Got a $120 charge yesterday for a free trial I was meant to cancel. Signed up months ago, told myself I'd deal with it before the month was up, then completely forgot until the charge landed. Third time I've done this in the last two years, feeling pretty stupid about it.
Not going to stop doing free trials because half the time I actually do want to try something before paying for it, but is there any way I can set it up when I sign up so that if I forget to cancel I'm just not charged?
$120 charge from a free trial I forgot to cancel, how do people actually stop this
byu/JuliaLavender10 inFrugal
Posted by JuliaLavender10
26 Comments
Cancel immediately after signing up, or set a calendar reminder to cancel before it says your card will be charged.
I had my phone calendar for this kind of thing. Make it a big widget that you see every day. Amazing habit for everything including this
Cancel it the next day. You’ll still have access through the promo period
Sign up for free trial
Immediately put cancellation reminder in smart phone calendar
Cancel on time
Feel less stupid
When you get the “welcome” email use “snooze” so that it arrives again before the cancellation date. Or use “create event” for that time.
Buy one of those prepaid visas and use it until there’s only a couple dollars left. Use that card exclusively for free trials
Been doing free trials for years and the only thing that actually stopped me getting caught was using a virtual card with a $0 spend limit, that way nothing can charge you even if you forget. Set one up through halocard a while back and now I just make a fresh card for each trial, if I forget to cancel it just bounces and the service kicks me off. Basically zero willpower required which is kind of the whole point.
I have a small calendar next to my desk. I just mark on the calendar when I need to cancel.
If you have an online calendar that you look at every day, you can put it on there.
I’ve had decent luck writing cranky emails saying I never used their service and meant to cancel. It’s easier to just refund me than for me to take it to my credit card company, PayPal etc.
As soon as the free trial has started, I immediately go in and cancel it. The trial period isn’t affected by that for most services.
I mean. This is just part of being responsible and knowing yourself. How do you remind yourself of things? For all it matters you could randomly make reddit comments like
!remindme 2 months
And it’ll send you a notification in 2 months reminding you of that comment you left.
There’s always your phones calendar. Alarms. You can cancel immediately. I personally use a physical calendar in my kitchen. I see it every day. I mark appointments and stuff. If I write it by hand, I remember. If I type it, I will always forget.
I put things like that in my phone calendar so that in 2 weeks or whenever I’ll check what I’m doing that day and bam, I’m scheduled to cancel so-and-so
Call and cancel. Some or most of the charge can be refunded.
yes, use a prepaid virtual CC with privacy . com. I set up a 1 time use master card with how ever much money you want in it. it deactivates after initial use, you can set it as low as $1. there are also other types of virtual cards if you want. you get like 2 cards a month for free i think.
for free trials, I guess the card will just decline when the time comes if you only put $1 in it.
i’ve been doing this for months, it’s great.
Email their customer servicecand ask nicely for a refund. Sometimes it works. Sometime they will refund if it was just charged.
cancel immediately if you can keep access
if not, set a calendar event to cancel a day or two before
As soon as I sign up I write an email to myself and schedule it for a delay delivery 2 days before it’s due to bill for the first time. That’s been more effective than calendar reminders for me.
Set a calendar reminder when you sign up. This has worked about 10 times for me. Or use a pre-paid Credit Card.
I never sign up for trial subscriptions
iPhone App Store purchases let you cancel immediately without losing the benefits of the trial (except weirdly when trialing Apple’s own services)
Maybe it is worth always trialing through them? Be sure you cancel 25 or more hours in advance, not just the last day, regardless of who you go through. Many T&C say “24 hour notice” required to cancel even though your trial goes 1 extra day
Set a reminder on your phone for a couple of days before the cancellation is due.
Buy a nominal pre paid debit card, use those digits for free trials
Calendar reminder
I always set a reminder on my phone.
thats your problem I already told my 15 year old to never sign up for free trials of anything
I set alarms on my phone to alert when i need to cancel things