Beware the curse of uncancelled subscriptions and banking 'tools'

Many will relate to the headache of trying to cancel a dormant, yet costly online subscription. 1News reporter Jessica Roden discovers just how much effort is required – and learns about an unsolicited banking "tool" in the process.

On Christmas Day – as I enjoyed the sunshine and a family lunch – something was happening to my bank account and it would take weeks to untangle.

That day a payment came out of my Visa debit card for a Disney+ monthly subscription which I'd had for years. But here's the key thing, I had recently cancelled my debit card.

I didn't even have a debit card at this stage. I was still waiting for a new card, with a new number, to arrive in the mail.

So how on earth did Disney effectively get my debit card details before I did? As it turns out the answer is very complicated. Buckle up.

Rewind to the middle of 2023. My good friend Aimee went on a self-prescribed "financial reset" and after talking to her I realised the chaotic state of my own finances.

Of particular annoyance was the numerous subscriptions coming out of my account, many of which I didn't use nearly enough to warrant the ongoing cost. For example, after comparing notes with my partner it turns out we had two different Disney+ subscriptions – a true fail of communication.

But cancelling some of these subscriptions was harder than I anticipated. The accounts were made years ago with old email addresses and passwords I could not recall. Some linked to old phone numbers which I no longer had. It was chaos.

Finally my fast and loose approach from my 20s was catching up with me. I joked with my girlfriends that I would need to take annual leave just to figure out how to cancel them.

After a few months of continuing to pay for a few I didn't want I had a brilliant idea. My debit card was expiring soon so I'd get a new one.

After explaining my dilemma to ASB in December a lovely customer service representative told me: "This new card will have a different number so that future payments cannot be collected from your account from the companies you no longer are wanting to deal with."

Music to my bloody ears. I am a genius, I thought. I was wrong.

One of the subscriptions I struggled to cancel was Disney+. When I tried to cancel it the website said I needed to log into a Google Plus account which I don't recall having and couldn't figure out the details for.

I kept getting the old "this username and/or password is wrong". Was it the username? Was it the password? Give me a clue.

So when I saw the Disney+ subscription payment had come out again on December 25 I was dismayed.

How on earth has this global giant of a company obtained my debit card details before even I had? Where was my information being stored that this could happen?

I once again explained my dilemma to an ASB customer representative who was also confused by the situation. As they looked into things, it happened again.

This time it was Uber who took a transaction out of my new debit card – again, for which I had not given them the details. Where did they find these details? Would this keep happening?

I should note most of my other subscriptions were declined and I had to put in my new debit card details. Which was odd. Why were some companies able to access the card, while others couldn't?

The answer to this mess is not a straightforward one. What is clear is that some payments are what's called a "tokenised transaction". Remember that term, it will crop up again.

My Disney+ subscription was one of these transactions. They were introduced a few years ago and the gist seems to be that they protect your data and make banking easier. I wouldn't totally agree with this, but we'll get to that.

Here's Visa's description of tokenised payments: "Instead of the merchant needing to store the cardholder's sensitive payment details, merchants can choose to participate in a service that instead stores a unique digital identifier that's referred to as a token."

As I was getting my head around this I finally heard back from ASB who said in my case the payment shouldn't have gone through on my new debit card.

A customer service representative told me: "There have been cases where the merchant has been pushing the old token through even on to the new card. This is something that the merchant should not be doing and cases have been raised to Visa international as the transaction should not be processed through the network."

Summary: it's not ASB's fault. But at least, I thought, I'm not going crazy. Disney+ and Uber shouldn't have put the payments through. Unfortunately they now had my new debit card details and the charges would continue.

The customer service representative then asked whether I'd I tried cancelling my subscription directly with Disney? Yes, you can imagine my head exploding at this point.

Let's keep in mind I've been told the above story by two different people at ASB. That's important because the story is about to change again.

As I researched this story I went to the ASB media team for comment. And their response was wildly quite different to the one their own team had given me.

ASB's media team said: "When the customer signs up with a merchant (in this example, your Disney+ subscription) they authorise the merchant to take the regular subscription amount from their bank account.

"The card details they provide are used to identify the bank account the money should be withdrawn from. A payment token then replaces the card details with a digital account number that is valid for an extended period of time and is linked to the underlying bank account, rather than a physical card."

Translation: it's all my fault. I went back to them to double-check. It was clearly quite different to what I was originally told. They have confirmed the payments worked as they should and "there was nothing unusual in your case".

I was floored. And to be clear it wasn't about the money. As a matter of principle, I would really like to be able to control what goes in and out of my bank account.

In fairness, I can see the benefits of tokenised transactions. It means that when you get a new card your regular payments just transfer across. It also means that if a company gets hacked they don't have your card details on file.

But in my view, I should have access to my debit card before Disney does. And surely my bank should be able to halt payments if I ask them to. At the very least their staff should have an agreed understanding how it works. It really brings home the fact that a subscription is an agreed purchase in advance and the only way out is to go to the source – the merchant.

But it should be a whole lot easier to cancel some of these subscriptions.

If you've made it this far, there is actually a happy ending (sort of). I eventually got on the Disney+ website and spent 30 minutes on a chat with one of their team members who was great and able to cancel my subscription for me. I'm of course kicking myself I didn't do this earlier.

On the plus side, I have learnt from Visa that you can ask your bank to opt out of tokenised transactions. I'm sure ASB will be pleased to hear from me again.

Disney+ was contacted for comment for this story but did not respond.

Do you have a story about your banking woes? Contact jessica.roden@tvnz.co.nz