Question about expired credit card being charged !!

[Semtex]

I have a friend who has recently received a letter from collections stating that he owes $300 for renewal fees.

He had 40 or so names expiring last month and 1and1 went to renew the names, but his credit card expired before the names were to be renewed.

Does he have to pay ?

 

[mis_chiff]

If he didn't want the domains, and did not update his c/c info
then he'd need to read the TOS to see why they thought they
had the right to renew and bill him for them.

If it just happened a month or so ago, it's most likely inhouse collections.
The c/c company usually do not allow charges to be put through on an
expired card.

 

[coltter]

You should pay coz you dont set the auto renew feature off,
anyway i dont think you will be charged since the credit card is expired already.

 

[Kate]

Welcome to 1&1. You have to cancel domains in writing I believe, otherwise they keep charging you... there are other threads related to 1&1 here.

 

[Len]

1&1 are pathetic! I would never reg another name with them again nor would I buy a domain from anyone if it was registered there, they would have to move it out before I would touch it!

You have to jump through hoops to get a domain transferred away from there and then the onus is on you to cancel the auto renew payment at https://cancel.1and1.com or they will continue to charge you renewal fee's even though they no longer have it at their registry........The auto renew at 1&1 is compulsary, there is no way you can turn it off........Stay away!!!

 

[Spade]

Yah - Ive dealt with 1and1 with a hosting related issue. I allowed my account to expire, but apparently that wasnt good enough. I fought it tooth and nail but got absolutely nowhere. Guess what I did? Paid the friggen collections. For $75 - it wasnt worth the hit on my credit. I now tell all of my clients to avoid 1and1 like it was the plague.

 

[Ms Domainer]

If he didn't want the domains, and did not update his c/c info
then he'd need to read the TOS to see why they thought they
had the right to renew and bill him for them.

If it just happened a month or so ago, it's most likely inhouse collections.
The c/c company usually do not allow charges to be put through on an
expired card.

*

Unfortunately, you CAN be charged on an expired card IF you go on an autopay schedule (which is what happens at some domain registrars).

About a year ago, I was getting billed by Yahoo for "premium" email addresses on a credit card that had expired in 2004. When I called the cc company, they said that when you sign up for any kind of autopay program (which at Yahoo, you do, whether or not you think you do), you are giving the company permission to get updated cc records and use them at will. You are responsible for calling the company and cancelling the autopay directly at the company. The short story: I had to contact Yahoo and cancel the autopay, which was a royal hassle involving several phone calls and one lawsuit threat. I also did a chargeback through the cc company and told customer service that I was going to do a chargeback every month until I got the Yahoo Monkey off my back. It eventually got resolved, but with major problems.

The best course of action (for the future, anyway): refrain from signing up for those "free" offers requiring a credit card, whether domains or enhancement pills, for you will more than pay in terms of aggravation and headaches.

*

 

[Len]

*

Unfortunately, you CAN be charged on an expired card IF you go on an autopay schedule (which is what happens at some domain registrars).

About a year ago, I was getting billed by Yahoo for "premium" email addresses on a credit card that had expired in 2004. When I called the cc company, they said that when you sign up for any kind of autopay program (which at Yahoo, you do, whether or not you think you do), you are giving the company permission to get updated cc records and use them at will. You are responsible for calling the company and cancelling the autopay directly at the company. The short story: I had to contact Yahoo and cancel the autopay, which was a royal hassle involving several phone calls and one lawsuit threat. I also did a chargeback through the cc company and told customer service that I was going to do a chargeback every month until I got the Yahoo Monkey off my back. It eventually got resolved, but with major problems.

The best course of action (for the future, anyway): refrain from signing up for those "free" offers requiring a credit card, whether domains or enhancement pills, for you will more than pay in terms of aggravation and headaches.

*

The point that has to be made clear to everyone who uses 1&1 is that there is no option.......You are on autopay whether you like it or not.

 

[thewebhostingdir]

The point that has to be made clear to everyone who uses 1&1 is that there is no option.......You are on autopay whether you like it or not.

strange. That means user has to set their account on auto renewal. I have not used 1&1 though but this is not at all good service.

 

[mis_chiff]

Wow, thanks for that info Ms Domainer.

I will need to re-read my c/c TOS fine print.

I have had companies attempt to do charges on old cards on file,
but my c/c has never processed them before.

Sounds like an unfair business practise on 1and1's part.

However, it does come down to that they should have been cancelled
if they weren't supposed to be renewed.

 

[tricolorro]

I have a friend who has recently received a letter from collections stating that he owes $300 for renewal fees.

He had 40 or so names expiring last month and 1and1 went to renew the names, but his credit card expired before the names were to be renewed.

Does he have to pay ?

:hi:

This is what you need to know about 1and1 and their unsavory practices.

Your domains will be auto-renewed about a week before expiration.

It does not matter if your credit card is expired or even if you have no payment option
on file ( for example if you cancelled PayPal auto-pay).

1and1 will renew your domain(s) anyway.

1and1 does not charge your credit card immediately.

This is true for both renewals and even for new registrations.

There is about a weeks lag time.

If you don't pay, your account will be sent to their collection agency.

1and1 will also lock your entire account affecting even domains that are currently paid for.

I believe this is a violation of their Registrar-Registry Agreement.

You will have no ability to manage your account.
---

Turning off Auto-Renew

You can now turn off auto-renew at Cancel.1and1.com.

