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Service cut off early before usual Autopay date

youngwon
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I've had my autopay running for several months now without a problem. Yesterday (the 19th) my service was cut off, stating a 'late payment'... but autopay is set up to pay on the 21st of every month But I have autopay set up. Why is this suddenly an issue now?

 

If I manually pay now, do I risk getting overcharged if the autopayment still goes through on the 21st?

 

I currently have no service and am not sure I can wait another day, just wanted to reach out and see if anyone had advice.

40 REPLIES 40

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @barndoor : It is a Visa. It is the Koho card. As mentioned, the Koho card has a cash back deal here. No I don't use it here for the reason you mentioned. They do a basic cash-back on all your purchases. They also have deals with several other merchants. You also get a physical card. I got it because I learned about it here and another member "referred" me and we both got something for it.

There are other reloadable cards. I like the reloadable idea for the risk minimization. Rather than use my full-on card that has a pretty good limit for all the little incidentals we all buy all the time, I can use this card and reload it when needed. If I lose the phone or an app goes rogue then I'm only out the current balance of the card. I do use my full-on card for more substantial purchases (and EV charging).

@barndoor 

Fly--Flair!!

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@darlicious wrote:

@barndoor 

You get a better redemption joining london drugs LD Extras program and buying $10 vouchers. Purchase pm voucher $10=1 visit 10 visits=$5 coupon $5+$5 coupon=$10 pm voucher=1 visit and you get a $5 coupon for your birthday along with other perks like extended returns etc....


I fear the cost of the plane ticket to get there would off set the benefits . 

@barndoor 

You get a better redemption joining london drugs LD Extras program and buying $10 vouchers. Purchase pm voucher $10=1 visit 10 visits=$5 coupon $5+$5 coupon=$10 pm voucher=1 visit and you get a $5 coupon for your birthday along with other perks like extended returns etc....

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Sounds about the same as my mastercard then .

 

Does Telus /PM not have their own cards  ... Rogers went that way a few years ago  ... gave pretty decent cash back on Rogers bill payments if I recall correctly ...3% ish I think . 

Wouldn't look good to have autopay glitches if they did that tho ....lol

@barndoor 

A koho visa/debit is accepted here that you can pre-load or easily lock the card. The basic card has 0.5% cash back 1% for referrals and an extra 2% for your pm payments. The savings account interest rate is 1.4% I believe....

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Ahh yes  ...yer pay check. 😉

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@Anonymous wrote:

 @barndoor : I use a reloadable prepaid card on my phone for contactless purchases using Google Pay and apps.


Isn't that just a credit card with a preset limit ?  ... Can you get deals on a prepaid card like you can on a credit card ? 

For example my  credit card  paid me $250 to use it last year . I'm sure they gouged the suppliers for substantially more than that  but they started the game . 

Never mind that won't work for you because you have no  fees to pay here anyway ....😀

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @barndoor : I use a reloadable prepaid card on my phone for contactless purchases using Google Pay and apps. I only use my main credit card for more serious purchases (and EV charging). I rarely use cash anymore. I pay bills with internet banking. I don't let any apps do low-balance top-ups. I think to me it's more about specific control than trust. But I'm sure there's a grey line there somewhere.

@barndoor 

I trust pm to put cash in my account each 30 days.....hasn't failed yet.😃

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

I got a card on file with limited  funding on it  ... if the company can't be trusted  to take the  proper amount  of money out of  my account for the agreed upon services  whether they need to try once or thrice  then I don't really want to deal with them .

Yes i check my bills and while I may be coming up after the fact  ...they can count on hearing about it if they botch it . 

Yeah, I can definitely see you two being of similar genetics !!

Gunshots make me nervous ...thunder not so much . 

Interesting that  you only trust cash accounts  .... yet going on about how unlikely the autopay glitch is . 😉 

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @barndoor : Think of the heads up text a day or two before the due date as a kicker to pay the plan. Get a voucher or use your payment card and make the payment. Or, some others might sync with their pay day and deposit money then. The renewal comes around whenever after that and it's done. Gets a little dodgy when the renewal day becomes around that pay day but you just keep an eye out.

But again remember...many thousands of people are doing autopay year in year out without a hiccup.

@barndoor 

OMG.....are you scared of thunder too? You have a better chance of being hit by lightning than having a random autopay failure.

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

My service is important to me all be it infrequent   and if PM can not be trusted to deliver because of some stupid glitch maybe I should rethink this .

@Anonymous 

Lol...we are way too alike!! Say "Hi" to Mom for me!

