HU if you use News.Individual.NET

[Jonno]

ClickandBuy, the company formerly known as Firstgate, has announced their closing of business in the first half of 2016.

When News.Individual.NET started up, many of our users made use of ClickandBuy to enter into a self-renewing subscription, which will need to be converted to one of our remaining payment options, PayPal and EU bank transfer.

While we are currently waiting for definitive information from ClickandBuy, we expect having to convert all self-renewing subscriptions with renewal dates after 01 February 2016 to one-time payments. Affected users will receive an e-mail when their account has been converted, as well as the usual two reminder e-mails for pre-paid accounts in due time before expiry.

IMPORTANT: The closing of ClickandBuy does not mean any loss of usage time already paid for! It will only affect the options for future payments.

Users not wanting to wait for the conversion can switch to one-time payments at any time as explained in our FAQ:

The FAQ also explains how the information in the "My Account" section of our website can be used to find out if an account is affected by the closing of ClickandBuy. "My Account" is also the place to update the e-mail address we use for administrative communication.

For our users valuing the convenience of automatic renewals, we are sorry that we will not be able to offer equivalent functionality in the future. However, some banks offer standing orders with a yearly frequency. Alternatively, the usage fee for several years can be transferred en bloc - this may also make bank transfers a viable option for users outside the Euro area, where bank charges may be significant.

We are wishing all our users happy holidays!

The team at News.Individual.NET

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Jonno writes

I use Pay pal but thanks for your effort.

[Brian-Gaff]

ONe supposes the click mob have not managed to make this enterprise make money then. I suspect a lot of the similar services will fold. The honeymoon is over, the free lunch is dead and sites will start to charge much more in future. Brian

[Bob Eager]

I don't really understand what you are saying. news.individual.net is still operating exactly as before, but with only two possible options for payment instead of three. It may or may not make money, but that isn't the issue here.

I agree that ClickandBuy may have had trouble making money, but that's their problem; PayPal manage it.

The only real issue is that the current payment options don't allow automatic renewal (although I thought PayPal did support that).

[S Viemeister]

I subscribe to a monthly publication using PayPal - it is automatically renewed every year.

[Roger Mills]

I've used PayPal in recent years too - but I used to use ClickandBuy many moons ago. I notice that it's still being offered as a method of payment on the NIN site.

At the end of 2014 there was some hoo-ha about a change to EU regs which NIN didn't know how to handle - something about the VAT rate being that of the customer's country (and therefore varying from customer to customer) rather than that of the recipient's country. I paid another year's worth at that time in order to avoid the problem even though my payment wasn't due for a few more months. The NIN site is showing that I'm paid up until 1 April 2016, which sounds about right, and there's no mention of this VAT problem, so presumably they've sorted it?!

[Bob Eager]

I'm sure I do too...I just can't remember what, offhand.

[alan_m]

Paypal do automatic renewals.

You can find out if you have an active recurring payment set up for xxxxxxxxx as follows:

1. Log in to your account at

1. Click 'History' at the top of the page

2. Choose the 'Subscriptions' field to filter the account history

3a. If 'Subscriptions' is not showing then hover over the 'More filters', then 'Subscriptions and agreements' and then click 'Subscriptions'

1. Find the Subscription creation and click 'Details'

[Bob Eager]

Useful, but my home finance package is quicker. It's all in there!

[Bob Eager]

I looked, and it was bidnapper.

[Dave Liquorice]

Most of the banking groups came up with their own online payment services of one form or another over the last deacde , maybe longer. Not many are still about. Anyone remember NoChex? Some have tried payment system involving mobile phones, the don't seem to have caught on either.

I reckon the snag is that none have the systems have been as easy to use as a credit/debit card.

Apple Pay might but that AFAIK(*) is, in effect, just moving the RFID/NFC "chip" form a bank card to a phone. That is is just a variation on an existing system brought in by the market dominant Visa and Mastercard payment systems. (*) I've not looked into it as it has "Apple" in the name and I don't have any Apple kit. Not to mention it has "Apple" in the name...

Donno what you're getting at there Brian.

[Huge]

[snippage]

Quite so. It moves the contents of the secure element on an EMV card into a "secure" store in the phone. And yes, the quotes are deliberate.

And EMV card can't run malware, but a phone can. But the market has demanded this, so they get what they want.

[Chris French]

Yup :-)

Google tried with their Wallet system, but it never got market traction. I do use the Paym system sometimes to pay friends (it basically links a phone number to bank account) and that works well.

Not got an iPhone myself, but have been with friends using it, and Applepay does work very well and smoothly. It uses the TouchID finger print scanner system to authorise. You can use multiple cards with it, and they way the system works the store doesn't get access to your card details (AIUI it uses a token system, the card details don't leave the phone)

They did a classic Apple thing, and took existing technologies, NFC, contact less payments, finger print readers and combined it all into a very slick system. And used their market position to get the banks on board, and picked the right time to take it to market.

It has probably taken off more in the US, iPhone has a bigger market share there (about 50% IIRC), the card payment systems were very behind in the US chip and pin being a new thing there, and they had some big security breaches of the payment systems.

[Chris B]

I was listening to one of these technology gurus ranting on about why this is so much easier than using a card. His excuse was that you already have your phone in your hand - you don't need to go rummaging in your wallet for a card. My thought was "you Muppet they are both in my pocket, I can get a card out just as easily as a phone", but since that comment I have been more observant - it is amazing how many people carry their phone in their hand rather than in a pocket or handbag....

[Huge]

[13 lines snipped]

It's your age. Everyone under 20(?) carries their phone in one hand, permanently.