Discussion: Credit Card Billing Issues
By
1_800_Spines,
Posted on: 2007-08-30 11:53 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
"Bad Billy! Don't use mommy's credit card! She needs it for shoes!"
Okay okay. Bad Psi.
But yes, I did have an issue with a credit card theive once, and got through it, so I can joke :P
But yes, will this affect us current subcribers?
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<-- boy
LH, for those of us who are adults and have been having our Credit Cards legitimately billed recurringly since joing the game, will we have to be concerned with an "Interruption of Service" over this issue?
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LH, for those of us who are adults and have been having our Credit Cards legitimately billed recurringly since joing the game, will we have to be concerned with an "Interruption of Service" over this issue?
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Some people have aleady complained about this, so yes, it's a valid concern. I'll link one thread in a minute, if I can find it.
Edit: Here is the link.
One person I know had trouble with Bank of America, but my monthly billing has continued to go through without issue, even after I added a second account. I think some of the people who've experienced this have had issues when the annual bill came though, but I haven't heard of it happening to someone with monthly billing... yet.
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Ever since about 1-2 months ago I've had resubscription charges denied by my bank. I was using the same card that I have used throughout my 3+ years with CoH. In each case, I had to contact my bank, try to find someone with the grey matter to assist in my particular case, and have them wave their magic wand to get the charge to go through. To make matters worse, the last time this happened to me was a Friday evening, after the credit card department of my bank was gone for the day. Oh, and they didn't work over the weekend either. It was extremely frustrating, to be a legitimate consumer, using my own card, and not being able to spend my money. The next time I fall victim to this, I'm going to demand that any charges in the name of NCsoft be permitted to go through. It's like the ultra-paranoia of airport security has found its way into online purchasing...
P.S. And yes, I was on a monthly billing cycle until the interruptions hit. Since I had to contact the bank to straighten out my situation, I opted to buy a larger chunk of time (3 months). That way, this nonsense won't be bothering me for at least a few more months.
I'm glad this has finally got some RN attention. I have been with the game for over 3 years now as well and have just run into this problem. I actively view the forums but don't reply often...as you can see by my count, but this issue really had me close to cancelling my account. (Which apparently was deactivated anyway making me have to attempt to reactivate)
Once I corrected the bank side of the problem after 3 days of back and forth with NC Soft support...I was so happy to have to wait another 24 hours before I could attempt to reactivate my account.
Please make this clear as well to people as this was the most infuriating thing...to have to wait yet another day to verify if everything had finally been corrected because after a fail...NC Soft won't let you attempt a reactivation. And after each try...reset the clock to start for another 24 hours.
I'm still here...for now.
LH, question:
Would this affect *non monthly* charges? I use my credit card to purchase a YEARLY sub. Have there been issues with this as well, or do I need to call my company?
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Please use this thread to discuss the below announcement:
As online business continues to grow and develop, issues surrounding the different monetary transactions involved in that growth change as well. Recently, banks and financial institutions have been dealing with increased cancelled charges or charge backs on credit cards used for online game play. One example of this is a credit card, issued to a parent, that is used without the parentÂ’s knowledge to pay for an online video game by their child. Upon discovering the charge, the parent calls the bank and has the charge reversed or claims it is fraudulent.
To protect themselves from this, or other sorts of issues with credit card charges, issuing financial institutions may not allow charges to be transacted from online gaming companies without prior consent. This may result in a user experience where the use of a credit card for monthly online game charges are denied. Users who have such experiences can best address this by calling the financial institution that issued their credit card. If you have your credit card in front of you, look on the back of it for a Customer Service number to call. Be sure to request to speak with the fraud prevention department to authorize the charges to go through.
If at any time NCsoft can be of assistance or answer questions on the subject, please don't hesitate to make use of the PlayNC Support Center and the "Ask a Question" option to reach our Support Team.
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I had something similar happen to me recently. I'm UK-based and despite the fact I've been paying for this game for three years without a break, my bank denied the overseas transaction at the end of July, for what they said were "activities inconsistent with general usage of card."
I began by opening a ticket with PlayNC. They confirmed the issue was with my 'financial institution' and they were right. It took several phone calls to sort it out but my card was reactivated after a nice chat with an anti-fraud officer at the bank. So in actual fact I only lost 2 days for the Vet Reward, which I can live with.
I was grateful I had a bank that was keeping tabs on this sort of thing, but I was also a bit peeved at the inconvenience of it all as I was desperate to play that weekend 
Does this affect people who use check cards to pay? the number thay have on file is for my Bank of America check card. Do they still consider this a credit card issue or what?
I would bet that this is mostly a check card issue - most credit companies don't care that much.
Anyone around that has had this problem with a standard credit (not debit) card?
