Windows 7: How 'free trial' web offers can be credit card traps

Hi there
Collection agencies have about as much legal right as my late Grandmothers Dead Cat to collect money or hassle you in any way whatsoever.

On this side of the pond they are usually known as DCA's or "Debt Collection Agencies". These people are the lowest of low life's usually sending out loads of "Threatograms" saying Court action or possibly other sanctions -- they have absolutely no legal right whatsoever and you can safely ignore these vile scum.

The ONLY time people can legally attempt to collect money from you is when they actually PURCHASE the debt -- and these small time agencies don't do this stuff for trivially small amounts of money --they just prey on people's ignorance.

In the UK if these people turn up on your property --just tell them to leave and if they don't they are TRESPASSING.

Case law in the UK has established that the ONLY people who have a right to enter your property are THE POSTMAN and people asking for directions.

(The Police with a warrant can of course enter as can Emergency services like Gas / Water repairmen to fix leaks although the Gas and Water people don't actually have an automatic right - but nobody would prosecute them for entering a house to prevent a gas leak causing major fires / explosion etc).

The same Laws operate in All US states as well as in Europe and loads of other countries as well --NEVER EVER get scared of or pay any money to debt collection agencies.

There are loads of places you can get "Stand alone Credit cards" or top up credit cards --you don't have to get them from your local bank.

Cheers
jimbo

They are still a royal pain. And do you honestly thing everyone will g through the hassle of setting up temporary accounts for each thing they buy online?

Actually DCAs are allowed to operate in the US, they have to force of law though. As said, they can only threaten and are supposed to do it within the rules of time of day and no calls to a person's workplace.

"supposed to"

I highly doubt that companies that refuse to let you cancel would ensure the DCAs they use follow the letter of the law.

It only takes a phone call to the FTC, they can handle them well. I've done it a time or two. We also have a Do Not Call list that one may enter a phone number and if spammer still call, the FTC intervenes again, it also works. At leat in my case, CA may be different though.

If it is free, what do they need a credit card no. for? When I sign up for something free and am asked for a charge card, I immediately dump the transaction. If you can get by the word "free" and operate this way you won't need the FTC.

True enough. I wasn't speaking of a free offer issue in my case, just how things are.

I read an article recently that says collection agencies are now turning to FB & Twitter to try to collect from someone. If I remember right, one of the cases involved a collector that friended the person under a alias, then sent notices through FB to her family & friends, making them "aware" that the person owed a debt. Naturally, the person was highly upset over this is taking them to court over this.

We're going to see a whole new set of laws written here soon concerning online methods of collection practices.

I agree 100% with jimbo45 - the way to handle these offers is with prepaid cards. I've been signing up for free/trial offers that require credit card numbers all over the Internet since the late '90s, and since prepaid cards have become widely available in the past few years I've shifted to using them exclusively for these types of trials and have never had a problem. The site jimbo45 referenced looks great for the UK. If you're in the US like me I'd recommend creditparrot.com (which is where I found both of my own prepaid cards, click on the "Debit Cards & Prepaid Cards" link on the left for a large variety).

FuturDreamz, these aren't temporary accounts and you don't need to set up a new one for each thing you buy online. You only need one, and then you pre-load it with only a small amount of money so that if someone tries to charge you for something you didn't agree to and it exceeds your balance, the transaction won't go through.

That's why I always say to myself nothing is free in this world !