[dogboat]

There needs to be a rule that any recurring revenue service can be cancelled on the bank side. Then to cancel you contact you card provider not the company.

A UK direct debit is like this I think.

If this breaches contract then the service provider needs to get a lawyer.

The finance system should serve people first - and then tax and law follow. Obviously KYC AML excepted.

Such a system might knock 5% off the SP500 but we will live :)

[lxgr]

Successfully cancelling/reversing a payment does not automatically extinguish any debit incurred, though. It's a great backstop to a company ignoring a cancellation, but I don't think it should be the default.

It would be great to integrate a cancellation mechanism into the payment rails though, i.e. allow sending a proactive signal "your customer wants to cancel their service and next payment will fail". But that's definitely not the case for direct debits, currently.

[ImPostingOnHN]

> Successfully cancelling/reversing a payment does not automatically extinguish any debit incurred, though.

The company could just not apply the debit, and instead send their customer a friendly message like,

"Heya! We regret to inform you that your payment method on file failed. We'll try a few more times over the next month, and then your account will be suspended, with the data retained for download/export and/or in case the account is reinstated. If you have any questions, or would like to make alternative payment arrangements, please call [phone number] during [normal office hours], and one of our billing specialists will promptly help you out. Thank you!"