Ok being the idiot I am, I decided to try treasuretrooper and sign up for some offers.

One of these was a "Trial" account on true.com - this required me to put in my debit card details. (oh noes! moron!)


But anyway, I was under the impression that the company would have to ask me before they actually took any money from the account - but no, they took thirty quid and signed me up for an actual subscription before I realised what was happening.

So - is there any way to get my £30 back?

I'm going to go and dispute it with halifax today, but it would be nice to know if I have a leg to stand on.


I have found this disclaimer ont heir signup page when you put in credit card details:



But is a shoddy disclaimer like this a legal contract?

I wouldn't say so, but it might be.

I'm definitely no legal expert. From my reading the clause is tricky but i think they are in the right - "uninterrupted service" is a sly way to word it but they've basically stated that the trial will shift from free to paid without a break, and to exit the contract you've gotta contact them, you agreed to their terms so they can charge you. It also says "7 days free" at the bottom, indicating that you're getting into more than the seven days.

Still, i would enquire with your consumer comission about it. I'm not sure about where you live but in Australia we have the ACCC. They have a website and are easy to get in contact with. I imagine there are other such bodies keeping an eye on things.

Yeah, I've agreed to it, but what I'm wondering is how much grounds that sort of a disclaimer really holds - real life documents require signatures and such, see.

They have no way of verifying my age so my contract is not legal.

I think that's kind of one of the grey areas of online business. You entered your details and pressed ok willingly so you are bound by that agreement. An assumption is made that you read and agreed to their terms and conditions.

It's like buying something over the phone with a credit card. By law a signature has to be presented when credit card purchases are made but not everything is black and white. Over the phone there's often no verification of identity and definitely no signature. But the purchase and payment are still legal.

Hmm, I think I may just have to beg them and be really nice in the hope that they give me my thirty quid