Recurring charges follow your cards

If you have ever purchased an Entertainment Book, you need to listen to Trudy Fletcher's story.
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The Entertainment Book is a compilation of discount and 2-for-1 coupons that are valid during the year.

The 2010 Entertainment Book for Fort Myers and Naples is now on sale for $35. According to the Web site ad, it contains more than $15,000 in local savings on dining, attractions and shopping.

Fletcher purchased an Entertainment Book in 2007 on an automatic renewal plan. Every year, she would be shipped a new one.

But Fletcher wasn't pleased with the 2009 book.

"This past year I found the book totally unhelpful and decided I would not get one for the upcoming year," Fletcher said.

She received two notices from Entertainment Publishing, telling her the credit card number it had on file was no good, and if she wanted to continue to receive the book, she should contact them.

The credit card account Fletcher used two years earlier was no longer valid. But because she didn't want the Entertainment Book anyway, why bother to contact the company because it didn't have her new account number?

Because, it turns out, Entertainment Publishing would charge her anyway, as Fletcher discovered when she saw a charge on her credit card for the 2010 Entertainment Book.

"I immediately called the company ... and said I didn't want the book and asked how the company got my credit card number since the one they had on file had been cancelled," Fletcher said. "I was told that the ... company will research to find new credit card numbers as long as the customer still has a credit card with the same bank."

OK, did you get that? Is your jaw dropping the way mine did?

How did this happen and who authorized it?

I called Entertainment to see if the company knew, and although in a statement the company apologized for any inconvenience this caused Fletcher, they provided no answers about how the charge got on her account.

"We are currently looking into Trudy Fletcher's specific incident to clarify what might have occurred," the statement read. "We will work with her directly to resolve this matter."

I'm translating that as, "It's none of your business."

It was Bank of America, where Fletcher has her Visa card account, that solved this mystery for me.

"If a transaction is flagged as a recurring charge and an authorization comes in on the old card, the transaction will be approved and then posted to the new card," spokeswoman Christina Beyer wrote.

There's two lessons to be learned from this tale.

First, closing a charge account obviously is not enough when you want to cease doing business with a vendor. You have to contact them and get them to stop billing you and sending the merchandise.

Second, avoid automatic purchase programs and subscription services that allow vendors to charge your credit card or withdraw money from your checking account.