Didn't you used to be able to turn this on or off in your account summary at xbox.com?  I had mine set to off seeing as I usually just use pre-paid cards, but after my gold membership lapsed this week, I bought one month of live for £1 off the dashboard.  Now my account is set to auto renew with no obvious way to turn it off.  Is there a way to do this or will I have to ring their help line? 

I know for sure you can call them and cancel it, but there may or may not still be an option to disable it online. I swear there was at a point, but I also remember trying myself to disable it and not being able to find the option.

You have to call them.  Those sneaky assholes.

First you couldn't do it online, and then you could. Mine is still set to off, so I am not sure if they removed the option of switching it off now. I am sure someone else who does have Auto-Renewal on could login to xbox.com and see if they can turn it off still.

This must be pretty new, I'm certain I've changed my auto renewal in the past.  There's even a guide on how to do it on major Nelsons blog dated July 09.  Sneaky bastards indeed.  Guess I'll be ringing them then. 

I had to cancel my subscription recently cause I'll be out of the country for a few months. When I looked online the option to toggle auto-renew was no longer available for me either. So I called them up and it was pretty hassle free to get it turned off. Out of curiosity I asked why the option is no longer available online, the rep told me they had complaints that people had theirs turned off as a prank if they left themselves logged in or something like that. I don't buy that.

" the rep told me they had complaints that people had theirs turned off as a prank if they left themselves logged in or something like that. I don't buy that. "

My brother had the same deal and was able to turn it off on the website.

Well a few minutes on the phone sorted it out, plus they had  La Femme d'Argent by Air as the hold music so all's good.