Not new, it's a rather old feature. It exists for Visa, Mastercard, and AMEX:

https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vau

https://developers.mastercard.com/product/automatic-billing-...

https://network.americanexpress.com/globalnetwork/products-a...

Lots of companies update your data already from this data, not just Google. I guess it may just be a new feature where we email you about it when it's updated.

Edit: fun fact, the UK banking system has this for when you move to a new bank: https://www.bacs.co.uk/accountswitchingservice

(I'm a Googler working on payments, who has helped maintain the Account Updater feature, opinions are my own).

Anyone using Stripe gets this:

https://stripe.com/blog/smarter-saved-cards

Ahh yes, the old “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature!”

It actually is a feature, though.

Having to go and update your recurring billing because your card changed (the expiration date passed, or your credentials leaked and a new number has to be issued) would be a huge pain in the ass.

I'd hope there are some controls here - in the case of a compromise, that only accounts that existed before the compromise occurred will be updated. But it strikes me that something that does the right thing 99% of the time should be welcomed.

It only updates the expiration date upon automatic renewal by the issuer and after an update a CVV2 reconfirmation is required (unless it’s a recurring transaction, saved account details and recurring transactions are different beasts) since the CVV2 has also been rotated.

Change of PAN due to a new card being issued whether it’s on the request of the costumer, lost or compromised card should not auto-update.

> Having to go and update your recurring billing because your card changed (the expiration date passed, or your credentials leaked and a new number has to be issued) would be a huge pain in the ass

I can’t say I agree. What’s a huge pain in the ass is cancelling services, and now you have to cancel your entire credit account to know that your outstanding charges are canceled. That’s highly inconvenient.

It is a feature, in the same way that all my subscriptions failing when my bank issues a new card would be a bug.

Perhaps if the Google rephrased their email to mention that this is to avoid interruption to your service it would seem less creepy.