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LH, question:
Would this affect *non monthly* charges? I use my credit card to purchase a YEARLY sub. Have there been issues with this as well, or do I need to call my company?
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The first people to get hit and say something had yearly subs, I think.
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I had 1 issue recently where my card was used on too many accounts. I was baffled by this because I only pay for mine and my wifes account monthly. So after a few emails back and forth I decided to call them.
Turns out that in my effort to bring new suc....er...addicts...um...players to the game I bought several accounts with my card. 3 to be exact. These players are now on their own payment methods and I was under the impression that my card was only on two accounts. What the dude at NC soft told me was that the credit card that is used to start an account is forever tied to that account no matter what is used to pay monthly.
So...I guess that my issue had nothing to do with the interupts from my finacial institution. Just putting my story out there for others to learn from I guess.
BTW-max number of card entries on accounts is 3. 0.o
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I've had two payments declined by Wells Fargo. After talking to them, I was told that all foreign transactions are automatically declined by their system. Even after Ok-ing the transaction, it's only valid for 30 days. I was told the same thing by my Chase credit card... auto-declined, and I'd have to call to allow the charge EVERY month. My last credit card, Citibank, said they would be able to allow my recurring transaction. While they readily accepted the first charge this morning, I won't know for 30 days whether their system will indeed handle this. I don't mind having some pretty hefty fraud protection in place, but when I can't authorize a monthly charge originating from overseas in their system with a single phone call, they they've got a crappy system.
It's incredibly annoying. 
Hmm, interesting incentive to go full-time blocks or shift to timecards... Annoying, very. I know if my card starts to do that, I will be grumbling to them :x.
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I haven't run into this issue myself, but now I know what to do if it does happen. Thanks for the heads-up.
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To answer some of the questions I've seen, and this is from personal experience (thanks for the link MissInformed), I'll say a few things.
Yes, some banks decline transactions from foreign (Non-US) IP addresses, including NCSoft's billing. This can be for monthly or even annual payments (which I've always done).
Others have said that actual credit card companies (not just bank issued check/debit cards) are also beginning to use this policy. YMMV
It really sucks when your subscription renewal falls on a weekend and you can't reach anyone at NCSoft or your credit card company to straighten it out for a few days. I mention NCSoft only because I originally thought it was a problem from their end, and after speaking to a wonderfully helpful person there I found that it was during the authorization process that the failure happened (which is before the charge is tried) which led to me calling the bank again.
My first suggestion would be to call your credit card company and ask to speak to the Fraud department, preferably a day or two before renewal is to occur. If it is prior to the charge, inform them of the upcoming charge from a non-US IP address and ask them to whitelist the charge. If it is after it has been denied, ask them to clear it and authorize the charge, then raise a stink about them denying charges you authorize without notifying you. It should be simple for their system to automatically generate an email with an explanation and a contact number or email address to resolve the problem so that you aren't denied access to the game (or anything else you may legitimately be charging). The lack of any notification by the fraud department was what caused me to lose my temper fully. I didn't unload on the poor sap that helped me at the time, but I did call back later and ask for a supervisor and give him a thorough tongue-lashing since they didn't try to contact me to either verify the charge or at least let me know they had denied it and why. The supervisor was very courteous in letting me vent my rage, and agreed that it would be a wise policy to implement although he wasn't sure if their computer system could do this. He did tell me that he would pass the suggestion along to his superiors. He also apologized for any inconvenience I suffered and asked if there were anything he could do to make amends, but simply laughed when I requested that 100 thousand dollars be deposited to my account. Go figure. He did thank me for not requesting more than 100 thousand.
Knowledge is power, and being forewarned, I hope that none of you go through what I did that miserable weekend.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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LH, for those of us who are adults and have been having our Credit Cards legitimately billed recurringly since joing the game, will we have to be concerned with an "Interruption of Service" over this issue?
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Yes, be concerned.
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Would this affect *non monthly* charges? I use my credit card to purchase a YEARLY sub. Have there been issues with this as well, or do I need to call my company?
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Yes. See the link in MissInformed's post or in my post above.
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Does this affect people who use check cards to pay? the number thay have on file is for my Bank of America check card. Do they still consider this a credit card issue or what?
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See above answer. I've seen reports that Credit Card companies are adopting this as well as bank issued credit/debit cards or check cards.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
every once in a while my bank would call me and ask if i wanted the NCSoft transaction to happen. it happened pretty regularly.
neither of my two 6-month transactions have been questioned by the bank, however (i switched from monthly to 6-monthly about 7 months ago).
weird that they don't care about irregular big transactions, but little monthly ones are an issue 
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Hopefully they will not change their policy on your 6 month plan. And you have a decent bank. They at least called you to ask about it. I'd almost bet it isn't one of the big national bank chains. But I might lose, so no bet. 
