How to Stop an Automatic Payment From Your Bank Account, Step by Step, When the Company Won't Cancel It

A membership you no longer use can keep pulling money for months. Federal rules give you a way to stop it, as long as you follow the steps in the right order and keep your dates.

How do you stop an automatic payment from your bank account?

You tell the company you're taking back your permission, then tell your bank the same thing, and follow up with both in writing. You can do this even if you agreed to the payments. If you want an extra layer, you can give your bank a stop payment order at least three business days before the payment.

This guide is for one specific situation: money is leaving your checking or savings account every month, and you want it to stop. Maybe you quit a gym that keeps billing you, a free trial turned into a subscription, or you just want to pay a bill by hand. If you only want to trim your subscriptions in general, our guide to cutting subscription costs is the better place to start.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it plainly: "You have the right to stop a company from taking automatic payments from your account, even if you previously allowed them." The steps below follow the CFPB's process and the federal rule behind it, known as Regulation E.

Canceling, revoking and stopping: what's the difference?

Three words get mixed up here, and each one does a different job.

Canceling ends your deal with the company, such as a gym contract or a streaming plan. Revoking authorization takes back the permission you gave the company to pull money from your account. A stop payment order is, in the CFPB's words, "an instruction to your bank or credit union that tells them not to make a payment to a specified company from your account."

You may need one, two or all three. This is the part that catches people out, because the CFPB warns that "cancelling an automatic payment does not cancel what you owe." If you stop the payments on a gym membership but don't end the contract, the gym may still say you owe it. If you stop the payments on a car loan, you still have to pay the loan some other way. So before you do anything, decide what you actually want: to end the service, or only to change how you pay for it.

Step 1: Find your paperwork and your dates

Start by pulling together what you agreed to. That usually means the contract or sign-up email, the name the company uses on your bank statement, the amount, and the usual payment date. Under federal rules, recurring transfers must be authorized in a writing signed or similarly authenticated by you, and the company that gets that authorization must give you a copy. If you can't find yours, it's fair to ask the company for it.

Read the cancellation terms while you're there. Look for a notice period, an early termination fee, or a minimum term. Those terms are about what you may owe the company, and they don't change your right to take back permission for the payments. But they could affect what happens next, so it's better to know them now.

Then check your next payment date, because the timing below depends on it. It also helps to start a simple log with each date, who you spoke to, and what they said. The CFPB tells people to "keep close track of your requests and the dates you made them," since that record is what you'll lean on if a payment goes through anyway.

Step 2: Tell the company you're taking back permission

Call the company and tell it you're taking away your permission for automatic payments from your bank account. The CFPB says customer service should be able to help, and that there may be an online form. Then follow up with a letter or email, so that you have a dated record. The CFPB's page links to a free sample letter for this.

In that message, say clearly which of these you're doing:

• Ending the contract or subscription, along with the automatic payments.
• Keeping the service but paying a different way, such as paying each invoice when it arrives.

Keep a copy of what you send, and note the date. This copy may matter in the next step, because your bank could ask to see it.

Step 3: Tell your bank the same thing

Next, call your bank or credit union and say you have revoked authorization for that company to take automatic payments from your account. It may have an online form. Follow up with a letter or email, and again, the CFPB's page links to a sample letter.

Don't skip this step just because the company agreed to stop. The CFPB says that once you've told both your bank and the company, "any additional payments initiated by that company would be errors, and you can contact your bank for a refund."

The official staff guidance on Regulation E adds an important detail. Once a bank has been told the authorization is no longer valid, "it must block all future payments for the particular debit," and it "may not wait for the payee-originator to terminate the automatic debits." In plain English, your bank can't simply tell you to go work it out with the company. It may, however, confirm that you actually told the company, for example by requiring a copy of your revocation within 14 days of your phone call. If it asks for that and doesn't get it in time, it may honor later debits. That's why the copy from Step 2 matters.

Step 4: Decide whether you also need a stop payment order

A stop payment order is a separate instruction, and the CFPB says "some banks or credit unions might recommend" one alongside your revocation. The rule says you can give the order to your bank by phone or in writing "at least three business days before the scheduled date of the transfer." The bank must honor a phone order made in that window, but it can require you to confirm it in writing within 14 days. If it does, it has to tell you that when you call, and give you the address. If you don't send the confirmation, the phone order stops being binding after 14 days.

