Your preferred payment method is expiring soon

Question

I know this is a community forum, not a place for asking Adobe questions, but I'm just curious if the community can shed some light on this. I'll be contacting Adobe Monday, but I understand actually speaking to someone might take a while.

For the first time ever, on December 24th, 2018, I subscribed to the 20gb Photography Plan and chose the one time payment plan of $119.00 for a one year subscription. Previous to this I was using the perpetual LR 5.7 edition. For the 20gb Photography plan, I paid with a credit card that was valid on 12/24/2018, but expires this month (Jan 2019). Today, now just a couple weeks later, i get an email from Adobe stating "Your preferred payment method is expiring soon. Please edit your payment details to avoid a lapse in service." I accessed my Adobe account online, and sure enough as expected, they have that card number with the Jan 2019 expiration date.

My first question is, since they already took my $119.00 for the year's subscription, and my account clearly shows the subscription expires on 12/24/2019, why would they care if the card is expiring, and why would they want me to edit my payment details now to avoid a lapse in service? I can see receiving this email, say, in November, but seems a bit goofy to get it a couple weeks into a year's subscription. The only reason I can think this happened is that Adobe has a bot that sweeps accounts on a regular basis and, regardless of monthly or yearly plans, triggers an email for any account where the credit card is about to expire. Now I'm okay with that except for three things:

The part about "edit your payment details to avoid a lapse in service" is causing me some angst. Maybe its simply because its my first experience with their subscription service. As I stated before, I'm paid in full for a year, they took my money, and quite frankly, I feel no need to give them updated credit card for next year's subscription until the plan is about to expire. Is this mandatory to update this info RIGHT NOW since I'm paid up for a year? Or is this some type of "scare tactic" to goad people in always having a current valid card on file for auto-renewing?
Is there any risk to them "lapsing my service" if I don't update the credit card info until this year's plan expires? Honestly, it would be stealing on their part if they do, but I've seen companies do stranger things.
If the answer to #2 is "no risk, don't worry, they won't lapse my service", then will I be getting a nag email for the next 11 months?

Again, I'll be reaching out to Adobe beginning on Monday, just curious if any community members here could offer some insight to my questions until I can reach them.

Thanks for reading,

Jim

DelphiZoa · Answer

Hi Jim,I don't work for Adobe and can't provide absolute answers to your questions, but I'll share what I suspect to be the case.Regarding your first question about why you're receiving the e-mail, I am sure it's just an automated response. The wording on it is a little unfortunate, since it might seem like you're going to lose service. However, if you prepaid for an annual plan and the payment was accepted, there will not be any lapse in service, especially since you mention your account is correctly displaying the expected subscription end date. As you say, strange things occasionally occur, but barring something very unusual, you're good.As to your numbered questions.1. Don't feel angst! It really should be okay. No, you don't need to update your CC info right now. By the by, I don't think It's really meant as a scare tactic...more overzealous automation.2. No chance of lapsing unless there is some kind of massive weirdness afoot.3. It is possible you will continue to get reminder e-mails. I can't say for sure as I haven't been in this situation. Alas, you cannot op-out of what Adobe calls "transactional e-mails". The only way around this that I know of is to turn off auto-renewal (Turn off auto-renewal for your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.​) "Turning off auto-renewal" is basically cancelling your subscription. That sounds scary, but for a prepaid annual plan, your service will continue uninterrupted until the expiration date in your account. One caveat: wait to cancel until more than 14 days after you made your order, otherwise you will be refunded your money and your subscription halted. Read this help document for more info: How to cancel your Adobe Creative Cloud plan or membership​.Hope that helps put your mind at ease until you get a chance to chat or call Adobe directly.

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