The Tale of the Expired Credit Card

One of my credit cards expired recently. I got a new one in the mail. With a new expiration date on it. I called the number provided and got it activated. All set. All done. Well not exactly.

I used this card for two accounts to pay monthly fees. Neither were very large one was a little over $30 and the other was $10 well actually $9.95. But they handled the expired card in two very different ways.

First off I have to admit I did not remember that these two companies were on that card. I have a couple of credit cards and there are a couple of things on each. I just didn’t remember what companies were on what cards. I’ve also never had this type of a problem come up with a card before.

Here’s the response from the first company. They sent an e-mail to me saying that they tried to charge my card but were unable. They added that was because the card had expired. They said the account was suspended until I updated the expiration date of the car. They asked for me to update the account in the next 48 hours. After that time the account could be closed. They didn’t definitively say it would be closed only that it might be. The only thing was I didn’t notice it until after the 48 hour time limit.

The way I found out the account was suspended was I went to their site to check on something not related to my payment method. That’s when I noticed that the account was suspended. I went into my information and updated the expiration date and the security code. I got a response that said they would try and process the card in the next 24 hours. If everything went through then of course everything would be fine. If not the account would be suspended until they received a valid credit card number.

Very straight forward on the way to update the card. No problems. The account is up and running.

Here’s the response of the other company. My account is cancelled. That’s right cancelled. I tried to sign on to the site and couldn’t get in. There was a customer service number to call. I identified my credit card number and was told the account was cancelled. I was told that if there is any sort of problem with the card the account is cancelled. I was told I could go back and subscribe to the site again. I said I had a promotional rate which was the reason I joined. I asked if I would get that rate. She said probably not but I should see. Or I said I can simply not do busy with the company any more. I thanked her for her time and then hung up.

Talk about polar opposite ways to deal with the situation. What a great way for the first place to deal with the situation. Put the account on hold and allow a certain amount of time for the account to be updated. The second response makes no sense at all. It is just stupid. I cannot be the only person that has a card expire and not know all the places the card is used. Just one less place for me to go and spend money. Their loss over an extremely stupid policy.