1. Stupid Tax (N.) A fine for a dumb mistake or failure to act.

I'd suggest a chargeback, but banks tend to be fickle on those for debit cards.

It's not just Microsoft. My wife signed her mother up for credit monitoring on our credit card (don't ask.) Anyway, when my wife called to cancel it, they said they wouldn't do it - only her mother could cancel it. I ended up closing the card shortly after that for unrelated reasons, but we ended up paying for 4-5 months.

It is very easy to remove cards from your account. You can do it either from Xbox.com or from their support line.

The reason they won't do it here is because it is tied to a Gamertag that isn't his. I'd honestly have to side with Microsoft since they are only doing their job and keeping phishing to a minimum.

In this case, I blame the OP for letting a roommate use the card when you can get buy Live subscriptions at any electronics or toy store. Also, if the charge was for $20, it's been happening every 3 months.

Don't give your debit card to douchebags. Got it! Thanks Consumerist!

Call them back and tell them your roommate died. (Tell them you're his step-brother or something.) They should cancel the account. I made the mistake of using my credit card on my own account and it took 3 phone calls to get them to stop renewing my subscription.

My dad used his credit card to get some MS points to use in the online marketplace, then it started using HIS credit card to renew the subscription. As soon as they get their hands on a credit card number, they will charge it relentlessly, and it never gets deleted from their system.

Actually, it's significantly easier than it used to be to remove credit cards from your account (assuming you have all your information available, unlike the OP). You used to have to actually call-in to remove the credit cards saved on your machine, but just a few weeks ago I was able to go online to the xbox website and remove them, once you have your XboxLive account activated on their site.

It used to be a big deal about them not letting you do that, but somehow it wasn't mentioned once they started letting you remove the CC info from your account.

The payment method and the XB account are separate entities.

Maybe send a nice letter revoking their right to debit from that card. They can keep the xb account as long as they want, but it's your card and you no longer wish to be charged for it. What do their terms say about cancelling?

Yeah, that's not a renewal fee. XBL Gold, which is what you need to play online, costs $60 a year. He most likely purchased XBL points which are used to buy content over XBL. If this is the case, it's basically the same as stealing somebody's credit/debit card and using it to make purchases since he has to approve the transaction before it can go through.

How is it possibly legal that they can continue to charge one person's credit/debit against their will, just because another person used it to sign up for something?

Blame the roommate, not Microsoft. When I cancelled Xbox Live, it was easy. Called in after the yearly fee showed up, asked to be cancelled and they credited my account. No hassles, whatsoever. Of course, it was my account and my card.

Microsoft is pretty unresponsive to payment mishaps on X-Box Live.

My current roommate had his former apartment broken into and his X-Box 360 stolen. The X-Box, obviously, had his credit card information on it, and anybody could very easily sign into X-Box live and download thousands of dollars worth of videos, games, and so on. So, my roommate called Microsoft to cancel that credit card on file, but they would not do it... they just outright refused. MS requires every account to be linked to a credit card or some payment option, so you cannot remove your card from an account without adding another.

In some circumstances, I can understand, given that many videogamers may be younger than a certain age and may not have great financial accountability -- so MS wants a gaurantee of payments... but on the other hand, not having basic customer service to protect against theft is inexcusable.

Call the bank and explain that the renewal charge now constitutes as a fraudulent charge, and have them refund the money and remove the charge. Even if they have to investigate, they would possibly at least refund the money to the OP first so he wouldn't be out the money while the bank looked into the matter. Call Microsoft again and tell them you're being charged, but you don't even own an XBox. Don't explain about the roommate using the debit card. Microsoft may simply cancel the account on the grounds that it was a billing error.

This is a legit practice. You don't want customer service reps (Especially ones that are not under MS control) to be able to "brute force" credit card numbers to figure out which ones are legit.

It's also why they can't read anything but the last 4 digits + expiration date back to you.

OP is going to get a runaround from Microsoft because he's not tied to the Live account. Best bet would be to get a new debit card and consider this a valuable life lesson.

BTW, $20 is too little for a Live renewal. The former roommate just bought some points or a game or something. Better hop on this before he buys a lot of downloadable content or rents a bunch of movies on your dime.

