[marcrosoft]

Use virtual credit cards and privacy.com. It really helps with peace of mind that you can really have a free trial and not worry about it.

[UIUC_06]

Recent story: I had Duolingo, for some reason I've forgotten. They sent me a "we are about to renew" message.

So I went there and cancelled my account, and they even sent me a "sorry to see you go" message. They definitely got it.

Then they went and charged my card anyway. But it was declined, because I'd closed the privacy.com virtual card I'd given them.

That's why you do this.

[grotorea]

Potentially stupid question: if you cancel the virtual credit card, can't the company then send your debt to collections resulting in a bigger headache?

[bhaney]

What debt? Typically when you sign up for a service with a free trial, they charge you before each paid period. You get X days for free as part of the trial, then at the end of the trial they attempt to charge you for the next month of service. When that charge declines, they just don't provide you with the next month of service, and all they've given you is the free trial which incurs no debt.

If you're receiving a service at cost but agreeing to pay for it later, then yes they could send you to collections if you refuse to pay it, but that model is only really used for a select few services (some phone plans come to mind). The vast majority of online services are prepay.

[rwbt]

How does one get virtual credit cards? I remember some banks like Discover offered them, but I don't see them anymore.

[jabroni_salad]

with capital one they have a browser extension called Eno that remembers which card is for which domain and autofills it.

[dustincoates]

Wise offers them: https://wise.com/gb/virtual-card/

[criddell]

Apple Card does this: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/04/01/apple-card-virtual-...

It’s not unique to Apple though. I think it’s this standard from EMVCo

https://www.emvco.com/emv-technologies/payment-tokenisation/

[_rs]

Citi still offers it

[cwbriscoe]

privacy.com

[paulpauper]

no, this is bad advice . Credit cards are better because the dispute process is more favorable to buyers and longer dispute window. A debit card has worse buyer protection.

[bhaney]

The virtual cards offered by Privacy are credit cards (specifically, charge cards) and feature the normal credit card dispute process.

[AlbertCory]

I was about to post this. The usual HNers with nothing better to do will warn about how you're still liable, they can come after you, yada yada yada.

Ignore them. Just give a virtual credit card to any subscription service, and set a credit limit on it. Problem solved. If they try to keep charging your card: too bad, the charges are declined.