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| Account & Billing Questions - Why did I still get charged? |
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The way our software is written, it is not possible for an account to be billed once it is closed.
If you believe that you were billed after you closed your account, one of three things has happened:
1) (Most Common) Your account was billed shortly BEFORE you closed your account.
This is by far the most common explanation. Any confusion is usually the result of the lag time between when we billed you, when that charge shows up on your online banking statement (there are a few days' delay beyond our control, imposed by each bank involved in the transaction), and the even longer lag time it takes for your banking statement to arrive in the mail (for those of you still using paper and snailmail for such things).
Vaguaries of human memory frequently add to the confusion. It is natural for people to over-estimate how long ago they closed their accounts. Accounts closed more than two weeks hence somehow often register in memory as "well over a month ago," and accounts closed a month ago feel more like 2-3 months ago. We don't have a good theory for why this is (we're too busy theorizing about goal setting), but no worries, that's why people keep records. When an account is closed, regardless of whether you close it or we do at your request, an automated account closure confirmation is sent to the email address associated with the account. Checking the date you received this will usually confirm that the account was indeed closed after the transaction date appearing on your bank statement. Unless (read on)...
OR...
2) Your account was never closed.
Again, any closed account receives an automated account closure confirmation email. If you never received one, or if you can can still log on, then your account was never closed. Sometimes people plan to close their account, forget to do it, and then, a few months later, assume they already closed it. While this occasionally happens, it's rarely an issue because such users are alerted to the fact that their account is still open because they continue to receive email reminders, assuming they have set some goals.
To test whether or not your account is still open, attempt to have us email your login information to you. If we still have your email address on file, then you have an open account. (It will alert you if your address is not on file, which means that no account exists using that email address.)
To close an account, click here.
On very rare occasions, lightning strikes (or the server hiccups) at the exact moment somebody attempts to close their account. They assume they've successfully closed the account but our server never receives or processes the request (and no confirmation email is sent). If you're positive that you attempted to close your account but it's still open and being billed, we have ways of confirming your attempt by inspecting our logs. Click here to email us the details and we'll investigate your situation right away. To expedite your request, please include as much information as possible, including roughly when and how you attempted to close your account.
OR...
3) (VERY RARE) You actually had more than one account.
Prior to late 2003, it was possible to accidentally create multiple accounts by clicking the "Submit" button multiple times during our registration process. People who then closed one account would naturally be surprised to be billed for another active account. (We have since re-structured our registration process so that this no longer happens.)
Still others (more than you'd expect) simply forget that they have created an account and they create another account during an entirely different session, on a different day. In all such cases, multiple account creation confirmation emails would be sent to you, and you would see multiple billings on your bank statement. Unfortunately, we dare not program the software to automatically purge such duplicate accounts because many people deliberately create multiple accounts, for spouses, employees, etc., using the same credit card. Again, to test whether or not you still have an open account, attempt to have us email your login information to you. If we still have your email address on file, then you have an open account. (It will alert you if your address is not on file, which means that no account exists using that email address.)
To close an account, click here.
If none of these address your problem, please click here to contact us.
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