Having worked in the insurance business I can tell you that I worked for a major company. Our e-mail was not secure for financial transactions either. Once you gave me your info, it was entered into a secure payment processing program. It sounds like you have talked to this very patient lady. I would call and give the information verbally. Bank authorizations normally required a voided signed check, or a signed document. Credit card - we never set up monthly authorizations on a credit card either - either checking or debit only. This was a large nationwide highly rated company that I worked for so this is not unusual for a small company either. Reason ---- they need the routing # to set up auto withdraw -- a credit card does not have a routing number. There is a difference between withdrawing from accounts to receive payment and sending the charges to a credit card.