[inkyoto]

It won't work if the service provider (e.g. AWS, GCP) has set up the card payment as a recurring payment. All payment networks allow for the «recurring payment» flag (or its direct equivalent) to set to «true» at the time the first payment is made, and the service provider will continue to automatically charge your card account until you explicitely cancel the payment / service contract (sometimes through having to engage the customer service). For example, a local government agency that charges me for the road toll use continues to charge my using a card number that expired in 2018.

It is important to understand the difference between the card number that is embossed/etched on the physical card (or the virtual card number) and the internal card account number. It ultimately boils down the financial institution that has issued the card, but the card account number may pop up on the monthly card statement or elsewhere, and it will be different from that of the issued card number. Many financial institution now hide the card account number from the card user, but it is usually there on the system (new fintech startups might do it differently, though).

Recurring payments are always set up against the card account number, and the card account will continue to get billed, even if the card account has been closed and the cardholder no longer has the business with the financial institution that issued the card – until such a payment is explicitely cancelled with the business. Virtual or one-off card numbers get declined for recurrent payments if the card number is fully decoupled from the cardholder's card account – the payment networks mandate the card issuer has such checks in place. For instance, even if the card number is shielded with a PayPal handle, PayPal will still diligently honour recurring payments and will bill the underlying card.

Most of the time, cards set up as with recurring payment flag on are convenient for the cardholder (card has been lost and reissued, card has expired and has been reissued etc) and for the service provider (fewer enquiries), but there is a sizeable number of businesses (even legit ones) out there that engage in shady practices that have burned or surprised more than one consumer with a nasty letter from collections 1+ year after cancelling a card product.