The newspaper, streaming services, the gym… nowadays we all have services that we pay several times a year by means of our OAS FCU debit or credit cards.
Because cards have expiration dates, when one’s about to expire, OAS FCU sends us a
new one automatically with enough time to switch before the old one expires. That new card has the same number, but a new expiration date and Card Verification Value number (the CVV).
What happens to my automatic payments?
If you’re lucky, nothing. The visa system that manages payments continues to honor them without checking the expiration or CVV. But if they decide to check, your recurring payments get halted, and any subscriptions you may have linked to a card get cancelled. It can cost you your subscription service and, in the worst case scenario, a penalty charge for missed payment.
It seems that Visa noticed the problem that loss of recurring payments can be, and decided to do something about it. They created a merchant network that allows companies that
accept card payments to receive updated information on its clients’ cards when they expire. When a card expires, this Visa Account Updater service picks up on any changes, and sends them to those merchants on our behalf. All of us members of OAS FCU are automatically signed up for this service.
What if my merchant isn’t signed up to VAU and my card expires?
My guess is that the following your month your payment will encounter issues. And since us, as consumers, don’t know what merchants are signed up to VAU, our options are to either remember to call our merchants, or wait and see if the payments go through or not. With some luck most merchants will understand the benefits of using this system, even if it comes (likely) at a cost to them.
What if I lose my card or it’s stolen? Will VAU work on the new card?
For security reasons, OAS FCU has decided that in the case of a lost, stolen, or compromised card they will not be using the VAU protocol. In those cases the cardholder will be responsible of informing those merchants of your new card details. In the future, if the Credit Union decides to use VAU for lost and stolen replacements, I am sure they will let us know.
What if I don’t want to have VAU active on my card(s)?
I find that VAU is a great timesaver for consumers and merchants alike. I’m very good remembering things like my changes of postal address notifications, but I am not sure I
would remember something like notifying merchants of new card information. I think I’d have a 50-50 chance, honestly.
However, we have the right to opt out of the service with OAS FCU. To do that, all you’d have to do is log in to your online banking, and send a message under “Contact Us” and then select debit card or credit card depending on what your specific card is. Let them know you want to opt out of VAU, and that’s it.
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