Pre paid visa gift card makes wonderful gifts for those who want don't have a bank account. Sure there is a small activation fee, but with a little bit of money, you got yourself something nice. Just stay away from Greendot Card, uhhhh the fees on that card.

Phil, stop writing about video games. Just stop. You're damaging the entire industry by being both ignorant of current practices in the industry, and by being a widely read journalist. Once upon a time, it was very difficult to get your card removed, and the auto billing to stop, but MS has revised their policies regarding XBL, and all of that can now be taken care of right on their website from the comfort of your office chair. Don't publicly flog MS because some douchebag is abusing his ex-roommate's debit card. This is a tale of a rotten ex-roommate, and a debit card number that is, for all intents and purposes, stolen. Most online companies won't let you change the billing information for an account that isn't yours in order to avoid fraud. In this case, that policy hurts the poor bastard who let his roommate borrow his debit card, but that situation is the exception, not the rule. This exact situation could have happened with any number of products or services - there's no reason to publicly bash MS for following policies that, in 99.9999999% of cases prevent fraud rather than enable it. The OP should go to the bank and report the card as stolen. The card will be deactivated, preventing the ex-roommate from spending any more of his hard earned money, and he'll get a shiny new card - it's that simple.

@pecan 3.14159265: He might want to just report the card stolen. Since his roommate is now using it without authorization.

Get a new card issued and be done with it. This method will probably be much much easier to get a bank to do correctly than having them flag a charge from Microsoft and blocking it.

The bank takes stolen cards seriously, they may not really have a guaranteed way to flag charges from a single retailer. And if they screw it up, you are going to get charged another 20 bucks.

A new card is the way to go.

@MichaelBrazell:
I don't think that they require a card anymore. That's why you can buy prepaid cards at walmart/BB/whereever.
I have a live account w/no credit card associated with it.

@What The Geek: OK Billy G. We apologize for not subscribing to your Microsquash coddling ways.

@What The Geek: I think you're taking these video game posts way too personally. These posts are generally the exception, not exactly the rule. The video game industry isn't being damaged by a few posts on Consumerist - it's being damaged by how companies treat consumers. Don't blame Consumerist for reporting what companies such as Microsoft are doing.

The point is not that the OP can call his bank and get a new card, and that would solve the problem. The point is, Microsoft was entirely unhelpful and unwillingly to be helpful. If it is as easy as you claim it is, then Microsoft should have had no problems with the OP wanting to remove his billing information from his ex-roommate's account. But clearly, Microsoft wasn't in the mood to do that. The account belonged to the ex-roommate, the billing information belonged to the OP. There's no reason why the OP should not have been able to talk to Microsoft and get it fixed.

Problem with roommate + Tire iron = Problem solved.

Works for many situations.

@nuton2wheels: Hey, I'm not saying MS doesn't screw up - in fact, they drop the ball more often than a company their size should. If you wanna bash them, write about the bast and confusing number of sku's for Windows 7, or about how the new Left 4 Dead content will be free on steam, but $7 on the Xbox 360 strictly because MS likes money. There's plenty of room to attack MS for things they're doing wrong - don't burn them at the stake for something that isn't really their fault.

@Corporate_guy: I was thinking something similar. Tell the bank you noticed an unauthorized charge on your card and request a new card. You may be out the $20, but at least you know it can't happen again.

@What The Geek: Good job, Geek! Now you've just provided us with lots more fodder to bash the game companies and continue to damage the industry!

I don't have any torches, but I'll bring my own pitchfork.

@pecan 3.14159265 Let me put it to you this way - if I called up MS and claimed my credit card was on your XBL account, and I couldn't provide your account information, would you want them making changes to your account on my say-so? In the situation described in this post, yes, it would be fair, but most of the time, making changes for someone who isn't the account holder just leaves the door open for fraud.

And yes, it is that simple. If the OP had the login for the xbl account, he could just go onto xbox.com, and make the necessary change.

