To be furious that a payment has come out of my bank account for something that I don't want and I didn't ask for.

[Rollergirl1]

I had a years membership with Mr & Mrs Smith (the boutique hotel website/book thing) last year/this year/whenever. I have just received an email confirmation for an "order" for next years subscription telling me that the order was successful and that my membership has been renewed for the next year, at the cost of £20. This is not something that I want or have requested. Can they honestly do that? Just debit money from my account without informing me or asking me or even giving me a chance to say no? This isn't something that is set up as a direct debit. They must have my card details from when I paid last year. Surely they can't just take the funds like this??!

They must have your details.

And no they cant. Contact your bank. But do check the small print on whatever it was you ordered last year.

It was probably in the fine print when you signed up last year that they would continue with the membership until you cancelled in writing.

They should have contacted you to confirm the renewal (best practice, surely?) BUT these sorts of things are usually set up in a "you give us authorisation until explictly asked to cancel" thing. Many car insurers pull the same tactic.

1. Check your small print for the facts.
2. Check if they confirmed the renewal.
3. If they were given authorisation / you should have known, just give them a call, explain, they may refund your fee as goodwill.
4. Or, if it wasn't authorised - contact your bank after giving them a chance to refund (but don't argue on the phone, just ask if they would refund as not authorised - if they give you any issues, just go straigt to your bank and inform that it was an unauthorised transaction)

I kind of knew that there would be a tie-in thing where you had to actively "un-subscribe" if you didn't want to continue. But I would have expected some form of contact telling me that they planned to take the funds and if no action was taken then they would. Just taking the funds from my account and informing me after the event sounds illegal to me. I am definitely going to follow this up.

Is quite sad really as the whole reason I got in with this whole thing is because a friend gave me a years subscription to "Mr & Mrs Smith" as a present. I renewed for the next year as DH and I had a big event to celebrate (although didn't really find this came in hand anyway) but now this has just left a sour taste in my mouth.

Perhaps "Mr & Mrs Smith" assume that their clientele are so rich that they don't care about this kind of thing...

Just taking the funds from my account and informing me after the event sounds illegal to me. I am definitely going to follow this up.

Not if your original sub permitted them to do this - pre-authorised debits

Like a magazine subscription, quite common.

Honestly, this is common and you must have agreed to it unwittingly. Just call them and ask nicely to cancel it and refund you. They might be charitable.