The Hidden Banking System: How Netflix Can Keep Charging Your Expired Credit Card [Roundup]

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About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. FYI- it’s not a hidden banking system- It’s called “Account Updater” and is a service regularly used by companies (and nonprofits!) to charge recurring charges. It accounts for expired cards** and changed account numbers for the same card holder.

    The service does *not* apply to all credit cards. The issuing bank has to participate in the program, and as a result, smaller banks/credit unions may not participate.

    It’s offered as a convenience to the bank and customers… I know I routinely get new cards and it stinks to change everything.

    What *IS* generally hidden is how easy it is to process a credit card. All you really need is the 16 digit account number. Zip code and the CVV checks are actually optional, and your signature on a receipt? It doesn’t mean a thing to authorize a card, and barely even used for disputes.

    However, if you are a business and have a gateway (the software which allows you swipe cards or use a virtual terminal) that *allows* you to just enter a card number, you will pay the highest transaction fees, because naturally, there is a higher risk of fraud.

    While legacy software gateways still let you do this, most new(er) gateway do force AVS (Address Verification… and could include zip code *and* street address), and the CVV code.

  2. I don’t think these frames are going to Delta. United wants all of its 70/76-seaters to be E-Jets. UA has 19 CR7s on the OO contract for ASE operations. Transitioning to 550s allows UA to replace the CR7s with 175s (once approved for ASE) and enables SkyWest to start taking on G7 CR5s that it can’t staff.

    UA would have to license the CR5 STC to Delta and I do not believe this to be the case.

  3. Netflix started charging me twice and could not/would not stop, and I figured it had to do with this card number change carryover. I had to cancel their service and initiate a chargeback report. Cards have a specific process for turning this off, and fortunately I had a copy of the chat with the Netflix rep saying there was nothing they could see to turn it off. I thought I might turn it on again in a month, but actually Amazon Prime is fine.

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