Now, regarding the harmfulness of this post and those of it's ilk: I'm an avid gamer, and spent some time writing for a gaming website. I'm more knowledgeable than the average Joe when it comes to video games - that is to say, my info comes straight from the horse's mouth. A lot of non-gamers, and causal gamers read the consumerist, and those people probably don't have an alternate source of gaming info at the ready, and no reason to pursue it beyond what they read here - after all, The Consumerist is a trusted site. If inaccurate info is given here, it will work it's way into the public as fact, and as such, damage people's perception of the company, or companies in question. In this article for example, MS comes off as having difficult policies regarding removing a credit card, or changing auto-renewal settings. While that was, at one time, true, the problem has been rectified on MS's end. As for the meat and potatoes of the post, the d-bag ex-roommate, MS is following the same policies that any company conducting business online would follow - don't let someone that isn't the account holder make changes to the account. Yea, it's dumb that they can't verify that it's his credit card, but do you really want CSR's mucking around in your accounts on the say-so of some stranger? Again, that road can lead to fraud.

The point I'm making is that The Consumerist is a large, and trusted site - it's their responsibility to get all the facts straight before presenting them to the world.

@Bhockzer: You can pay for XBL Gold one month at a time, for $7.99 a month. Can also do so in three month blocks. And can do so on a credit card and it will automatically pay monthly. I did so for a little while, until I realized you could find 12 months on sale on line for much less. For the past two years I've managed to score 13 (12+1 they call them) cards for $35. XBL Gold is not $60 a year if you know where to look... which is Amazon, by the way, they do sales every now and again.

I feel for you. I had to call Microsoft once to get them to stop billing for an XBox Live account (not mine, but someone else within the house) and it was a P-I-T-A. I eventually just went into the console and changed the number around and did a couple of other things to make sure I stopped getting billed.

@What The Geek: No, it is NOT that simple. We went through several phone calls to get a CC off an XBL account. There was no doing it on the website, because your favorite company in the whole wide world hosed up the account information.

Let me put it to you this way - if I called up MS and claimed my credit card was on your XBL account, and I couldn't provide your account information, would you want them making changes to your account on my say-so?

Ok, genius. Say I buy your CC info from the TJM hackerz and put it on my XBL account and start buying stuff. YOU just said that you shouldn't be able to get M$ to stop me.

Please run into the next office and ask Mr. Gates what your response should be now.

@bunnymare: Wow, first comment and we're already blaming the OP! Yahoo!

@doctor_cos: First, a quick googleing yielded this: [www.theaveragegamer.com]

Second, if you stole my credit card and used it on your XBL account, I'd cancel the card before I ever went to MS - if anyone I don't want having my credit card number has it, I'm going to cancel the hell out of it to avoid problems down the line. Like I said before, MS isn't perfect, but in this particular scenario they're not the devil either. When they eff-up, I'm the first one to pick up my pitchfork and my torch ang go after them. In this case, they didn't eff-up - the d-bag ex-roommate did.

@pecan 3.14159265: Additionally, while it might be easy to remove a credit card from your account now, that wasn't always the case. In fact, it appears that even now, you can't remove a credit card until you add another paymen.... There's no reason for that. You should be able to use a credit card to make a one-time payment and not have MS store your information.

Wait. The letter-writer expected his roomie to both work and pay rent on time?
The nerve!
PS: if you have roomies that steal your food, I've "heard" that spiking chocolate chip cookies with X-Lax (zap 'em in the microwave to glaze the offending ducats of porceline-clinging joy into place), then leaving them out to be "stolen" fixes that quirk. Right quick!

@What The Geek: So what facts do they have wrong?

Guy let deadbeat roommate use his debit card to sign up for live. Deadbeat roommate lives up to reputation and gets kicked out. Deadbeat roommate continues to use guy's card for fraudulent purchases. Guy tries to get his card removed from deadbeat's XBL account and Microsoft doesn't help in anyway at all. Guy has to now go to bank, dispute the charge and cancel his card.

Sounds like they have all the facts straight to me.

@temporaryerror: Same here.

@ben: No, it wasn't always the case, but it is now.

As for the bit about having to add another card, that is pretty lame, but it only applies to cards associated with a subscription. If you want to be completely card free, either use prepaid XBL subscription cards, or cancel your subscription before removing the credit card in question - your XBL account will then be credit card free.

@ben: While I would have started by going to the bank or card issuer, I don't think it's fair to bash the article writer so harshly.

