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Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by lordswork on Thursday January 05, 2023 @09:19AM (#34259858)
Auto-expiring temporary credit card numbers can help automate cancellations after N months, but figuring what shows are on what services and signing up for them as needed is still a major chore.
Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by redbar0n on Thursday January 05, 2023 @09:33AM (#34260040)
The Playpilot app helps to get an overview over where (on what streaming services) a movie or show is available.
Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by dmje on Thursday January 05, 2023 @09:42AM (#34260186)
We use JustWatch[0]. It's good for keeping a "want to watch" list and also tells you which of your services has which films at any one time.

[0] https://www.justwatch.com/

Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by foobarian on Thursday January 05, 2023 @09:59AM (#34260461)
Do you have more details? I found that in my case the credit card provider has ways to continue paying for the subscription through the magic of recurring charges that is very difficult to stop (survives credit card cancelation/number changes).
Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by jesuscript on Thursday January 05, 2023 @10:39AM (#34261191)
Right, getting a new card number has nothing to do with the fact that it is the same account. The numbers point to the same account.
Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by foobarian on Thursday January 05, 2023 @10:53AM (#34261481)
It seems the credit card providers would have an anti-incentive to provide this kind of consumer friendly functionality. Maybe Apple's card does? Any first-hand accounts?
Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by lordswork on Thursday January 12, 2023 @09:02AM (#34353572)
Capital One's Eno service allows you to generate temporary credit card numbers with a custom expiration date.
Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by ajb on Thursday January 05, 2023 @10:02AM (#34260511)
The problem with that is that legally, the contract to pay a provider, and the instruction to your credit-card company to pay a recurring amount, are two separate things. Some companies will send threatening letters, dept collectors etc after you if you just cancel the CC instruction.

It's different on the apple store, where Apple forced providers to agree that a subscription could be unilaterally cancelled via the store. Ideally we would pass a law so that credit cancellation also cancels a contract as long as the minimum period is over. Not holding my breath though.

Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by wikfwikf on Thursday January 05, 2023 @11:34AM (#34262367)
This would be annoying for people whose credit card just happened to expire and who then have to deal with not having the service for a period, re-signing up, losing loyalty bonuses, etc.
Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by 8note on Thursday January 05, 2023 @01:43PM (#34264452)
Credit card expiry can have integrations where the merchant automatically gets the updated value
Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by prepend on Thursday January 05, 2023 @12:30PM (#34263324)
> Some companies will send threatening letters, dept collectors etc after you if you just cancel the CC instruction.

What companies do this in practice. I think I’ve “ghosted” 300 companies and never had a single even send a threatening letter, much less do anything. Usually I get an email of “error processing your card, please fix or we turn off.”

I can’t imagine it is ever economical to pursue in courts over an $11.99/month contract.

The exception is gyms that do seem to go to ends of the earth to collect.

Re:Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? by ajb on Thursday January 05, 2023 @02:09PM (#34264869)
Zipcar tried to do it to me once. But it may depend on your jurisdiction as well.

I had a colleague who used to get monthly calls from a cable co. He was divorced from his wife, who had set up the cable contract, so they wouldn't let him cancel it but were still convinced that he was liable for the money because it was supplying his house.