Have you guys considered an idea of blocking/freezing certain recurring payments? This would usually apply to free trials or other unauthorised (or not fully and explicitly authorised) transactions. I think it’s technically possible, since when you sign up for a trial, they do active card check, on the basis of which you can then block all incoming charges from that merchant. I think many users would appreciate.
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I’m not sure how the logistics side of things would work for this.
Perfect idea and would be great if it would work.
But they don’t request any money, they only keep the details on file until the trial is over and then attempt to charge the card.
Correct me if I’m wrong but that is from my understanding.
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Recurring payments and subscription management is something we’ve thought a lot about but haven’t gotten around to building yet. This is interesting for both card payments and non-card payments.
For recurring payments there should be a button to block subsequent payments from this merchant, for example. And when replacing your card, the subscriptions should carry over.
For non card payments (like direct debit based gym memberships), we can actually show you the exact amount that will be debited one day before it hits your bank account. So we might be able to say “Your gym wants to charge you £30 tomorrow but you haven’t got enough money. Do you want to a) top up your bank account or b) bounce the payment at no cost to you”
Another cool thing we can do with recurring payments is to alert you when a monthly payment is much larger than it used to be 
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Yes please! :mondo: We need all of that asap!! 
I recently downloaded Billy just to keep track of all the subscription services I have. I’m positive I’m still missing a couple…
That sounds awesome! I love the idea of having a notification saying I might not have enough money to cover the cost of the direct debit - the end of direct debit returned fees! It would also be nice to have an option to automatically allow an authorised overdraft - for example if Mondo knows I won’t have enough money, to automatically set me up with a overdraft to cover the payment. Win all around - merchant gets their money, i don’t end up with a late payment charge or returned direct debit charge, and mondo earns a small amount from the overdraft.
Fantastic idea. Would have saved my ass from a few unplanned over draughts in the past!
Have to agree, this would have stopped me from paying for tripit pro!
Oh yes please!!
I was thinking about to type out a request for some sort of subscription management system!! This is a good idea. What I’ll add to that function is a frequency and amount lock. For example I’d like to restrict adobe to one payment per month at a locked price of £15. adobe are notorious for their… lax price charging.
From the perspective of a merchant, the prospect of customers being easily able to block individual payments on their card could lead to abuse, where people start taking the p**s and paying late regularly. As I understand it, it is UK law that the customer has the right to a refund, so if they forgot to cancel the trial, acquiring a refund shouldn’t be hard.
I like this idea, I agree about the refund but if your money is held ‘hostage’ with a company you don’t want to have it, it can either be daunting to get it back or put you in more hardship because you are unable to make other payments that are more important.
Also, limiting the amount a company can take is a nice idea, I have had situations where I have had a bill increased without being notified and only had the situation amended when I noticed and contacted the company, this is not the right way around in my mind, and I think recurring payments should be automatically denied if the amount increases without consent from the bill payer. Maybe a deny by default and a button that says “I can confirm that this payment will increase” which will the adjust the system to the new, higher, amount when the higher payment is requested.
Another use for this will be motor insurance, I don’t think its right that after a year insurance company’s automatically renew a policy and, in my experience, if you say I don’t want you to renew after the year when you attempt to open the policy you get the normal ‘our system doesn’t support that’ nonsense. I have in the past spoken to my bank and told them that any money taken by company “A” is unauthorized and had a yearly renewal payment blocked just to make a point and yes, the renewal payment was over double what I paid the first year, its not very fun when renewal letters get “lost” in the post.
I think if payments were declined more often company’s would be more willing to help, work with, and talk to their customers instead of grabbing money and making it problem by putting a “system” in the way of getting it back within a reasonable time.
Of cause i’m not talking about all company’s, its just the bad few apples that ruin the pie.
One thing I would really like to see would be the ability to reply to a transaction webhook with a response code on how to handle the transaction, this could include accept, deny, allow overdraft, automatic overdraft increase things like that but mainly it would allow people to write custom logic to handle payments in any way they can imagine, I don’t know if this exists or has been asked for already, I have had a quick look about and couldn’t see anything. Obviously people would need to understand that if their code broke they would have problems but I think people would use it, I know I would.
This is good though, banks systems are designed for banks, not for customers. One question I have asked my bank multiple times before is can you reject payments if their is not enough money to cover the payment and to this day I have never got a “yes”, even if I don’t have an overdraft the payment goes out and I get charged a high amount by the bank.
Again, not the way it should be in my mind.
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