If I want to close an online credit acount, and they require notification “in writing”, does email qualify as such by law? I know that a so-called online signature is binding.
I’m not doing it right now, but I’ve seen this requirement in some online small print and I wonder.
Peace,
mangeorge
I’m not a lawyer, but I doubt it. Spam being what it is these days, especially for large companies, I don’t think you could even be sure they’d get the e-mail. Certainly they’d have deniability out their corporate wazoo. And then there are all the issues of IP forgery – think of the mess you could make of someone’s life by cancelling all their credit cards “for” them.
Would a digital signature (I mean the technical term here: a public key encrypted sort of jobbie–not just a signature in digital form) make it legit? Maybe, but the same “did they get it?” issue applies, and a vanishingly small number of people have signing certificates and know how to use them in any case.
When you sign up for a service, as a credit line, online the agreement is binding. I guess that’s what I’m thinking of. If you can establish an account electronically, seems like you should be able to cancel the same account. Or ISP service or whatever.
My “bill me later” account, which I’ve paid off, requires a letter or phone call to close. That’s what brought this to mind. I didn’t have to call or write to open the account.
I’d certainly try an email if there were some reason not to call, like an endless automated phone maze.
I think it would work. I’ve closed online accounts by email, although they were checking accounts.
They just send you a confirmation in a day or two. No confirmation? Then you can call or write.
What constitutes acceptable notification is usually whatever the parties agree upon. Because of the ease in forging / missing emails, most contracts that allow for email notification have an acknowledgment requirement. If you still have access to your “agreement”, which you basically had no choice but to accept when you signed up for your account, there will probably be a section entitled “Notices” that describes what constitutes acceptable notice.
Generally, the legal requirement is for a written signature. You can’t do that authentically in email, so they require it in actual, physical writing on paper.