I usually update my most-frequently-bought-from web sites (either when I get a new card or when my current card gets renewed with a new expiration date), which is like, four or five sites I can remember off the top of my head. For the rest, I just don't worry about it, and update them on my next purchase, if I ever do a next purchase. Most of my mail order business is with Amazon, so if I update that one, then I hardly ever notice the changed card.

But yeah, I would understand how that might be a bigger deal to other people though, who use their cards differently than I do, like you described.

In particular, if one uses companies which generate a recurring charge on the credit card, such as billings or subscriptions. If someone has a lot of those, it could be a real hassle to have to update all of them. I personally try to avoid those kind of charges when I can, specifically because I don't want the hassle of having to update them when my card's expiration date changes. Lots of subscription-type products/companies can do EFT Debits from the bank directly now, instead of needing a card, so I go that route for subscriptions which allow it. Of course, *THAT* is a set of numbers I don't give out lightly. If I saw an insecure connection asking me for my EFT bank number and routing number, I would draw the line there and not give it to them. Having to re-do my bank account would be a much bigger deal than changing my credit card.

I know what you mean, though, about how some sites are really obtuse about the credit card updating process. Recently I did a take-out food order with Bite Squad. I had done it through their iPhone app. My credit card's expiration date was renewed recently so it told me that. But oddly, their iPhone user interface did not allow me to update the card's expiration date and save it. It forced me to enter the card, all of its digits, all over again from scratch, and when it was done, though I had ticked the "save" box, it didn't actually save it. I emailed their tech support and they said. "Oh just go to account, credit cards, update credit card." But that option didn't exist. After a few back and forth emails, they finally re-read my prominent first line of the bug report saying that I was on an iPhone. I made it clear to them that my complaint was specifically about the iPhone user experience. They said "oh I think we deliberately don't offer the CC update on the iPhone app for security reasons". Sigh.