With credit card companies coming under increased scrutiny for unfair and deceptive practices, it seems a good time for Ed Foster to turn the Gripe Line's eye on the role they play in autorenewal situations.

In his blog Foster writes: "As autorenewals by security software vendors and others become increasingly common, we need to know whose side our financial institutions are on.

"Do credit card companies protect their customers from online services that automatically renew annual subscriptions without clear notice, or do they collude with vendors to keep the transaction fees flowing?"

One reader was told by an American Express representative that "automatic renewals of all kinds of subscriptions are now the 'norm' and thus not open to dispute even if the customer didn't get proper notice during the original transaction."

There were even disturbing stories that "indicated that changing one's card number doesn't necessarily eliminate autorenewals."

Get the whole scoop.

Posted by Caroline Craig on May 6, 2008 09:22 AM