XBL Gold 12 Month Subscription - ?23.99

[Charlie]

Unsure if this has been mentioned elsewhere on the forums but a 12 month Xbox Live Gold sub (and some free Halo avatat) is available for £23.99 for a limited time via Spotlight on the Dashboard.

It's a good deal, and cheaper than 12 month cards on eBay, so figured it warranted it's own thread so it catches peoples attention and hopefully saves them some pennies.

[randombs]

Thanks a lot for the heads-up. Problem for me is it's a credit-card buy:

"One year subscription at £23.99 for the first year with auto-renewal at the then current annual price following year one"

I've stayed off auto-renewal these past few years, choosing to go with codes only as I didn't want my credit card details on there. Mind you, last time I had to renew was on New Year's Day so the guy I bought the code from couldn't send it until the next day so I couldn't use Mirror's Edge online

I'm gonna go for it. What's the worst that can happen? I'll just set my auto-renewal to monthly so I'll only lose a fiver or so if I forget.

[C']

Nope, sorry Microsoft, I don't care how good the deals you offer are, you are never getting my CC details again.

[Spatial]

Yeah, likewise I would never give them any card details again. You can over-ride the auto renewal by punching in a prepaid code at a later date but even then it's not worth giving your details to a company who make you jump through hoops to get it removed etc.

[randombs]

Too late!

Ah well, the credit card runs out next year anyway. Something tells me they're able to still charge stuff to it if you get a new card. Mixi was able to do that when I subscribed to the premium service (it's only about £1 a month).

As for jumping through hoops, couldn't you tell them you've closed the cc account? Or will they just tell you it doesn't matter in that case and not remove the info?

[C']

If you let the CC expire and they attempt auto-renewal, they will class it as the account being in debt and will lock you out until you've paid the renewal fee.

This happened to me 2 years ago (and is the reason I won't give them my CC details now). My 360 had RROD for a second time and as I was using it much at the time, it was out of action for a couple of months before I returned it. I knew the gold subscription was due to expire during that time but assumed that as the card used had expired they would just bump me down to silver. Was not the case.

[randombs]

I figured it would be something like that. All my accounts revert to silver automatically but I imagine that's because I've been using codes and not credit cards? Surely if you just disable auto-renewal you won't have to worry about any issues later on down the line?

Sorry for throwing it off topic like this.

[Spatial]

Stopping auto renewal is still a bitch apparently. Chris Field on here recently posted he was having trouble turning it off, even using account management via the website.

Like I say, putting in even a one month trial will cancel it so there's a way out if all else fails , but I just know that I could do without the hassle anymore.

[C']

Yeah prepaid cards revert to silver. This is what i did most recently. I still telephoned them to cancel my previous subscription a week before it was due to renew just to be safe, then purchased the prepaid card. Won't take any chances with them any more.

All my attempts to turn off auto-renewal when there was a card on there didn't work. Apparently it's an option on the website for lots of countries but the UK isn't one of them. It was there a couple of years back but even when I selected it, it never worked.

[elaniel]

I've had my cards on XBox Live since it started (Although there's a bunch of cards on there anyhow.) How exactly do you remove old cards online? I know people have had problems, but would like to remove the clutter of cards.

I went for this. I usually buy pre-paid cards, but I'll make sure that I use one before the renewal date (which for me won't be until May 2012.

Good that they don't charge us until the current year expires.
How do we get the helmet though?

[Brats]

I have mine on auto renewal, but I just buy cheap cards and log them way in advance. My subscription is currently paid until November 2011, but I have an email from MS saying the ?24 is guaranteed and will be debited from my credit card in November 2011. Cool .

How do I get my free avatat though?

[elaniel]

How do I get my free avatat though?

Acey Bongos said the codes would be sent to the registered email at the beginning of November. Nice of them to include that detail huh?

[Charlie]

I understand folk's reluctance to give MS their credit card details but I'm pretty sure you can remove your credit card details via xbox.com, and I know it can be done on microsoft.com.