What he needs to do is hotlist his debit card. Get a new checking account with a new debit card. See, companies can keep charging your card even if it expire or get a new card with a new number. The reason the companies set a recurring flag charge. By getting a new checking account and a new debit card. The company could not find out the new card number. It used to be if you hotlist your debit card, they couldn't find this out, now they can. This also creates a problem with Credit Cards. I read some people had to close the account with the Credit Card company, because they wouldn't stop the recurring charge.

@What The Geek: How is it not their fault when the person holding the CC account calls and says, "I don't want to pay this anymore" and Microsoft tilts its head back and laughs maniacally?

@dragonfire81: I was a bit harsh in my first post, but it comes from months of reading ill informed articles by Phil V. on the gaming industry. You may remember a while back, he also wrote about MS not letting him pay for On Demand games w/ MS points. The whole time, the option to do so was available to him, had he just read the not at the bottom of the screen that said "press Y to pay with Microsoft Points". When he was called out for it in the comments he added an update to the post that said something distrustful and short about how the feature may have been added in after his experience. That update was later scrubbed from the article and replaced with something less scathing.

He also wrote an article about how MS was dropping the price of the 360 to compete with Sony after they announced a price cut for the PS3. Had he done some homework, he would have found a wide variety of pics of leaked sale circulars that reflected MS's new pricing before either of the price drops were announced.

So yea, maybe I was a little harsh in my initial comment, but please bear in mind it was in response to a repeated pattern of behavior, not the contents of this post alone.

@darkforcesjedi: I think there was a story on here X months ago about a woman who was declared dead by a collection agency because they were calling an old number of hers and the guy on the other end got tired of it and told them she was dead. Then she had to spend months and months trying to prove the opposite. Not that the roomie of the OP sounds like a nice guy, but that's not something that should be suggested anymore, since it could potentially ruin an innocent person's life.

@Trai_Dep: I'm not saying it's fair, or proper, but most companies that deal in online services would have handled this the same way. The principal behind it is that no one other than the account holder (not the CC holder - again, not fair or proper) should be able to make changes to the account. In most cases, this policy is there to prevent fraud, not enable it.

@Sepp_TB: Bhocker's point is that it's not a renewal fee. It would either be $60 if it was automatic (which I don't believe XBL even has automatic renewal), or one of the price points you mentioned. Since it's $20, it can only be a Points purchase, which means it has nothing to do with Microsoft and is probably the guy's roomie dicking him over further.

He should call his bank and report his Visa debit card lost. They'll cancel the card and issue a replacement with a different number and M$ won't be able to charge him anymore.

@katstermonster:

It is a stupid tax and a relatively cheap life lesson.

If the roomie couldn't afford the Xbox subscription then the OP shouldn't have paid for it with a debit card where monthly charges would continue. If he wanted to be nice buying a one month game card is the way to go.

@psknapp: Your last line says it all: it was YOUR account. The story clearly states that the OP can't do anything to the account without information about his old roomie that he doesn't have. Is this ultimately caused by him giving his card to his roomie? Sure. But does it also expose a loophole in Microsoft policies that I think raises a serious issue? Absolutely.

@squinko: Except the ex-roomate isn't really an innocent person, is he?

@What The Geek: You're kidding ... right? It's OK to let money be taken from someone ... because it's a gaming company??? Gaming companies are somehow exempt from conducting business ethically? It would be all right for Consumerist to report this, but ONLY if it's NOT a gaming company involved?

Actually the credibility of Consumerist — which you cited as a reason why they should not have reported this — is actually the reason they SHOULD. If word got out that Consumerist never reported anything bad about a gaming company and skewed their reporting in favor of the industry, THAT would DAMAGE their credibility.

Get over it. Gaming companies screw up. Their screw-ups should be reported ... along with the screw-ups of every other industry. The gaming industry CANNOT be exempted as you wish.

@Trai_Dep:
I have to agree with Geek on this one.
Its not their MS fault because the card holder is not their customer.
Their customer is the room mate who signed up to xbox live and agreed to the service contract. There is no contract between the op and ms and so it would be remiss if they dealt with anyone but the account holder.

I believe that in the user agreement you have to say that you are authorized to use the payment. In this case it is clearly the ex-room mate that is committing fraud. His first port of call should be to deal with the roommate and not MS. After that report fraudulent activity on the card.

Its sad because he was obviously a nice enough guy to let someone else use his card.