The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

One of the things I detest about many web sites is that when you sign up for a subscription and pay with a credit card, the site automatically renews your subscription when it expires. Some web sites will automatically renew without even the courtesy of notifying you in advance. They keep on billing, and you cannot easily shut down the offending vendor. 

NOTE: Subscriptions to the Plus Edition of this newsletter DO NOT automatically renew. I consider that to be a shoddy business practice and I will not do that to my subscribers.

Of course, you could cancel the credit card itself, but that usually isn't convenient. 

Another risk, although rare, is that someone might obtain your credit card number surreptitiously and make illegal charges against it. While all online charges are insured by the credit card companies so that you will never lose any money, going through the process of filing a claim and getting your money back can be inconvenient, at best. I think it is better to stop such an illegal transaction BEFORE it occurs.

Luckily, these problems are easily prevented if you take appropriate steps in advance.

First, let's stop this "automatic renewal" process that is common on some web sites. I recently signed up for a (non-genealogy) web site's daily newsletter that provides investment advice. The site asked for my credit card number, requesting payment for one month's subscription. However, I did notice the small print on the sign-up page, stating that the site would automatically charge my credit card every month for renewal.

Such a policy apparently is perfectly legal, but I consider it inconvenient and a bit shady. I was signing up for something I had never seen before, something that I hoped would be worthwhile. In my mind, I was willing to pay for a month as a "trial subscription;" but I was not prepared to pay month after month for something I had not yet seen.

To be sure, there usually is a mechanism to cancel the subscription at any time. However, my past experience with such cancelation procedures is that they are often confusing and difficult to use. Often there is no method to cancel online; you have to call a telephone number and talk to someone with a nearly undecipherable accent. I suspect many people want to cancel, encounter the difficult cancellation procedure, and then give up. They continue to pay for something they no longer want. I decided to not let that happen to me.

I solved this by using a credit card that expires at the end of this month. If someone tries to renew a subscription after the expiration date, the credit card bounces because it has expired. This prevents any attempted new charges. (I could have made it expire 2 or 3 months from now or on any date I specify.) I know the company will need to contact me when the renewal time approaches. I can then make the decision whether or not I wish to renew. I am in the driver's seat, not the company that wishes to charge my card.

Unfortunately, you might not have a credit card that expires this month. In fact, neither did I – until I created one. Luckily, that is easy to do with some credit cards. A number of credit card companies will allow each customer to generate his or her own limited version of their real credit card – a disposable version that cannot be used beyond the limit that the customer dictates. In the earlier example, I used one such disposable credit card to thwart a web site’s automatic subscription renewal.

Disposable credit cards are useful for many purposes. In many cases, you can limit the amount to be charged on the card. For instance, I might want to make an online purchase for $49.95. I can create a disposable credit card number that is authorized for a maximum total of $60 in charges. The extra ten dollars will handle shipping charges and sales tax, if any, but will block higher charges. If anyone attempts to charge the card for more than my $60 max, the transaction will be rejected by the credit card company.

Some credit card companies, although not all, will also allow "one-time use" numbers. That is, the credit card number can only be used one time. If anyone tries to enter a second charge for the same card number, it will be rejected.

A "disposable" credit card number is sometimes called a "virtual" credit card number because it’s not quite real. There is no physical credit card. The credit card number only exists in the issuing bank's servers. The beauty of a disposable credit card number is that it provides a method to avoid using your real credit card number. I used to use Bank of America's ShopSafe service, but Bank of America apparently no longer offers that service. A few other banks may offer "virtual debit card programs" but fewer and fewer banks offer them these days. Luckily, one commercial company has stepped in and now offers "virtual debit card programs"to anyone.

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/13267144.