So I happened to check out my billing information today and I noticed that there was a credit card listed as a payment source.
My current Gold subscription for Xbox Live was bought with a 12 month pre-paid card so the listing of my credit card had me a little confused. After thinking about it, I remembered that I once used my credit card to buy some Microsoft points. However, I didn’t like the fact that it was even listed in my billing information so I tried to find a way to remove it. I checked every possible option on the web page but there was no way to remove it. So I called customer support.
After speaking with both a customer service rep and a manager, I was informed that there is no way to remove this card from my account. Apparently if you use any type of payment source (credit card, debit, etc) it will automatically become tied to your account… indefinitely! This also means that when my 12 month subscription runs out, it will try and automatically renew using…. you guessed it, that lone credit card that is tied to my account. The only thing the manager could do for me was to disable the auto renewal so that my card won’t be charged. The manager did state that you can “stack” prepaid cards on your account so that when one runs out, the next one will automatically kick in and therefore the credit card would not be charged.
The point here is that if you have ever used any credit card to purchase items via Xbox Live (marketplace), then those credit cards will be automatically setup to your account as potential “payment sources” for the Xbox Live automatic renewal process (which is enabled by default). If you do not want to have your account set to an automatic renewal process, you will need to call Xbox directly and have them disable it.
After speaking with both a customer service rep and a manager, I was informed that there is no way to remove this card from my account. Apparently if you use any type of payment source (credit card, debit, etc) it will automatically become tied to your account… indefinitely! This also means that when my 12 month subscription runs out, it will try and automatically renew using…. you guessed it, that lone credit card that is tied to my account. The only thing the manager could do for me was to disable the auto renewal so that my card won’t be charged. The manager did state that you can “stack” prepaid cards on your account so that when one runs out, the next one will automatically kick in and therefore the credit card would not be charged.
The point here is that if you have ever used any credit card to purchase items via Xbox Live (marketplace), then those credit cards will be automatically setup to your account as potential “payment sources” for the Xbox Live automatic renewal process (which is enabled by default). If you do not want to have your account set to an automatic renewal process, you will need to call Xbox directly and have them disable it.