This is something that really should have been done at the bank level. Cards should have been a request system, the seller requests money and you grant that request. And then for subscriptions you can automate the grant process but at any time its under your control and can stop. Its insane how we just give every seller access to our bank accounts to pull money out of.

I never understood how it works in a bank. For one e-commerce purchase, my bank may send me an sms code to approve even minor amounts. But for the other it may not require that even for substantial sums. I think that some banks have this functionality built in, but it's the seller who decides which one to use. That is strange. As a result, I'm using a virtual card with a tunable limit for all less trusted services. Anyway, legal issues still apply. Adobe basically tricks users into a year long, autorenewable loan contract here, and that has nothing to do with their (in)ability to grant payments. It is a law that allows these terms is insane, not banks.

Ironically it's done for user convenience, so that you don't need to automate the periodic payment yourself.

This is pretty much as SEPA direct payments work, except the grant is reversed.

For this specific use case, the old fashioned virtual credit card is sufficient. BOA and Citi offer them, to name a couple.

wrt dispute resolution, paypal is pretty awful compared to the traditional credit card, at least the major (top tier) bank issuers. the lower tiers like Capital One I imagine are more difficult. I'm in a paypal dispute right now. I have to wait 2 weeks for something to happen (don't know what exactly) before i can progress to the next stage, whatever that is. really? my amex reverses the charge immediately when i call them, and as far as my side of things, i'm done with it at that point. my WF visa is similar, and they call me when a further action is required.

paypal is google-level horrible. nearly indispensable service, immensely useful in some ways, the worst anti-user behavior in other ways. even the website to manage your account is full of dark patterns.

if you hate supporting it, stop supporting it.