Question from a non-American. Is it actually legal to "cancel" a service by having your credit card expire?
At least here, if there is a subscription with recurring fees active, you're liable for those fees, whether or not the provider is able to collect them at this moment.
This sounds like you risk building up a lot of debt and eventually having a collections agency come after you.
> Is it actually legal to "cancel" a service by having your credit card expire?
Especially for services that are paid up-front, they sometimes specify in the contract that the service is terminated upon non-payment (my renters insurance is this way).
Many services don't contractually specify this, but they are still in the habit of doing it because documenting debt takes effort, and selling it to debt collectors only gets you a fraction of its value. It's relatively easier for them to just shut down the account and move on.
That said, the terms of most services I've interacted with require you to explicitly end your service via one of a contractually specified set of communications channels (e.g. "call us or send a letter to XYZ address").
So yes, it's also the case here that you risk accumulating debt and being send to collections.
It depends on whether you have a contact that binds you to pay until you cancel. Gyms force such a contact. Most SaaS websites don't. They'll cancel your service if they can't collect and move on with their lives.
Some day, someone will offer contract enforcement as a service that makes it really easy for a SaaS to come after you for payment and collect. Or maybe the friction of the legal system makes it untenable and the legal process has to become easier as a prerequisite.
And to nitpick on vocabulary, it is legal to break a contract. It is illegal to break a law.
Most SaaS services are pre-paid rather than post-paid, so if they cannot bill you, it's easy for them to shut off your service and be out basically no money.
My experience is that the actual terms of service don't guarantee that will happen, but rather that it's more cost-effective for the company to block your account than it is to allow a debt to accrue, document that debt, and then attempt to collect on it or sell it to debt collectors for pennies.
Many banks will automatically transfer recurring subscriptions to your new card as a "helpful" measure.
> Updater services allow merchants to know when your credit card information changes, and to alter their records accordingly. If you don’t want to continue the subscription, you’ll need to cancel it directly.
You can also try changing your address to a California address, and then the cancel button might magically appear in your account, due to different regulations around this for companies doing business in California.
Probably not legal, but in the sense that you could get sent to collections for what you owe vs getting charged with a crime. If the company wanted to be difficult I think they could keep billing you and then send you to collections and likely most people would pay to avoid court costs and continued credit degradation.
At least here, if there is a subscription with recurring fees active, you're liable for those fees, whether or not the provider is able to collect them at this moment.
This sounds like you risk building up a lot of debt and eventually having a collections agency come after you.