AOL credit card auto withdraw Dulles, Virginia

Last Saturday, Sept 25 we received a bill from AOL for $25.90.  I thought it odd, is this the real AOL, what business did we have with them?   On the face of the invoice, it said that our billing information had changed and hence they’d been unable to process our payment? 

I called the number on the notice and found that they’d been charging my wife’s VISA card since December 2003 for $26.90, not per year, not quarter, but per month!    Of course I opted to cancel the service and then they said that there was still the unresolved issue of August’s balance!  OMG!    

I checked the bank statements yesterday and felt less ashamed, as the amount stands out like a needle in a haystack.  There are a lot of smaller transactions, and the $26.90 is not large enough to draw your attention when scanning the account for anomalies – I had to hunt for it. 

Realizing I didn’t know what service we’d been getting charged for I called AOL today.  It was dial up service!   We’ve had cable internet from Charter since (I checked) April 2004.  What they refer to  as their $26.90 plan no longer even exists.  I’d imagine that today’s equivelant is something like the $9.90 plan.

What’s got me stirred up is that as tech savvy, and data-driven as AOL must be, I’ll bet they know exactly how much cash is collected on accounts that are not in use, and how long they’ve been dormant.  I’ll be there’s quite a bit of chuckling at AOL over this account data.  In my view this is unethical.