Money online: payments, refunds and subscriptions
How payment disputes really work, which method protects you, how to check an unfamiliar shop, and how to end a subscription that does not want to end.
A card payment, a bank transfer and a payment app all take money out of your account in much the same way, but they protect you very differently when the goods never arrive or the shop stops replying. Knowing which one you used, and what it entitles you to, is the difference between getting your money back and writing it off. The same goes for the subscriptions that keep charging long after you stopped using them.
If money has already gone somewhere it should not have, start with how a dispute or a chargeback actually works, including the deadlines that decide whether you have a case at all. If the leak is a recurring one, go and find the subscriptions you forgot and cancel them for real, which usually means more than deleting the app. Before you buy from a shop you have never heard of, a few short checks will catch most of the fakes. And if you sent money straight to someone who turned out to be a scammer, the first hour matters more than anything else.
The common mistake is arguing with the seller for weeks out of politeness, by which time the window for a dispute with your bank may have closed.
Articles in this hub
- Disputing a payment: chargebacks, refunds and what worksThe difference between a refund, a dispute and a chargeback, which one applies to your situation, and how to write a claim that gets approved.
- Subscriptions: finding the ones you forgot and cancelling for realHow to find every recurring charge, cancel a subscription that does not want to be cancelled, and stop free trials from converting.
- Buying from a shop you have never heard of, safelyHow to check an unfamiliar online store in three minutes, which payment method protects you, and the signs of a shop that will simply take the money.
- Online banking: the habits that make fraud hardHow banking fraud actually starts, the settings and habits that block it, and how to tell a genuine bank contact from a convincing fake.