How to stop a company charging your card in the UK

If a company keeps charging your card after you tried to cancel, you can stop the payments at your bank without the company's agreement. Under regulation 67 of the Payment Services Regulations 2017, you can withdraw consent to future card payments at any time, and the bank must give effect to that withdrawal. If a payment is taken after, regulation 76 requires the bank to refund it immediately, with any charges the payment caused. The bank does not need the merchant's permission, the merchant's cooperation, or any reason from you beyond the instruction. The sequence below covers the actions in order: cancel with the bank, recover money already taken, and refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service if the bank fails to act.

Cancelling the payment at the bank

The first call goes to your bank. A continuous payment authority (CPA) is the type of recurring card payment where you gave the merchant your 16-digit card number, not your sort code and account number. It is not a direct debit, even though it can look identical on a statement. The legal route to cancellation runs through the bank.

Tell the bank, in writing where possible (online message, in-app secure message, or email), that you are withdrawing consent for all future payments to the named merchant under regulation 67 of the Payment Services Regulations 2017. Quote the regulation number. Give the merchant's name as it appears on your statement, the typical amount, and any reference. Keep the date and timestamp of the instruction; you will need it if a payment is taken afterwards.

The bank may say you have to cancel with the merchant first. This is wrong. The FCA's guidance on the PSRs is explicit: a bank cannot make withdrawal of consent dependent on whether the customer has notified the merchant. Repeat the instruction if a bank agent asserts otherwise, in writing where you can, and escalate to a formal complaint if the bank still refuses.

Refunds for payments taken after cancellation

If a payment has gone out after you told the bank to stop, the bank must refund it immediately under regulation 76(1) of the Payment Services Regulations 2017. The refund must include any charges the unauthorised payment caused, including overdraft fees, late-payment penalties on other accounts, and lost interest. The regulation requires the bank to restore the account to the state it would have been in if the payment had not happened.

The obligation applies to any payment taken after the date of your cancellation instruction, even if the payment is "due" under your contract with the merchant. The contract with the merchant is a separate matter; the bank's statutory duty to stop unauthorised card payments is independent of it. Whether you still owe the merchant for goods or services is a question to settle with them directly.

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 covers a different scenario from the recurring-charge case. It applies where you paid for goods or services on a UK credit card, the cash price of a single item is more than £100 and not more than £30,000, and the supplier has breached the contract or misrepresented what you bought. The credit card issuer is jointly liable with the supplier.

Most monthly subscriptions (streaming services, app subscriptions, low-cost memberships) fall below the £100 threshold and Section 75 will not help. The route for those is the bank-side cancellation above and chargeback below. Section 75 becomes relevant where the underlying purchase is itself over £100 on a credit card: an annual subscription or gym membership paid upfront, a course or training programme, a holiday or hotel booking, a software licence, a one-off purchase the supplier has not delivered or refuses to refund. Even a £1 deposit on the credit card brings the full purchase under Section 75 protection if the cash price falls within the threshold.

Section 75 has no statutory time limit, though limitation rules for contract claims apply in practice. Debit cards are not covered. Buy-now-pay-later, third-party marketplaces (Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Klarna), and gift cards generally fall outside Section 75; chargeback is the route for those.

Chargeback through the card scheme

Chargeback is a card scheme process (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) rather than a statutory right. It is the mechanism for reversing a card transaction through the network, and it applies to both debit and credit cards with no minimum amount. The relevant scenarios for a subscription dispute are usually that the merchant charged after the cancellation authority was withdrawn, or that a refund the merchant promised was not processed.

Contact the card issuer to raise a chargeback. The standard deadline is 120 days from the transaction date or the expected delivery date of the goods or services. The card issuer raises the dispute against the merchant's acquiring bank; the funds are usually credited back temporarily while the merchant has a chance to defend the charge. If the merchant does not defend it, or the defence fails, the refund holds. If the defence succeeds, the funds are debited again.

Chargeback does not preclude Section 75. If a chargeback fails and the transaction qualifies for Section 75, the Section 75 claim against the credit card provider remains available.

Complaints and the Financial Ombudsman Service

If the bank refuses to cancel the CPA, refuses to refund payments taken after your cancellation, or refuses to raise a chargeback, the next route is a formal complaint to the bank, then the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Submit the complaint in writing to the bank's complaints department. State the regulation by number (regulation 67 for the cancellation, regulation 76 for the refund). Give the dates of your instructions and the dates of the payments taken afterwards. Ask for the bank's final response letter. Under FCA complaint-handling rules, the bank has 15 business days to issue a final response on a payment services complaint, extendable to 35 in exceptional circumstances, and 8 weeks for most other complaints.

If the bank's final response refuses, you have 6 months from the date of that response to refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The FOS is free, independent, and binding on the bank if the complaint is upheld. If 8 weeks pass without a final response on a non-payment-services complaint, or 15 business days on a payment services complaint, the FOS will take the case without waiting for one.

Closing a card from the user's end

Every step above exists because card payments leave the cardholder without a direct mechanism to close a card from their own end. The merchant holds the 16-digit number; the bank can be made to stop the payment under regulation 67; the scheme has chargeback; the FOS exists for when the bank fails. None of it would be needed if the cardholder could simply close the card. eigin is being built to provide that closure at the card level: a virtual card the user can cancel at any time, after which no payment to that number can succeed. It is an architectural complement to the legal remedies above, useful for new subscriptions where a separate virtual card can be issued per merchant, not a substitute for the rights this post describes for cards and subscriptions you already have.

If a company is still pulling money from your card after you tried to cancel, the bank is the first place to act, not the company. Regulation 67 gives you the right to withdraw consent; regulation 76 requires the bank to refund payments taken after you do; the FOS handles the case if the bank refuses. The merchant's cooperation is not required at any step.

This is general information about UK consumer payment rights, not legal advice. For a specific situation, consult a qualified solicitor or contact Citizens Advice.