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The scam that is Visa Account Updater

21•mountainriver•5h ago
Visa Account Updater is a service by which if you change your credit card number, or even close and open a new credit card account, Visa can give a merchant your new credit card details for subscription services without ever asking your permission

I ran into an issue where I had some subscriptions that were very difficult to cancel, so I decided to just cancel that credit card number. I called Wells Fargo, told them to give me a new credit card number, which they did and I moved on with my life.

Next month, a bunch of the same charges. I call them back, they tell me about Visa Account Updater. I am extremely taken back that this is even possible. I told them I didn't want to be a part of that program, they told me that Visa handles this and not them. I call Visa and they tell me they don't handle this and that Wells Fargo does.

I call back Wells Fargo, they tell me they have no idea how to opt out of it. The lady asks her manager, the manager also doesn't know. She spends some time searching their documentation, nothing in the docs. She tells me the sure fire way is to close the account entirely and create a new account with a new card. I'm deeply annoyed but go ahead and do this.

Next month, guess what? A bunch of the same charges again, on a fresh account I haven't even activated the credit card for. I call Wells Fargo back, they talk more about Visa Account Updater but have no way of turning it off or rectifying the situation.

I'm now on hold for the last two hours as they try to figure out what to do about this. I can't believe this is even legal, its the most insane business practice I've ever seen. I get that this may be handy in some situations but its clearly a scam designed to perpetuate charging subscriptions to credit cards.

Hope this helps the next person.

Comments

altairprime•5h ago
Amex will issue merchant blocks to prevent future charges; perhaps your issuer can do so? (This is a suggestion to help immediate mitigation only.)
mountainriver•5h ago
Yeah I did this now, I'm just left without the $500 they stole
mtmail•5h ago
> Next month, guess what? A bunch of the same charges again

What kind of charges? Did you cancel the subscriptions, disputed them with the bank? Sometimes I read advice to "just cancel the card" instead of proper cancelling a subscription.

exidy•4h ago
This may not even be a case of Visa Account Updater. Recurrent charges (subscriptions, gyms etc) may not even be sent online, they are just processed in batch. Visa/Mastercard is a dual message system where a real-time auth is followed by an overnight batch which clears the auth and posts the actual transaction to the account. Transactions posted in batch cannot be denied per se, but can generate automatic reversals that would be sent in the next batch.

Under the bonnet, card hosts like Base2000 have an underlying account number for the credit facility, and various PANs (card numbers) are attached to that. Even if a singular card is cancelled, transactions posted in batch can be routed to the appropriate credit facility as the host knows all current and past PANs.

If you have subscriptions that are difficult to cancel, the best path is to ask your bank to block and/or dispute the transactions in question. Getting a new card with a new PAN may not be sufficient.

soared•3h ago
Good doc on PANs https://stripe.com/resources/more/primary-account-numbers
cassonmars•4h ago
>difficult to cancel subscriptions

>magically reroutes to new card numbers no matter how complicated the change

>out $500

I don't need to play 20 Questions to know you're talking about legalzoom

aojdwhsd•4h ago
I used to work at a different bank, and we were able to disable the auto billing update on a card so that when we went to close the card and send one with a new number, no merchants would be notified of the new account. Some workers didn't know this could be done... I'd be surprised if Wells Fargo didn't have a way to turn this off.
paxys•3h ago
Cancelling a credit card doesn't mean the linked subscriptions just disappear. Plenty of people find that out the hard way when their unpaid bills are sent to collections.
FireBeyond•2h ago
Right. But it's also not the bank (or Visa's) job to act as an arbiter for paying my subscriptions, especially if I'm in dispute with the merchant. If I am advising the bank / issuer that I do not want to authorize these transactions, it's not on them to say "well, we're here to help them continue to be able to authorize them, not for you to keep your money."

That's an issue between me and the merchant. I don't want MY bank acting as an enabler for the merchant over my wishes, with my money.

exidy•1h ago
You're thinking like an engineer. From the perspective of the bank, you (the individual) has given a merchant (gym etc) a standing authority to bill you. That authority is between you and the merchant, not between your specific card number and their payment processor. Having your card reissued is not a withdrawal of that authority.

Based on the brief detail provided, I think OP's mistake was to cancel/reissue the card rather than dispute the charge / block the merchant.

scottydelta•3h ago
For subscriptions, you should use a service like privacy.com or corporate companies like mercury, brex, ramp etc which provides digital cards that you can set limits on.

They also provide ability to pause card after which no transaction would go through.

toomuchtodo•2h ago
Side note: Wells Fargo is a terrible bank, never use them.
FireBeyond•2h ago
Once upon a time, Keybank refused to block a merchant from debiting my account (I can't remember if by card or account number, it was a decade ago), because, they said, "if I hadn't canceled, I had an active subscription". They seemed apathetic to the concept that it wasn't their job to facilitate the merchant's attempt to have payment rendered (if I'm having a hard time canceling a subscription and this is my resort, then that's between me and the merchant. The bank is a neutral party, at worst - ideally they should be supportive of me saying "I don't want this entity to take my money").

Closed my account and moved on.

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