Watch Out for Post Transaction Offers Online

You just ordered a pizza online when a coupon appears before you, promising $10 off your next order.

To snag the offer, all you have to do is hit “next” or “yes” or “continue.” Before you know it, you’ve signed up for a recurring continuity program without even pulling your credit card out of your wallet.

A week or two later, you’ve got a bill for $10 from a company you’ve never heard of; you inquire about the charge and find out that you signed up for it unknowingly when buying another item online.

As a result, there’s a good chance the credit card company will not refund the charge, as it was authorized by you, whether you realized it or not.

These types of offers, that typically occur directly after you purchase an item online, usually when the confirmation page pops up, have generated billions for a handful of companies with Office Space-esque names like Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty.

The worst part about the whole deal is these companies have entered into agreements with top retailers, such as Pizza Hut, 1-800-Flowers, Priceline, Fandango, Classmates.com, Orbitz, and Continental Airlines, that allow them to bypass the need to re-enter credit card information.

So by simply clicking “yes” to the offers, these third-party companies acquire your credit card information and are free to charge you monthly.

Unfortunately, consumers are often led to believe that the offer is coming from the original merchant whom they trust, adding to the misleading nature of the transaction.

My advice is to avoid these “special offers” and navigate those confirmation pages extremely carefully to ensure you’re not signing up for something borderline scammy.

And something should certainly be done to outlaw practices that don’t even require the card holder to provide their payment details; it’s downright irresponsible (Congress is considering it).

Related Topics:

1. How to Stop Receiving Credit Card Offers
2. Refund for Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fees
3. Consider Existing Credit Card Offers
4. Do Credit Repair Companies Work?
5. Steer Clear of Customer Service Credit Card Offers