Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

When you buy the latest versions of Symantec’s Norton products, you are asked to establish a Norton Account.

This account retains the credit card information you used when you purchased your Norton (assuming you purchased or renewed online).

As a “convenience” to you, Symantec will automatically renew your Norton subscription when it is expiring using the credit card on file.

But what if you did not want to renew, choose to buy an updated off-the-shelf version, or even switched to another security software provide

When Did I Agree to Auto-Renew?

When you purchased or renewed your Norton software online there was a small text notification at the bottom of the shopping cart page with a checkbox that you were required to check to complkete your purchase.

As in most cases, the devil is in the details, so if you checked without reading, you agreed and that is why your card got dinged for the renewal.

How Do Opt-Opt of Norton Auto Renewal?

The easiest way to prevent an unwanted auto-renewal is to simply opt-out. Symantec has made this inconvenient enough that many people may not do it, but it is not hard to do.

To opt-out, visit www.mynortonaccount.com and log in using the email address you used in your original purchase session and the password you were required to establish when you purchased.

Once logged in, click on the renewal center link at the top of the page and cancel the auto-renewals on the desired products.

What is the Easiest Way to Cancel a Billed Auto-Renewal?

Unfortunately, canceling is a lot more difficult than the automated renewal process. Thankfully, it can be done with the right information.

Here’s what you will need:

• The first 6 digits of your credit card number used for the renewal (if you have multiple cards on your bank account, you MUST have the one you used to buy initially)
• The last 4 digits from the same card
• The name on the card
• The expiration date
• The email address associated with your Norton Account (your log-in name)
• Your order number (in the event you are trying to cancel an accidental purchase)

There are 3 ways to cancel your Norton Auto-Renewal after it has been billed to your bank account.

1. Call the toll-free number on your Bank statement – 1-877-294-5265
2. Use Symantec’s online chat to cancel
3. Fill out Symantec’s cancellation form

Call me a pessimist, but I don’t like to trust my refund to a fire and forget form.

I have tried the live chat option, but after a very long wait most of the associates did not know what they were doing and were unable to process my request.

After 5 hours of online chatting to get a $48.13 credit on my bank statement, I called the toll-free number.

The call made it to a live person in just a few minutes, and my refund was processed in 10 minutes.

Additionally, they removed the credit card information from my Norton Account all together so no other unintended renewals would happen in the future.

Over the past few days there has been a lot of concern about the Conficker virus that is expected to strike on April 1, 2009. Callers to my radio show asked me if they should be concerned, and my answer was pretty straight forward.

If the following describes you, you should be relatively safe from the Conficker virus:

* You have a genuine (not illegal) copy of Windows
* You have up-to-date Antivirus Software from a company like Symantec (not free antivirus from your ISP or Free AVG)
* You are current with your Windows Updates
* You can get to the website www.symantec.com

With that said, there are also important details about this infection that you should know to help keep your friends and relatives safe as well.

Over the past week I received 6 emails and three phone calls from companies I had approached about sponsoring Top Affiliate Challenge originally who weren’t really sure about the idea. Things have changed, and now the show is like a snowball rolling downhill.

In the past I have not been a big fan of Symantec’s online renewal system. Over the past two years however, they seem to have made great strides in improving the system. My main beef was that renewals were too complicated to install and were often fraught with technical glitches.

I had the opportunity to renew my Norton Antivirus this week and I noticed that the online renewal was much easier, but there was also a LOT more fine print. As usual, I tend to read the fine print so my readers do not have to. Before you click I agree to that online payment for renewal, there is something you should know…

I received an alert today from Symantec about a disturbing rise in the number of fake email messages that purport to be from legitimate online retailers. Apparently, these messages are sent via bulk-email to unsuspecting individuals. The emails state that an invoice for a recent purchase at the online retailer is attached, and that you should open it to verify your order.

When the email attachment is opened, the user’s computer is infected with a Trojan horse virus that allows an unknown party to take control of your computer and its Internet connection at a later time for any number of nefarious purposes.