Continuous Payment Authority

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a continuous payment authority?

A continuous payment authority (CPA) is a type of recurring payment that a merchant sets up on a customer’s card account using their debit or credit card details. As part of this process, the merchant should get the customer’s permission (‘standing authority’) to take payments as and when they’re due

How continuous payment authorities work?

With continuous payment authorities (sometimes also called ‘recurring payments’), the company will ask for the long number across your debit or credit card rather than for your bank details. They are often used for things like gym memberships.

Whilst you might have heard of direct debits and standing orders, continuous payment authorities are slightly different. They do not offer the same guarantee as direct debits and give the company taking the payment more flexibility about when and how much it takes from your account.

What information does the company need from the payee to set up the continuous payment?

You must provide the 16-digit long number on your debit or credit card to the company so they can take payments direct from your bank account.

The CPA effectively gives the merchant or retailer permission to take money out of your account to cover the goods or services it provides on a regular basis. These amounts can vary each time

Once you have given permission for a CPA, it can become a recurring payment until cancelled.

Can I stop a continuous payment authority?

You can cancel a continuous payment authority by contacting your bank or the company taking the payment. When you cancel a CPA it means you’re withdrawing your permission for the creditor to use your card details in the future.

Does a CPA affect your credit score?

It’s worth noting that cancelling a CPA does not absolve you of any debt. If you still owe the company money, you should get in touch with them to settle or it could affect your credit rating.

How do I set up a continuous payment authority?

Continuous Payment Authorities can be set up online, in person or over the phone. To give a merchant a Continuous Payment Authority on a card account, the customer provides their debit or credit card details (rather than their bank details, which would normally be used to set up a Direct Debit).

Is a continuous payment authority a Direct Debit?

Whilst you might have heard of direct debits and standing orders, continuous payment authorities are slightly different. They do not offer the same guarantee as direct debits and give the company taking the payment more flexibility about when and how much it takes from your account

While similar to standing orders and direct debits, CPAs can usually be spotted because they require you to provide your card number rather than your bank account and sort number

What is the difference between CPA and direct debit?

Direct Debits means that you are taking payment from a customer’s bank account, whereas CPAs mean that you are taking payment from their credit or debit card.

How is a CPA different to a direct debit or standing order?

A CPA is different from a direct debit or standing in order in the following ways:

Set-up

With standing orders and direct debits, you have an agreement with your bank to pay a fixed amount to an individual or company at regular intervals. In the case of direct debits, it’s a contract called a direct debit mandate. If the merchant, for example, an energy company, wants to increase payments, it must inform you in writing first.

In contrast, with a CPA, your contract is directly with the merchant, giving them permission to take money through your debit or credit card by providing them with the long number on the front of your card. Amounts may vary, for example, in the case of payday loan repayments.

Cancellation

You can cancel standing orders or direct debits whenever you like through your banking app, online bank account or by contacting your bank. If a payment is taken in error, the Direct Debit Guarantee means your bank provides a full refund – and you won’t have to rely on the company to repay you.

In the case of a CPA you cancel with your bank or the company taking the payment, and they are legally required to stop taking payments as soon as you request cancellation. You are still entitled to a refund if any money is taken without your permission, but it must be sought from the company in the first instance.

Can CPA’s be taken out on both a credit or a debit card?

CPAs can be taken out on both on your credit card and debit card. If you have a recurring payment coming off your credit card, by definition it will be a CPA because credit cards don’t allow any other types of recurring payments.

How to cancel a continuous payment authority?

Continuous payment authorities: it is your right to cancel

In most cases, you should be able to cancel by contacting the company taking the payment and asking it to stop. However, you do have the right to cancel directly with your card issuer. Once you have done this, it must stop payments immediately – it cannot insist that you agree this with the company taking the payment first.

REMEMBER: IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO CANCEL CONTINUOUS PAYMENT AUTHORITIES DIRECTLY WITH YOUR CARD ISSUER

However, it is recommended you inform both the company taking the payment and your card issuer when cancelling a continuous payment authority.

You may also want to check your next statement to ensure the payment has been cancelled as requested.

Keep in mind that you will still be responsible for paying any money that you owe.

What are CPAs most commonly used for?

CPAs can be used for a range of goods and services, including:

Payday loan repayments
Gym memberships
Magazine and website subscriptions
Mobile phone and TV subscriptions
Debt collection agencies
Annual car insurance

Can I avoid using a continuous payment authority?

In many cases you might be able to avoid using a CPA if you prefer not to. Alternative options include asking the company whether they are set up to receive direct debits or standing orders, or where possible settling what you owe in a single payment. You could also use a prepaid card. Even though the firm can set up CPA on the card, they will only be able to take money that is pre-loaded.