Timing is easy to get wrong, so here is an example. Say your payment is scheduled for Friday the 15th and there are no holidays that week. Counting back three business days from Friday lands on Tuesday the 12th. Tuesday is your last day under the rule, and getting it in earlier gives you more room, since your bank may have its own cutoff times.

Cost is the other thing to weigh. The CFPB says banks and credit unions generally charge fees for stop payment orders, and the amount depends on your bank, so check its fee schedule or ask on the phone. Our guide to avoiding bank fees shows where to find that. Compare the fee with what you're trying to stop. A fee of, say, $30 (an example, not a typical figure) may feel steep against one $39.99 payment, but if a company keeps billing you for a year, that's $479.88. The CFPB's advice is to follow your bank's suggested process.

Step 5: Watch your account, and act fast if money still leaves

Keep checking your account for a couple of billing cycles. The CFPB says to tell your bank "right away" if you see a payment you didn't allow, or one made after you revoked authorization.

Don't let this wait, because there are deadlines. For a statement showing an unauthorized transfer, the CFPB says that at the latest, you must notify your bank within 60 days after it sends the statement. The bank then generally has 10 business days to investigate, or 20 if the account has been open less than 30 days. If it can't finish in time, it must generally give you a temporary credit, and it must generally resolve the issue within 45 days, or up to 90 in some cases.

Put your notice in writing and attach your log and copies of your letters. The CFPB offers a sample notice of unauthorized transfer on the same page as its other letters.

If your bank doesn't fix it, the CFPB's complaint page accepts complaints about checking and savings accounts, and it says most companies respond within 15 days. Note that this route is for the bank or other financial company. A dispute with a gym about its contract may need a different path, such as a consumer protection office in your state.

What if the charge is on a card?

So far, this guide has covered money pulled straight from a bank account. Cards work a bit differently.

If a recurring payment runs through your debit card, you're still dealing with your bank account. The staff guidance recognizes that some banks can't block a debit made through a card network themselves. In that case, a bank may use a third party to block it, as long as your account isn't debited.

If it's on a credit card, your money isn't leaving your bank account at all, so a bank stop payment isn't the tool. Your protection there comes through a billing dispute. The CFPB says you must send a written billing error notice to the card company within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on your statement. Our guide to disputing a credit card charge has the steps.

A worked example: Dana and the $39.99 gym membership

Dana pays $39.99 on the 15th of each month for a gym she stopped using. Here's how she might work through it, assuming the 15th falls on a Friday.

1. On Monday the 4th, she finds her contract. It says she must give 30 days' notice, so she knows she may owe one more payment.
2. The same day, she calls the gym, says she's ending her membership and revoking permission for automatic payments, then sends an email and saves a copy.
3. She decides to pay the final amount by hand, so that she's covered for the notice period.
4. On Tuesday the 5th, she calls her credit union, says she revoked authorization, and asks whether it wants anything in writing. It asks for a copy of her email within 14 days. She sends it that afternoon.
5. Her credit union suggests a stop payment order as well, and she places it, well ahead of Tuesday the 12th. She notes the fee.
6. On the 16th, she checks her account and sees no charge. She checks again the following month.
7. If a charge had appeared, she'd have called the same day and sent a written notice with her log attached.

The money at stake is real. At $39.99 a month, the membership costs $479.88 a year. Her paper trail takes about an hour, and it's what would get her money back if anything went wrong. Dana's case is an example, and your contract and bank may work differently.

Mistakes that can cost you

The most common mistake is stopping the payment and assuming the debt is gone. On a loan, you need another way to pay right away, or you could face late fees or worse. Before you stop a loan payment, check whether autopay comes with a rate discount that you'd lose.

Another one is relying on a phone call alone. The call may start the clock, but a written follow-up is what gives you proof, and missing a 14-day confirmation can undo a phone order.

The last is waiting. If an unwanted charge has been running for months, the 60-day clock runs from each statement, so the sooner you read yours, the more you can do. Reading your statement line by line each month helps you catch this early.