with a comprehensive list of his automatic payments. A representative from American Express did not return a call seeking comment.) But this is fairly common: There is no source for this data among the biggest U.S. credit card companies.
That's why it's important to review your bank and credit card statements thoroughly before making any financial moves related to your charges. Halpin transferred his finances to a spreadsheet using the Mint budgeting tool. Around 40 reoccurring charges were discovered after he spent an hour digging.
Going through this lengthy process could be helpful to use an app like Trim, which sends you a text message with a list of recurring monthly costs and guides you through cancelling the ones you don't want.
Take another look at what you've said.
A yearly "set it and forget it" payment can quickly get lost in a sea of one-time fees. Such services include Consumer Reports, Angie's List, and annual membership services like Amazon Prime. Other instances include agreements for home security services or storage facilities. You should also adjust your payment choices on any other apps or websites (like Uber, Amazon, or iTunes) where you have kept your card. Even though these aren't technically "recurring charges," your card will be refused if you don't make the necessary adjustments.
Recognize that certain shopkeepers
It's more convenient for you if your credit card number changes; it's inconvenient for the businesses that depend on you for regular payments. Some services resolve this issue by coordinating with financial institutions to update your details instantly.
Let's pretend you misplaced your Visa card, and the issuing bank promptly replaced it. Like some other internet and phone companies, Netflix can immediately access your new card information if you register it with Visa's Account Updater service. In most cases, Apple Pay and other mobile wallets will also update your account details.
Not all shops make use of these upgrading services, though. Plus, they don't function when switching between different networks, like when Costco switched from AmEx to Visa.
Unwanted memberships should be terminated.
There's a good chance you'd say, "I don't need all of them," after seeing a long list of recurrent fees. Don't just let your money sit there if that happens. You risk incurring late penalties if you disregard the merchant's requests to change your billing information. Certain stores may send your account to collections if you have too many late payments. That can lower your credit score.
In such a case, do it properly and terminate your unwanted subscriptions. If the charges continue after you've done so, you can file a challenge if you have proof that you made the request—store all of your reoccurring fees in one place.
There is no easy solution when you have several recurring charges like Halpin and are looking to shift them. We'll have to make do with unsatisfactory workarounds until either merchant makes it simpler to adjust payment preferences or issuers start offering lists of recurring charges to consumers.
