How do I avoid getting caught by subscription traps?

The patterns designed to make cancelling hard, and the defences that work regardless of how the sign-up is designed.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 30 min
Read: 2 min

Short answer

Set a calendar reminder for two days before any free trial ends, at the moment you sign up. Use a virtual or single-use card number where you can, so an uncancelled subscription simply fails rather than charging you.

Subscription design deliberately makes signing up frictionless and cancelling awkward. You cannot change that, but you can defend against it with two habits applied at the point of sign-up rather than later.

What you'll need

A calendar (optional)
A virtual card facility if available (optional)

Step by step

Set the cancellation reminder at the moment you sign up.Two days before the trial ends. This single habit prevents most unwanted subscriptions and takes fifteen seconds.
Use a virtual or single-use card number for trials.Many banks offer them. If you forget to cancel, the payment fails rather than charging you, which changes the entire risk.
Read what happens at the end of the trial.How much, how often, and how to cancel. It is always stated somewhere and it is often quite different from what the sign-up implies.
Cancel immediately after signing up if you can.Many services let you cancel and still use the trial to its end. It removes the risk entirely and costs nothing.
Check your statements for things you no longer use.Twelve months of statements, not one. Annual subscriptions are the ones that go unnoticed for years.
Note which payment route each subscription uses.App store, direct debit, or card. Cancelling in the wrong place does nothing, and this is where most failed cancellations happen.
Be sceptical of very cheap introductory offers.The value is in the renewal price, not the introductory one. Check what it becomes and whether there is a minimum term.
Verify the cancellation on your next statement.A confirmation email is not proof the payment stopped. Check the money actually stops leaving your account.

Tips

Regulations in some countries require an easy cancellation route and reminders before renewal. It is worth knowing whether that applies where you live.
Keep a note of every recurring payment with its renewal date. Reviewing it annually is one of the higher-return half hours available.
If cancelling is genuinely obstructed, instruct your bank to cancel the continuous payment authority. They must act on that regardless of the company.

Common mistakes

Signing up for a trial without setting a reminder — The whole model relies on you forgetting. A calendar reminder at the moment of sign-up defeats it.
Assuming the confirmation email means the payment stopped — Failed cancellations are common. Check the next statement to confirm the money actually stopped.
Cancelling with the company when the app store takes the payment — The company cannot stop a payment it does not collect. Nothing changes and you believe it has.

Questions people ask

How do I avoid forgetting to cancel a free trial?

Set a calendar reminder for two days before it ends, at the moment you sign up. Better still, use a virtual card number so an uncancelled trial simply fails to charge.

What if a company makes it impossible to cancel?

Instruct your bank to cancel the continuous payment authority. They must act on that instruction regardless of what the company says, though you may still owe money contractually.