[BUSINESS] Mastercard says no more automatic billing after a free trial

[TheButcher]

Mastercard says no more automatic billing after a free trial

Read this article quoted below https://newsroom.mastercard.com/2019/01 ... he-hassle/

"Free Trials Without The Hassle
Paul Petta | January 16, 2019

No one wants to be unsatisfied with a physical product after paying for it. For some consumers, a free-trial is a great way to test out a new product and get comfortable with it before making a purchasing decision. And with so many merchants offering free trials for physical products, they’re becoming the new norm.

However, sometimes a free trial can unwittingly turn into a recurring product subscription that is difficult to cancel. These situations can be frustrating and costly for both consumers and their banks. M

At Mastercard, we want every commerce engagement to be simple, safe and secure and we are introducing rules for merchants that offer free-trials to make this a hassle-free experience for their consumers. The rule change will require merchants to gain cardholder approval at the conclusion of the trial before they start billing. To help cardholders with that decision, merchants will be required to send the cardholder – either by email or text – the transaction amount, payment date, merchant name along with explicit instructions on how to cancel a trial.

For each payment thereafter, the merchant will have to send a receipt to the cardholder for each transaction by email or text message with clear instructions on how to cancel the service if the consumer so desires. In addition, all charges that appear on the cardholder’s statement must now include the merchant website URL or the phone number of the store where the cardholder made the purchase.

Free trial offers can be a legitimate and useful way to increase sales and improve consumer satisfaction. The new rules will help in increase transparency and ensure an outstanding experience for cardholders. In addition to these changes, Mastercard cardholders are also covered by our Zero Liability policy which protects them against unauthorized purchases or charges. If a cardholder suspects that a transaction is fraudulent or unusual, we encourage them to contact the bank that issues their card for assistance and more information."

[Markus]

How long before Visa implements a similar rule?

[born2bewild]

Is this just for tangible products or online membership billing too?

[bill]

that new policy makes sence to me

[HeidiHoe]

Christ... do we really need more hurdles? I bet there'll be less programs offering trials. And how many punters do you think want the website url of their purchase blasted on their card statement where others including their spouse can see it? This really blows...

[Colmike7]

There aren't that many free trials anymore, anyways. If it becomes a problem, why not make them 1c trials to get around it?

[TheButcher]

Christ... do we really need more hurdles? I bet there'll be less programs offering trials. And how many punters do you think want the website url of their purchase blasted on their card statement where others including their spouse can see it? This really blows...

Exactly and the website url will be a stumbling block for many, but am i missing something here, is it for physical products only or for subscriptions too.

[yobilinks]

One more bad news for our industry

[shoopa]

We will survive we always have and will

[AndyR]

A few sites use a none porn related url for billing and payment purposes this would be the way around the having to show URL bullshit but the none recurring billing after a trail is going to cause problems for those who rely on the customer forgetting to cancel then again it does have a plus side it could cut down on the number of charge backs as they can quickly kill a small company... so either way it could be good or could be very bad all depends.

[Sneaky]

This is not good

[Abby]

Any news from Visa on this

[jag]

Rebills will drop, so PPS will be the way to go

[monsta]

Rebills will drop, so PPS will be the way to go

even before this rebills were weak and higher one time sales payment for us as affiliates was a good choice.

[gspotman]

Matercard just threw a wrench in the works for a lot of businesses and webbies.