By John Gardner
I just got a friendly email reminder….
“Thank You for renewing….”
I did NOT want the renewal and called the vendor — and was told that when I signed up for that discounted first year rate that the “terms of service” stated that my membership/subscription would be “automatically renewed” at the regular price. BUSTED!
A few types of subscriptions/memberships that often work this way…
- Magazine subscriptions
- Domain names
- Computer anti-virus programs
- Job search sites
If this has ever happened to you, consider the following 5 suggestions to keep from getting burned…
5 Suggestions to keep from getting BURNED with automatic renewals!
- Actually READ the Terms of Service you clicked that you read.
- Schedule an event in your calendar on the renewal anniversary with a reminder 1-2 weeks in front of that so that you can cancel before your card gets re-zapped.
- Sign up with a credit card that will expire before the renewal date. You will get reminders about your card and can then take action accordingly.
- After signing up, go into your ‘profile’ or ‘account’ and un-click any box that authorizes automatic renewal, or select an option to manually renew, if it exists.
- Find out if you can still use the site/service for the remainder of your subscription if you go ahead and ‘cancel’. If so, do that. Otherwise, refer to suggestion #2.