Finding CPA payments on your bank statement

They can be tricky to keep track of because they’re not listed as CPA transactions on your bank statements.

You’ll need to go through your statements to check for regular debit payments; if they’re not labelled as direct debit (DD) or standing order (SO) transactions, then it’s likely they’re CPAs.

Any regular payment on your credit card statement will be a CPA, as it’s the only type of regular payment you can make on a credit card.

What to do if payments are not cancelled?

Any related payments taken after you ask for a continuous payment authority to be stopped are considered to be unauthorised transactions. Card issuers must refund these payments and any related charges immediately.

If payments continue, contact your card issuer to arrange a refund. If it fails to do so, you should make a complaint to the card issuer and, then, if you are not satisfied with its response, take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Find out more about how to complain.

Cancelling a CPA

If a customer asked you to cancel their CPA, this should happen without delay. It is important that you:

did so without unnecessary delay
refunded any unauthorised payments

If a complaint is received by the Ombudsman, they will consider:

how long it took you to cancel the CPA
whether the customer gave you enough time to cancel the CPA
whether your failure to cancel a CPA in time had an impact on the customer

Checking a CPA has been cancelled

It’s best practice to contact both the company and bank, and then check your next statement to make sure it has been cancelled. The deadline for stopping a payment is before the close of business on the working day before the payment is due. If you miss the deadline, you can’t stop the payment being taken, but once notified, the company is legally required to act.

Cancellation of a CPA can be done over the phone, by email or in a bank branch. It’s worth noting that cancelling a CPA does not absolve you of any debt. If you still owe the company money, you should get in touch with them to settle or it could affect your credit rating.

What happens to my CPA if I switch my bank account provider?

If you’re switching bank accounts through the seven-day switching guarantee, direct debits and standing orders will be automatically moved across, but CPAs won’t.

To continue payments from your new bank account debit card you’ll have to get in touch with the relevant company and provide your new debit card details.

The same will be the case if you close your credit card account and set up a new account with a new credit card provider.

How can I complain about a continuous payment authority?

If you ask to cancel a CPA, the bank or company must honour this request. If further payments are taken, they are unauthorised and should be refunded. But sometimes things go wrong, and in this case you might need to raise a complaint.

Contact the company first – and then your bank or card provider – to see if they can rectify the situation.
Provide as much evidence as you can about what happened, including when you signed up for a payment, how much it was for, when you tried to cancel it and what you’re unhappy about.
Your bank needs to give you their final response within 15 days for complaints about payment services. If you’re unhappy with their response, or if they don’t respond, you should contact the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which is a free and independent arbitration service.

As well as having difficulties cancelling a CPA, customers might also complain about not authorising the CPA in the first place or being unaware one was being set up. They may also have concerns over the amount or frequency of payments, or not agreeing to renew after an initial term. In such instances you should also make a complaint.

How will the Ombudsman deal with complaints about a CPA?

We’ll look at the evidence to see whether:

When assessing whether you, the card provider, have done something wrong, we’ll usually take into account:

how the CPA was set up
any discussions you had with your customer about the CPA
the card’s terms and conditions
any relevant laws and regulations, including the:
- Payment Services Regulations
- Consumer Credit Act, if the payment is from a credit facility
what you’ve already done to put things right

We may also look at the underlying agreement between the customer and merchant.

If the evidence shows the merchant didn’t get the customer’s informed agreement, then we’ll consider the CPA to be unauthorised. In this case, we’d expect you, the card provider, to refund any payments under the terms of the Payment Services Regulations.

We can also look into a complaint about the merchant itself, if it’s a provider of financial services. This might be where a customer uses a CPA for short-term ‘payday’ loan payments or insurance premiums.

Putting things right

If we find you’ve done something wrong, we’ll ask you to put things right.

This could include refunding any:

unauthorised payments (unless the merchant has already refunded these)
charges and interest you’ve applied to the customer’s account as a result of unauthorised payments

We may ask you to compensate the customer for any:

direct losses they’ve suffered, like charges from a third party because of missed or late payments
distress and inconvenience they’ve suffered

Types of complaints that are seen:

Customers may complain about difficulties in cancelling a CPA. For example, they may say:

they’ve struggled to get you, the card provider, to cancel a CPA
you didn’t cancel a CPA in time to stop a payment being taken

Customers may complain about the CPA itself. For example, they may say they:

didn’t authorise a CPA on their account
were completely unaware they were entering into a CPA – this sometimes happens when signing up to a ’free trial’ offer
didn’t agree to the amounts or frequency of the payments
didn’t agree to renew the agreement after a fixed term