Last reviewed: 30 September 2026

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How do you stop automatic payments to a credit repair or debt relief company?

For a recurring electronic debit from your personal bank or credit union account, you can tell your bank, orally or in writing, at least three business days before the scheduled date, and you can tell the company you are revoking permission. Stopping the payment does not cancel the contract or erase what you owe.

Why it matters

If you signed up for a credit repair or debt relief service that takes recurring payments from your bank account and you want to stop, the federal stop-payment right is tied to a deadline before the scheduled transfer, so timing matters.

The short version

• Tell your bank: a consumer may stop payment of a preauthorized electronic fund transfer by notifying the financial institution orally or in writing at least three business days before the scheduled date of the transfer.^[1]
• Expect to confirm in writing: the institution may require written confirmation within 14 days of an oral notice. It must tell you of that requirement and give you the address when you give the oral notice, and an oral stop-payment order ceases to be binding after 14 days if you don't provide the required written confirmation.^[1]
• Tell the company too: the CFPB recommends calling the company and then following up in writing, saying you are taking away permission for automatic payments, and explaining whether you are cancelling the contract or only changing how you pay.^[2]
• Expect a fee: the CFPB says banks and credit unions generally charge fees for stop payment orders.^[2]
• Stopping a payment is not cancelling: the CFPB says cancelling an automatic payment does not cancel what you owe, and to cancel a service contract, be sure to cancel your contract with the company as well. If you cancel an automatic payment on a loan, you still have to pay using another method.^[2]

What counts as a "preauthorized" transfer

Regulation E defines it as an electronic fund transfer authorized in advance to recur at substantially regular intervals.^[3] It also says such transfers may be authorized only by a writing signed or similarly authenticated by the consumer, and that the person who obtains the authorization must give the consumer a copy.^[1] If you don't have a copy of what you agreed to, ask the company for it.

If a payment goes through after you gave notice

The CFPB says that once you have told both your bank and the company that you revoked authorization, further payments initiated by that company would be errors and you can ask your bank for a refund. It recommends following your bank's own process and keeping a record of each request and its date, and telling your bank right away about any payment you did not allow or that was made after you revoked authorization. Federal law gives you the right to dispute unauthorized transfers, as long as you tell your bank in time.^[2]

What stopping the debit does not change

• Credit repair contracts. Under the Credit Repair Organizations Act you may cancel any contract with a credit repair organization without penalty or obligation by notifying it before midnight of the third business day after the contract is executed. Separately, a credit repair organization may not charge or receive money for a service before the service is fully performed.^[4] See what your credit repair contract legally has to say and the advance-fee rule.
• Debt settlement programs. A provider covered by the FTC rule may not request or receive a fee until it has settled at least one debt under an agreement you executed and you have made at least one payment under that settlement agreement.^[5] If money is sitting in a dedicated account, the FTC rule's protection for that money is the right to withdraw on request; a stop-payment order does not address it. See how to quit a debt settlement program and get your funds back.
• Your debts. If the program told you to stop paying your creditors, those accounts may be late. See what to expect from debt settlement.

A related rule for telemarketed sales

The FTC's rule also makes it an abusive telemarketing act or practice, for a seller or telemarketer, to create, or cause to be created, a remotely created payment order as payment for goods or services sold through telemarketing.^[5] The rule defines a remotely created payment order as a payment order drawn on your account that the payee or its agent creates and that is deposited into or cleared through the check clearing system; the definition does not include an order cleared through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network or one subject to the Truth in Lending Act.^[6] If money left your account that way after a telemarketing sale, that is a fact worth including in a complaint; see where to file.

Your options, step by step

1. Find the next scheduled debit date and count back three business days. The rule's notice standard is three business days before the scheduled transfer; if you are inside that window, ask your bank what it can do.^[1]
2. Call, then write, to both the company and your bank or credit union. Keep dates and names.^[2]
3. Ask your bank which process it uses: some recommend a stop payment order as well as a revocation.^[2]
4. Watch your statements for any further debit.^[2]
5. Deal with the contract separately. Read the cancellation terms and, for debt settlement, your dedicated account.

What this page does not cover

It does not cover card payments, checks, or how any particular company's contract handles cancellation, and it does not say whether a particular charge was authorized.

When we will update this page

We revisit it when Regulation E's preauthorized-transfer section or the FTC's debt relief provisions are amended, or when the CFPB changes its guidance.