Quickies January 24, 2009

Use PayPal’s free disposable credit card number to manage recurring charges

Gear Diary Use PayPals free disposable credit card number to manage recurring charges photo

One of my pet peeves is online sites that require payment with a credit card along with a “good until canceled” order to keep charging my card until I notify them to stop. As anyone who has ever dealt with some online sites can attest, the ordeal to STOP a recurring charge can be 100 times more difficult than the two clicks it took to start.

For some reason these sites all have the same policy about not refunding the amount once you have renewed. Quite frankly I think this is all one big rip off. Luckily I stumbled across a way to prevent this problem.

For some odd reason these sites rarely let you cancel online.

Instead, they force you to an (often) overseas operator who can pass you along to several different agents who try convincing you that you really don’t want to cancel.

Even worse is when you fail to remember the exact month that your credit card is going to be re-charged – and the site tells you they can cancel you but not refund your charge due to some policy. Sure, you can almost always get the money back by disputing it through your credit card company – but that’s a huge hassle.

Instead – use a disposable and one time use credit card number from PayPal. It is free – and all you need is a PayPal account which will generate a one time use MasterCard number that draws funds from your PayPal account.

Did I mention that this service is completely free and only requires that you have a PayPal online payments account?

Gear Diary Use PayPals free disposable credit card number to manage recurring charges photo

If you’re a Windows user, you can download a free toolbar from PayPal that will automatically generate a one-time only MasterCard number (Visa and Amex are not supported). This credit card number has all the customary security features – including the code on the back that the sites routinely ask for.

To access this feature in PayPal log into your account and click the “Products and Services” tab.

From the Product and Services tab select the PayPal Plug-In at the very bottom of the screen.

Gear Diary Use PayPals free disposable credit card number to manage recurring charges photo

Unfortunately, I’m a Mac user (or maybe I should phrase that as “fortunately”). The PayPal Plug-In is not available for MAC, but if you click on the “Mac User?” link then PayPal will take you to a page where you can manually generate a credit card number (along with expiration date and security code).

Gear Diary Use PayPals free disposable credit card number to manage recurring charges photo

I have already used this online and from this date forward it will be the only way that I pay for online services that require an annual renewal (this may not work as nicely for something that renews monthly unless you’re really unsure whether you want to keep using the service past the first month).

For more information, log into your PayPal account and click your Products and Services tab (on my account this was the last tab in the upper right corner). Follow the link at the bottom of the page (image above) to the “PayPal Plug-In”.

PayPal

UPDATE: This post was written in 2009; at some point in 2010-2011, PayPal stopped offering this service.

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About Wayne Schulz

View all posts by Wayne Schulz

Wayne is a diehard Blackberry user and consultant specializing in Sage MAS90 Accounting Software. He lives in Glastonbury CT with his two children. When not helping them with their homework or pushing the latest school fundraiser off on his co-workers, he is active hiking, Scuba Diving and investigating all manner of technology.

http://twitter.com/21apps/status/1144854104 Andrew Woodw

Top Tip: RT @mas90guru: Use Paypal’s free disposable credit card number to manage recurring charges http://ff.im/-K0ea
http://intensedebate.com/people/doogald doogald

I haven't tried this myself with PayPal, but some credit card companies offer this service as well. I have been using this for years now with Discover Card, which also has both a Windows app and a web based generator for a true, single use card number, and BoA/MBNA also has a service for their cards which lets you set up a specific amount and a specific number of months that a single card can last – so you can use the same number to pay for a Netflix subscription, say, with a limit to the exact amount of the subscription, so that if Netflix's numbers are stolen you do not need to worry about changing cards, etc.

I think that they are great services.
http://www.magnusson.ca Chris Magnusson

I don't have this. I assume it's US-only.
Walt

The problem is this doesn't really solve the problem.

IANAL, but as I understand it, if you have entered into an agreement with this company that allows them to auto-renew your account, then you owe them that money. Your card being declined doesn't stop that, and they could legitimately send you to a collections agency.
Mizst

I think that it is a good emergency stop measure when the vendor channel is designed to obstruct your attempt to terminate the account, which is the issue explained in the post. Single-use credit card number simply helps to prevent the vendor from continuing to charge you illegitimately because they try to obstruct your canceling the account.

Legally, if you have no intention of continuing the account but the vendor is just making it hard for you to do so, then you will win the case. Charged money, however, is difficult to get back, so this technique patches up that issue.
http://twitter.com/newte_ch/status/1144924976 NewTe.ch

Use Paypal’s free disposable credit card number to manage recurring charge:
One of my pet peeves is onl.. http://tr.im/cbyp
http://twitter.com/eriktest/status/3309885822 Erik Test

Use Paypal’s free disposable credit card number to manage recurring charges http://bit.ly/srd2
bon346

paypal's plug-in is no longer available.
http://twitter.com/geo_oasis/status/7105244479627265 GeoOasis

Disposable Credit Cards – Protect yourself this holiday season: http://bit.ly/f63ky6
Teresa Peek

Protect your identity online and/or stop those pesky auto-renewing charges! Paypal offers a solution – http://bit.ly/ewXS9Y
Systems

Paypal discontinued this service for good with a final date of September 22, 2010.
Wandah54

Paypal plug in is no longer available!
http://profile.yahoo.com/DIC6PFAGX2N2TL7JTWMFFQBYPI E

You forgot one other key reason to never use Paypal: Disputes and refunds. Having personally been abused by Paypal stealing (yup, stealing) money refunded to me in overpayment from a vendor with no recourse, I stopped using Paypal. Further, should there be any kind of dispute with a vendor, Paypal has horrible dispute resolution compared to say, Discover. I would never recommend using paypal; they are the total amateur hour when compared to a credit card company.
http://profile.yahoo.com/JBOWW5CJD64Z3EPSFI5EO42IMM Daniel

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theDood

yea is there a new way to do this?
http://twitter.com/winsoar James Winsoar

This blog post is outdated. Have they ran out of numbers?