What you can do to prevent software companies grabbing your money

Use burner cards

It looks like a credit card, it works like a credit card – but it gives you no actual credit. You have to top it up before you can spend a kopeck, but here that’s an advantage. It means that no drawing down “below zero” is allowed. You can bet that the various unscrupulous online billing systems will advise you in plenty of time that your card is about to expire or is unable to accept payment requests.

Have the conversation with your boss

That is, the conversation about personal versus company payment methods. There are as many opinions and experiences in this field as there are accountants, finance directors and entrepreneurs. The objective is to make sure that any nonsense from online subscriptionstyle payment demands can’t interfere with your personal balances, credit ratings and so on. If it’s important for businesses to maintain current licences for their software, then relying on a registration process that wants to use a named person’s card is a strategic error.

Who does the software belong to if or when the named member of staff leaves the company?

Make contact with the subscription operator

Microsoft has always been willing to cut a deal away from the sight of Joe Public (though I remember one early corporate licence negotiation that resulted in a high-topped Luton van pulling in at the forecourt almost

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A credit card that doesn’t give you any credit can help stop unscrupulous billing systems

flat on its springs, the back stuffed full of cellophane-wrapped 30-floppy install kits for Office). Big software houses can’t afford to build relationships with individuals, but it’s the one thing they can’t afford to stop doing when it comes to bigger deals with more products and licences to manage. Take advantage of this whenever possible.

Always have an exit strategy

The most important process to control when signing up to a cloud service isn’t billing or scalability: it’s the exit strategy. How could your company or department stop using cloud resources, in the event that suddenly the cloud charges increase sharply, or your business premises is rendered unsuitable by strong price hikes in cloud-ready internet access? Waiting until you see an invoice as evidence of this type of trend is way too late if you want to get that money back.