If you do turn off auto-renew, your domain will be unlocked and you will lose all ability to manage the DNS on your domains.

Therefore you have to set the Name Servers you want to permanently use in
your regular 1and1 Control Panel before turning off auto-renew.

You also have to be sure to record the Auth Code in case you want to transfer out or sell the domain

The Auth Code is given on the last page of Cancei.1and1.com when you cancel a domain or turn off auto-renew.
--

Verify Cancellation

You will receive 2 emails to the domain's admin email address.

One of these emails has a link which you must click to verify you want to cancel the domain(s).
----

Truly Awful

1and1 is a scummy company- there is no other way to describe them more politely.

No other legitimate Registrar operates in this manner.
----

Did you know?:

1) 1and1 does not register domains in real time.

Your registration can take 24 to 48 hours.

Meanwhile someone else can get the domain you thought you registered even though their registration is made much later than yours.

No where on their site is this registration delay mentioned.

I know this from personal experience as I have lost out on several domains because of
this lag time...and I am not the only one this has happened to.

When I contacted their so-called Customer Service about this lag time, I received a snotty
response that said in part "this is the way it is and there is nothing we can do about it".
---

2) 1and1's "Customer Service" ends at 5 PM EST so if you live on the West Coast that means 2 PM for you.

2 PM.

And 1and1 is the 2nd largest hosting company in the world!

(They used to be #1 until 2 hosting companies merged a year or so ago).
---

I've said this before many times:

New math: 1and1 = 0

Beware of 1and1!

Use at your own risk!

 

[Ms Domainer]

:hi:

This is what you need to know about 1and1 and their unsavory practices.

Your domains will be auto-renewed about a week before expiration.

It does not matter if your credit card is expired or even if you have no payment option
on file ( for example if you cancelled PayPal auto-pay).

1and1 will renew your domain(s) anyway.

1and1 does not charge your credit card immediately.

This is true for both renewals and even for new registrations.

There is about a weeks lag time.

If you don't pay, your account will be sent to their collection agency.

1and1 will also lock your entire account affecting even domains that are currently paid for.

I believe this is a violation of their Registrar-Registry Agreement.

You will have no ability to manage your account.
---

Turning off Auto-Renew

You can now turn off auto-renew at Cancel.1and1.com.

If you do turn off auto-renew, your domain will be unlocked and you will lose all ability to manage the DNS on your domains.

Therefore you have to set the Name Servers you want to permanently use in
your regular 1and1 Control Panel before turning off auto-renew.

You also have to be sure to record the Auth Code in case you want to transfer out or sell the domain

The Auth Code is given on the last page of Cancei.1and1.com when you cancel a domain or turn off auto-renew.
--

Verify Cancellation

You will receive 2 emails to the domain's admin email address.

One of these emails has a link which you must click to verify you want to cancel the domain(s).
----

Truly Awful

1and1 is a scummy company- there is no other way to describe them more politely.

No other legitimate Registrar operates in this manner.
----

Did you know?:

1) 1and1 does not register domains in real time.

Your registration can take 24 to 48 hours.

Meanwhile someone else can get the domain you thought you registered even though their registration is made much later than yours.

No where on their site is this registration delay mentioned.

I know this from personal experience as I have lost out on several domains because of
this lag time...and I am not the only one this has happened to.

When I contacted their so-called Customer Service about this lag time, I received a snotty
response that said in part "this is the way it is and there is nothing we can do about it".
---

2) 1and1's "Customer Service" ends at 5 PM EST so if you live on the West Coast that means 2 PM for you.

2 PM.

And 1and1 is the 2nd largest hosting company in the world!

(They used to be #1 until 2 hosting companies merged a year or so ago).
---

I've said this before many times:

New math: 1and1 = 0

Beware of 1and1!

Use at your own risk!

*

Wow! They're worse than Yahoo! I've heard nothing but bad things about 1&1.

I also think that by not offering the option to renew domains manually, they are breaking the law, and a good class action suit could wipe them out. What a way to run a business! via Mafia tactics.

With Yahoo, you can't turn off auto-renew, but you can delete the domain entirely, which means you lose any time left. But you still have to cancel service; otherwise they stick you for the renewal fee, even though they no longer administrate the domain.

I just don't know how these bad boys and girls get away with this crap.


*

 

[DubDubDubDot]

They need a way to help pay for their huge ad placements in magazines. Some of those are 6-8 pages long. They target noobs who won't question any of this stuff like domainers and real developers do.

 

[netearner]

This happened to me, my credit card expired while I was away travelling. It scared me a bit, so I just paid up, moved all my domains to godaddy and closed my account!! I know some people don't like godaddy all that much, but they are a thousand times better than that shoddy set up, it's almost blackmail!!

 

[Semtex]

Thanks for all the info guys and gals. I told him when he first got into domaining to stay away from 1and1, but they had some stupid low price on domains, so he fell for it.

I also told him to transfer the names he was going to keep to GoDaddy or somewhere else about 6 months ago, but he is a rookie at this, and I just figured he will learn from his mistakes like everyone else does.

 

[RicoShay]

I have a couple of .co.uk domains at 1and1 - these are names which I plan on holding for as long as I can (personal names/business name) so I don't mind them being renewed on auto - HOWEVER... like others have said, I would not register anything else there EVER. And would warn all others to steer clear of this company.

I am very surprised how they get away with these practises. Who/where would one go to report such unfair practises? It can't be legal what they're doing.