The seller asks me to cancel my Paypal recurring payments to cancel my subscription

[einenlum]

Hi there.

One year ago I subscribed to an online service which renews the subscription every six months automatically.

I recently asked the company to cancel my subscription by email, because I couldn't find anywhere on their website how to do so.

They answered to me: "You need to cancel all the recurring payments you may have towards us in your PayPal account. [...] It will be just enough to stop the recurring payments in your PayPal account. If you find a payment to our Company in your account, you will see the option to manage the payments towards us."

I'm quite surprised. So I have two questions here:

1. Is it legal, not to offer a way for the customers to cancel a subscription?

2. Could I get any trouble cancelling a payment for a service I'm subscribed to? I always thought that cancelling payments from my Paypal dashboard was only for disputes and fraud. Could it also be used as a legal and legit way to cancel a subscription? Some countries have financial check institutions and I wonder if it could be considered as acting as a "bad payer".

Thank you for your help

[PayPal_Shradha]

Hello @einenlum,

Welcome to the PayPal Community Forum! 

We understand your concern regarding cancelling your subscription from your PayPal account. You can cancel the subscription from your PayPal account if you have selected PayPal is your payment method for the subscription without an issue. You can find the automatic payments also called subscriptions details on the PayPal website by following the below mentioned steps:   
Go to Settings.
Click Payments.
Select Automatic payments.
Select the merchant.
You can cancel the automatic payment on this page. Kindly refer the help centre article to know more about What is an automatic payment and how do I update or cancel one?. If you are unable to find any record, then kindly reach out to the company for which you have taken the subscription to cancel it.

Hope this information is helpful for your!

Warm Regards,
Shradha 

[annmartin1947]

I am in the same situation, only I have taken it further.

I want to cancel a recurring auto-payment, donation to a charity. I followed the procedure and on the last transaction, I see that I need to contact the charity to cancel.

I did just that. Only they said they could not cancel it on their end. But they did what they could.

A possible complication: I had to change the PayPal account email earlier this year because the original email I set up the original account with reoccurring autopayment was going to be discontinued in 3 weeks. I cannot log into PayPal with my old email account.

How do I cancel this reoccurring autopayment when there is no way to cancel?

[annmartin1947]

First, I followed the instructions you posted.

I want to cancel a recurring auto-payment, donation to a charity. I followed the procedure and on the last transaction, I see that I need to contact the charity to cancel.

I did just that. Only they said they could not cancel it on their end. But they did what they could.

A possible complication: I had to change the PayPal account email earlier this year because the original email I set up the original account with reoccurring autopayment was going to be discontinued in 3 weeks. I cannot log into PayPal with my old email account.

How do I cancel this reoccurring autopayment when there is no way to cancel?

[TNabs]

Yes it is quite legal because the payments can be stopped easily by you on your PayPal web site.

Log onto your PayPal account and click on Settings (Gear shaped icon), click "Payments" tab, Scroll down to "Automatic Payments" and you should find the company in question listed there. Change the slider next to the company and set it to inactive.

The company should be able to cancel it by logging onto their PayPal account, so I am surprised that they will not do so from their end but suspect that they have so many subscribers that it's a hassle for them to find your account.

You will not get into trouble in as much as no policeman is going be calling on you for cancelling a subscription. 

However, if you are mid contract in your arrangement with company, the company will be entitled to pursue for any future subscriptions due.  Since you have an email from the company suggesting that you cancel from your end, this should not happen  However, just in case, print off both your email requesting the cancellation and the company's email asking  you to cancel your PayPal recurring payments.

These documents will serve as your legal defense should the company chase you. If you are that worried, keep the documents for 6 years.

As for credit rating agencies, it is difficult to know where they get their information. Without knowing the type of subscription and the company in question, I cannot comment as to the possibility of being reported to the Credit Account Information Sharing service (CAIS). Of course the company concerned should not report you if the cancellation was agreed but they could make a procedural error if the subscription was for a substantial amount and on a long term contract. In such a situation, the emails should be adequate but alas,  we live in a sad world where it is very difficult to challenge those who are in power to judge us.  Hope this helps