Be careful: paying with Google Pay is extremely easy and the default setting is monthly recurrence. If you're not logged in, the only way to cancel (as far as I know) is by sending an email, which is incredibly precarious.
I can confirm that the Google Payments Center has all my transactions and recurring payments. This is more than included in the Google Play interface.
For example, I have a Pixel Care+ subscription, billed monthly. I can manage and cancel that subscription. Same for Google One, billed annually, and an in-app subscription (links out to Google Play). Can change payment methods, add or remove a backup method, etc.
So, if you did set up a recurring donation through Google Pay, go to payments.google.com (on a desktop system) and see whether it can be managed through the web interface there. You'll need to verify your account.
PayPal has also offered good tools to manage recurring payments and subscriptions. If you set up payments through PayPal then you should be able to modify or cancel them, without even involving the payee.
in those situations, especially if the business is unresponsive, i just keep charging back until they stop. if i can subscribe easily, i should be able to cancel just as easily :)
Debit cards can do chargebacks just as credit cards can do. That's a feature of Visa and Mastercard (and others). If your bank refuses, complain to the card network. Oh and consider changing banks, that's really unacceptable in 2026 and shows an anti customer stance.
This is completely normal. You can't just issue a chargeback because you feel like you want your money back after the fact. They want to know what went wrong. It could be fraud but it could be also misleading checkout experience and other reasons. The merchant is charged often a fee for a chargeback on the order of $15 and it might result in penalties.
So, if you feel like you've been charged unfairly (e.g. product not what was expected), in error, fraudulently etc. then chargeback is the route and you should provide a reason. It's a mechanism to protect consumers. If on the other hand you just want your money back without good reason then chargebacks are not the right tool. The consumer also has an obligation to pay if there was no fault on the merchant side.
Honestly, sounds like everything is as it should be?
In both US and EU, chargebacks are a general consumer protection tool, implemented by card networks to make you less afraid of using them with potentially-untrustworthy merchants, even when not legally required.
They can be used for any kind of legitimate grievance, outright fraud being just one of them. If you book a hotel and the room is not up to the standards on their website, take pictures, take screenshots and chargeback.
They are not, however, a way to cancel a subscription you decide you no longer want (incidentally, neither is cancelling your card). Ask your lawyer, but this is actually illegal and considered fraud in many places. If you make a dumb choice, you have to live with the consequences or follow the contractual route.
However if you try to cancel the subscription the normal way, and it doesn't work, or there is no normal way, then you escalate to a chargeback and that's valid grounds.
> If you book a hotel and the room is not up to the standards on their website, take pictures, take screenshots and chargeback.
This is unhinged. Then I can chargeback at McDonald’s because the burger doesn’t look the same as the picture. I still ate it and you probably still stayed in the room.
Well yes, that's how it works for credit cards too. Chargebacks aren't a thing you can just do on a whim, they are a mechanism for the bank to punish fraudulent merchants. Attempting to get one against a merchant who is not defrauding you is a criminal offence. The bar for fraud is lower than you might think though. Any unauthorized charge, incorrect charge, barrier to cancelling a recurring charge, all counts.
Which bank? My main bank (I'm also in Spain) is BBVA which is able to do charge backs with my debit cards as well. Was possible with Banc Sabadell I used to have as well, really strange to hear there is a bank that doesn't support that today with debit cards.
I take advantage of all the temporary card options my credit card provides.
There's one for subscriptions where you give it a monthly limit and if you want to end your subscription and they're being difficult you can just cancel the card.
It's great to basically never be beholden to anyone holding my payment info hostage. I know charge backs exist but while I've never had problems, I would imagine the more you end up having to go down that avenue the more likely you are to have problems using it.
Not following? Paying with Google Pay is obviously not "easy" if you're not logged in, it's impossible? And obviously you don't need to use an email if you're already authenticated?
Google Pay and Apple Pay are basically nicer UIs for your Visa / Mastercard, with some extra privacy protections on top (E.G. they use disposable credit card numbers that merchants can't use to correlate your transactions at different stores).
They offer similar possibilities to what Visa and Mastercard offer, including changing your transaction amount post-factum (E.G. Uber everywhere, restaurants in the US for the weird way Americans do tip processing, some hotels for the minibar / phone / TV bill) and recurring charges.
They're not the same thing as in-app purchases, which are for digital content only, which Apple and Google charge much higher commissions on, and which have a much more pleasant cancellation / management UI. With IAP, Google / Apple is the merchant from your bank's perspective, this is not the case with Apple / Google Pay.
