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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Nifty1 on Thursday 25 April 24 18:58 BST (UK)

Title: My Heritage
Post by: Nifty1 on Thursday 25 April 24 18:58 BST (UK)
I am making this enquiry on behalf of my wife who tells me that she is too tired to deal with it presently.

Apparently she has received her bank statement and her account has been a debited  for a significant amount payable to My Heritage. This has come as a complete surprise to her as she says that she has had no dealings with My Heritage for at least 10 years’ if at all.

Please can anyone suggest why she has been debited and how they think the problem should be dealt with
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: bearkat on Thursday 25 April 24 19:34 BST (UK)
I would contact MyHeritage to see what the payment is for.
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Zaphod99 on Thursday 25 April 24 20:11 BST (UK)
I think you should also check back as far as possible to make sure that she hasn't been charged for all the intervening years. What sort of quantity is at stake?

Zaph
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Biggles50 on Thursday 25 April 24 20:24 BST (UK)
Most definitely check every year for the last ten years if possible, or as far back as the Bank can go.

I’d then contact My Heritage by phone and ask why the debit has been taken on an account that obviously has been dormant.

Set low expectations from them.

They are all the same, it is very difficult to cancel a subscription online and it is only cancelled when one receives an eMail confirming the cancellation.

As an example, I cancelled My Heritage as soon as I renewed and took a screenshot.

As with Ancestry, it is going to expire with no Auto Renewal.
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Rena on Thursday 25 April 24 21:21 BST (UK)
I've deleted my tree on that website as I refuse to think that my money could be going to pay for a war.   The link below shows names of directors and their nationalities, etc.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06670598/officers
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Rena on Thursday 25 April 24 21:26 BST (UK)
P.S. the site is only free if you have 250 or less people in your tree.  I had several small trees with the total number of persons totalling more than 250.
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Cell on Thursday 25 April 24 23:02 BST (UK)
 She should contact both MyHeritage and her bank.
If she hasn't  any dealing with  MyHeritage , perhaps someone has her credit card details ( stolen her numbers).
My first  port of call would be my bank if my  credit card had an unauthorised charge on it ,  if I knew for sure that I  haven't taken a sub or anything out with MyHeritage at all..

You say she hasn't  had any dealings with MyHeritage for the past 10 years (  and if at all). Did she have an account with them  before this?
If so, can she log into her old account to see her subs and such under her settings?
If she's  forgotten  her password , press the  button " forgot password " to reset the password ( that's  if she is still has  the same email address that she joined  up with them with, as they send the link to the email address that you have the account under).
Kind regards
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Nifty1 on Friday 26 April 24 07:55 BST (UK)
Thanks to everyone for the replies.
@ Zaph £120 I think.


We will see what happens today.
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: F1fan on Friday 26 April 24 11:21 BST (UK)
I have spoken to someone who used to work for My Heritage - the company they used to work at was bought by My Heritage - and they left due to the path they are taking.

Also looking at the link posted by Rena, it seems strange that the Chief Financial Officer has a postal address in Dorset, England but have listed their Country of Residence as Israel  ???

Hopefully you are successful in getting your money back, but have heard similar stories to yours quite a few times of >:( them
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Nifty1 on Monday 29 April 24 08:00 BST (UK)
I hope that my wife gets a positive result this week.

Mean while more info here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyHeritage#:~:text=MyHeritage%20was%20founded%20in%202003,family%20farmhouse%20in%20Bnei%20Atarot.
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Rena on Monday 29 April 24 20:27 BST (UK)
Years ago My-Heritage was "updating" my tree with rubbish that other people had posted.  This stopped when I stopped synchronizing my computer tree with the online gedcom.  Since that time I have mistakenly thought that I was safe from any happenings out there in cyber space.

Since my last entry I received a message from a family member asking me to confirm some ancestral information back in the 1770s.