As some can guess, I'm still rather irritated about this, which is why I keep posting in this thread ad nauseum (couldn't resist that). Sorry, I'll try to rein it in.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
NCSoft could help here as well.. by not IMMEDIATELY Suspending a valid-Player's Account based on one refusal for billing charges. If they were to get their act together and offer the Player a few day's 'Grace Period' when a credit-charge is refused, and tack on a 'Pending Deadline' for service interruption, a lot of this nonsense could be avoided before any break-in-service is enacted.
I had a situation where after 2 year of quarterly payments through my Debit Card I I encountered a situation where, because my Bank was reporting an erroneous (old) balance the Payment rejected. Since then NC Soft has Refused to take this Card as payment regardless of balance. Forcing me to buy game Time cards each month (I can only find 30 day in Stock locally in Cleveland)
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LH, for those of us who are adults and have been having our Credit Cards legitimately billed recurringly since joing the game, will we have to be concerned with an "Interruption of Service" over this issue?
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Yes, it's already happened to me. Grrr. My bank says I have to call in and authorize each individual transaction the day it's going to happen. Grrr.
So, I've resorted to doing the subscription in chunks. Buying 3 months of time at once, etc. Eases the pain of listening to "new age" versions of Whitney Houston (getting smacked around in the background by Bobby Brown) while on hold for 10minutes trying to connect to a representative that's been outsourced to India. Grrr.
But at least I save a buck a month! 
I have an annual subscription that isn't due 'till next spring and haven't encountered this problem (yet). However, it seems an little strange that a good number of players from who handle their NCSoft payment through different financial institutions have started encountering this problem only just recently. It's just a little too coincidental that these different banks would all change their fraud policies around the same time. I just can't help but wonder if NCSoft's billing from a foreign (non-US) IP is a recent development.
In any case, NCSoft should take a close look at this issue to see if there is anything they can do on their end to help remedy the problem. For example, if most of these banks are denying payment on NCSoft's charges because they're billing from foreign IP, perhaps they could look into arranging billing from a domestic (US) IP. It's quite a nuisance to have to call your bank up every billing cycle to allow a legitimate charge (which a lot of people are having to do because their banks won't permanently allow the charges) and I'm just concerned that we're going to start to loose players because they don't want to have to deal with this issue every time their NCSoft payment comes due.
My only issue is I just got my CC paid off and I wanted to switch to using the NCSoft Game Cards. I had a heckuva time finding one here. Did eventually find a GameStop that carried them. My local BestBuy did not.
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I have an annual subscription that isn't due 'till next spring and haven't encountered this problem (yet). However, it seems an little strange that a good number of players from who handle their NCSoft payment through different financial institutions have started encountering this problem only just recently. It's just a little too coincidental that these different banks would all change their fraud policies around the same time. I just can't help but wonder if NCSoft's billing from a foreign (non-US) IP is a recent development.
In any case, NCSoft should take a close look at this issue to see if there is anything they can do on their end to help remedy the problem. For example, if most of these banks are denying payment on NCSoft's charges because they're billing from foreign IP, perhaps they could look into arranging billing from a domestic (US) IP. It's quite a nuisance to have to call your bank up every billing cycle to allow a legitimate charge (which a lot of people are having to do because their banks won't permanently allow the charges) and I'm just concerned that we're going to start to loose players because they don't want to have to deal with this issue every time their NCSoft payment comes due.
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If you do a bit of web searching you can find some discussion and posts about credit card fraud in that "other" MMO. It's really an industry wide issue and not specific to NCsoft.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
Please use this thread to discuss the below announcement:
As online business continues to grow and develop, issues surrounding the different monetary transactions involved in that growth change as well. Recently, banks and financial institutions have been dealing with increased cancelled charges or charge backs on credit cards used for online game play. One example of this is a credit card, issued to a parent, that is used without the parentÂ’s knowledge to pay for an online video game by their child. Upon discovering the charge, the parent calls the bank and has the charge reversed or claims it is fraudulent.
To protect themselves from this, or other sorts of issues with credit card charges, some issuing financial institutions may not allow charges to be transacted from online gaming companies without prior consent. This may result in a user experience where the use of a credit card for monthly online game charges is denied. Users who have such experiences can best address this by calling the financial institution that issued their credit card. If you have your credit card in front of you, look on the back of it for a Customer Service number to call. Be sure to request to speak with the fraud prevention department to authorize the charges to go through.
For NCsoft assistance or answers to any of these questions, please don't hesitate to make use of the PlayNC Support Center and the "Ask a Question" option to reach our Support Team.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.