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @barndoor : I don't let anybody take money from my accounts or credit cards...anywhere. I will allow individual payments that I conduct manually. I well remember hassles to undo automatic payments like memberships or whatever.

For this place, I run a balance so it never hits a card. The card I have registered here for the autopay reward is a prepaid "credit" card gift card with zero balance on it.

@barndoor 

I don't find any company trustworthy enough to authorize them to take money from me. No one gets my money til I read my bill and pay them manually.

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

So even you don't feel PM is trustworthy  ??   LOL 

@barndoor 

Because that requires paperwork and signatures and permissions.... I'm not willing to grant any company that kind of access to my finances as are a lot of smart consumers.

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@darlicious wrote:

@barndoor 

 I believe pm is allowed to make one time payment charges not multiple attempts.


Isn"t that two different things ?  They can make a one time payment charge  ...  if it's not fulfilled why not do another  instead of hanging a customer out  on the line with no service . 

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @youngwon : A fine point of distinction needs to be made though...the community can't fix account or money issues.


@Anonymous wrote:

 

Is there an employee sitting in some room somewhere with reams of accounts and manually punching in payment info on a plain ol' pinpad plugged in to any random power outlet? 🙂

 


any job opening?

 

We always wonder here why Autopay fails.. honest, how hard to program it to re-attempt after 5 mins and do it for 3 times?

 

Even though we keep saying to everyone the overall Autopay failure rate is low.. but who knows, also, I won't be surprise 5% of those failed were so upset and gone elsewhere 

youngwon
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

All things considered, I think I'd rather only deal with a single attempt at a charge rather than the potential nightmare of dealing with the refunding of multiple charges when the customer service is so community reliant.

@barndoor 

Autopay is not a pre-authorized payment I believe pm is allowed to make one time payment charges not multiple attempts.

 

https://www.payments.ca/paying-pre-authorized-debit

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @barndoor : You'd think. Things move at a snails pace around here though. While it's ridiculous that a company would have issues taking money from customers...here we are.

 

Edit: Always remember though...we see all the complaints here. Rarely does anybody go to the effort of signing up just to post something about how great it all works.

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Even in the brief time  i have been here there seem to have been enough of these fails on cards in good standing that  WHY would they not set the default at three tries rather than one ? You"d think even two may significantly reduce the issues . 

@Anonymous 

There is a myriad of possibilities....it wouldn't surprise me if pm still uses dial up for autopay. The week before xmas the interac system would go down at work around 1pm on a Friday causing chaos because no one carries cash anymore. Or the wifi would go down or get overloaded with users. There are many things that can cause a split second interruption to a signal that will cause the transmission of the transaction charge to fail.....and without a human to redo the transaction it fails.

Anonymous
Not applicable

@darlicious wrote:

 

This is where autopay could fail if there is a power surge or another transaction on your card etc..... if this happens then your plan amount will not get charged or recorded in your payment history. 

 


 @darlicious : Power surge? Have you heard this to be a thing with the taking of payments here? (or anywhere) Is there an employee sitting in some room somewhere with reams of accounts and manually punching in payment info on a plain ol' pinpad plugged in to any random power outlet? 🙂

I suppose another transaction is an interesting possibility.

 

Edit: @youngwon : autopay works perfectly fine year after year for the vast majority of customers. Now that you've had this experience, be aware for your next renewal and if it trips up again then you'll know it soon enough and now you know how to get it going again. After that then entertain the other manual methods.

youngwon
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@darliciousThank you for the thorough explanation! I'm going to save this process to reference later. I did submit a ticket to the mods just to be safe, here's hoping it's as simple as reactivating my plan via payment and leaving the autopay function alone.

@youngwon 

Overall autopay works perfectly well but there are a few failures in the system and you won the lottery this time. Many regulars choose to pay manually a day or two before renewal just to ensure they aren't the lucky winner. When doing so I recommend a screenshot of your overview and transaction page and one after renewal to make sure everything renews correctly....that's my personal preference.

 

Upon renewal the system will apply rewards into your available funds. This happens at midnight eastern along with your account resetting to a new 30 day cycle.

 

Then at 2am eastern it will take out of your available funds your plan amount. If you don't have sufficient funds to cover your plan amount it will attempt a one time charge of the balance owing to your credit card on file.

 

This is where autopay could fail if there is a power surge or another transaction on your card etc..... if this happens then your plan amount will not get charged or recorded in your payment history. 

 

If no manual payment is made by 6am eastern your account services will be suspended at that time.

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