I duly clicked on the "MyHeritage" icon on my desktop and realised that despite my not synchronizing my gedcom with the heritage online gedcom that website still had complete charge of their icon and when I deleted my online tree, it meant that my computer had also received the same "delete" message and all that was left on my computer was a green MyHeritage icon.
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Ian Nelson on Tuesday 30 April 24 01:34 BST (UK)
P.S. the site is only free if you have 250 or less people in your tree.  I had several small trees with the total number of persons totalling more than 250.

I had 240 persons in my Free Tree for 8 years ...just had an email telling me that I had exceeded their Free Limit of 100 persons and would have to pay   ... so my tree will be removed
cheers, Ian
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: phil57 on Tuesday 30 April 24 09:12 BST (UK)
I have a tree with several thousand people in it on MH. I only subscribe intermittently. When I have let my subscription lapse I also get dire warning about my tree exceeding the limits for a "free" account but it has never been deleted. I am just unable to add to it.

I did also pay separately for access to the DNA tools a long time back, before I took out any other subscriptions. That remains valid whenever I let my other subscription lapse, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

My last subscription lapsed last December. The renewal offer is now down to £46 for their top level subscription in the latest emails trying to entice me back.
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Nifty1 on Friday 03 May 24 08:16 BST (UK)
Since the op, my wife has had a considerable amount of communication with the staff of My Heritage.
I overheard some of the conversations. What struck me was the certitude in the manner of the person at the other end of the line as she reeled of several transactions in which my wife was alleged to have made over the past years.
My wife checked through her bank statements and only one, the last one, corresponded with having been debited from her account. After further conversations during which the MH rep was sticking to her lines, and my wife somehow remained civil the case was referred’ to Accounts Dept.
The latest e-mail

Original purchase date: removed
Invoice number: removed
Amount: £120
IMPORTANT NOTE: The refund has been issued and may take up to 7 business days to appear in your account.
Your credit note is attached.

Best regards, 
The MyHeritage team

I will believe it, if and when it happens
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: martin hooper on Friday 03 May 24 10:51 BST (UK)
Well done to your wife. I hope the refund comes through.

I've never had any contact with MH - and it seems from reading all on this thread that I never will.

Regards

Martin
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Biggles50 on Friday 03 May 24 11:21 BST (UK)
A good result.

I do have to say that I will never ever pay anything to My Heritage.

The rubbish spouted by them and totally unhelpful staff when the site “lost” my Wife’s DNA test, one day it was there with matches etc, the next gone.

Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Nifty1 on Friday 03 May 24 13:57 BST (UK)
Another thing that I am curious about:
If my wife has never had an account with My Heritage then
 how did they get hold of details of her bank account ?
Title: Re: My Heritage
Post by: Cell on Saturday 04 May 24 00:18 BST (UK)
Another thing that I am curious about:
If my wife has never had an account with My Heritage then
 how did they get hold of details of her bank account ?
Nifty,
Has she contacted her bank?  I know  you  said they'd ( Myheritage) would refund the money,  but perhaps her  bank can  help,   they should be able to put a block on any future payments that they may try to charge, or issue her a new card / numbers, ie  cancel the card/ numbers she has (to block all future  transactions to that card.)

Just a thought, besides the most obvious, which I mentioned  earlier (  someone may  have stolen her  numbers) - Did  Myheritage buy out/merge.with any company that your  wife did have an  account  with?

Was it by credit card? Usually  if paid by credit card, you are covered  for fraudulent transactions , and the credit card should refund you and chase the company who made the  transaction for  reimbursement. 

Whatever happens,  I would  be speaking to my bank about it and not soley relying on Myheritage ( or any other company  for that matter too) to do the right thing.

It's worrying  IF your wife has never had an account  with them, my thoughts are that  it leaves two options , stolen numbers, the  card/ numbers  has been fraudulently been used   , or your wife may have had an account with some other geneology site that has merged/ bought out  by MyHeritage for them to have  her numbers.
Best of luck, but 100% she should contact  her bank , if she hasn't  done so already of course.
Kind regards