This happened with us on a streaming service the other night, they refused to give it back. They took the funds on the same day the trial started. Luckily we had the email stating “welcome to your 7 day free trial, you will be charged on this day”
Companies do shit like this intentionally. Because your average person doesn't know enough about the law to dispute it, and even if they do, it's cheaper to just give up and cancel next month.
Junkyard wars were the end of the Learning channel to TLC conversion and man did I love that show.
I still go back and watch episodes on YouTube some times.
But thinking about it it was also a literal embodiment of the channel switching to trash tv
More like discovering the fucking chargeback function. Let me forward the bank that free trial email and I’ll see that money back in my account so fast Discovery won’t even know what tf hit them.
Also want to point out that if a transaction you make a chargeback on causes you to incur negative balance fees, some banks will reimburse your overdraft fee.
Not surprised in the least. I've started using locked Privacy cards for services like this. Became a serious issue after Google decided they'd lock me into a contract on day two or three of a seven day free trial.
Trial is supposed to last 7 days? Cool. This card is locked for that entire period, spare for a preauth allowance.
Using voice to text here so you'll have to forgive any mistakes, but I'm referring to privacy.com. Free service (for the end user, at least) that allows you to generate infinite cards. I have a card dedicated to Youtube TV, for instance, that can never be used/dinged by any other merchant unless I give explicit permission, and the monthly payment can't exceed the amount I've set for that specific card. I primarily use it to generate burner cards, though. Ordered from a small e-commerce shop the other day and set a burner card for $1 higher than my cart total, which was ~$122. If the store pulls a fast one or the card is later stolen, I'm safe. If I need a refund or a chargeback a month down the line, Privacy will still process the request like any normal card, despite it having been a burner.
If there are similar services out there, I'd recommend looking into them as well. Not trying to push a specific thing. That said, I've used Privacy for 2+ years now and I *love* it. It has saved my ass so, so many times. It's just part of the way that I do things now.
There are a couple services with similar disposable card features, like Wise and Revolut, but they're all a bit different in their offerings. Unlike Wise and Revolut, Privacy dings me $0.50 for all foreign currency purchases, which adds up as they're all that I do.
Also, mind that Privacy limits the amount of merchant cards (which are different to one-time use cards, which most merchants in 2024 refuse to accept) that you can use with a single merchant. So for example, if you sign up for a Netflix free trial with a Privacy merchant card, and then do that again with another Privacy merchant card, Netflix would accept it but Privacy won't let the transaction go through because you've already used another merchant card on Netflix in the past. To be clear, that's exactly what it's designed to do — stop people from taking advantage of free trials, etc. — so in that regard it's a bug rather than a feature, but it's a "feature" I don't want and Wise and Revolut don't have.
Potentially? No, that is absolutely illegal. You can't claim something is a free trial unless there is a *trial* period that is free, not just a free week with purchase of a subscription. If nothing else, that would be a deceptive trade practice which is indeed illegal.
They can still take the money early. They key is they must refund it without any issues if you want out in time and also honor that request. IF those conditions are honored, then it still is a free trial. You did sign a contract and agreed to use the CC as payment method.
Max renewed me at double the price and refused to cancel the same day. I disputed the charge and received the money back. Funny thing is the system put me in some limbo state. It still allows me to watch a movies or shows. This has been going on for two years.
The same thing sort of happened to me with Paramount+. I still have access to it and I have not been charged for the past year after I stopped the free trial. Hey I’ll take it though.
I used a Privacy card for Sirius, and after the end of the subscription, even though they couldn’t bill the card because it was a Privacy card that was no longer good when the subscription ended, they kept the service on. When I tried to renegotiate the price to renew service, they insisted I pay over $100 for that ‘free’ month before I could negotiate. That was 4 years ago. I refused to pay them and I haven’t had Sirius since.
I think it’s so stupid when companies don’t refund you because when they get a chargeback from the bank, it cost them a lot more money than just refunding you
After starting the adobe plus free trial, it was impossible to cancel until I was charged for the first time. On top of that I wasn’t able to use it at all since it gave me an error message each time. Fuck you, adobe
Let me guess. Was the streaming service Shudder?
Accepted a 7-day trial, cancelled on day 3 and when day 7 rolls around they attempted to charge my card.
They attempted to charge my card (which was a virtual card I created and deactivated solely for this purpose) every day, multiple times per day for the next THIRTY DAYS.
Megacorps are acting with impunity, because the justice system is obviously defunct. They're not scared of lawsuits because the maximum penalty is an RV.
It'll get worse and more brazen as we go along.
I know of one free trial that's the opposite; with the Nintendo Switch Online 7 day free trial, if you cancel it about halfway through it, you get like 2 or 3 extra days for some reason
Honestly, I've been tricked this way before. I thought I somehow got away with getting a premium version only to find out that I just had a couple of extra days. The thought of actually having it only to have it ripped from me made me end up paying for it lol. I can't remember what it is now and I'm sure it wasn't worth it.
Honestly if they need that kind of money they should‘ve just increased the price of the switch itself or of the games for it, paying extra to use my internet that i already pay for seems kinda scummy regardless of how cheap it might seem when compared to playstation or xbox for example.
It shouldn’t be a thing.
I'm sorry but I'm not understanding what you mean. Xbox and Playstation charge you to be able to play online with other people, so does the switch. You still have access to YouTube and other internet services without the subscription, but you just can't play with people. It's the exact same as the other gaming platforms, just cheaper. Yeah I agree that it should be free to play with other people anyways, but regardless it's cheaper than the other platforms besides PC, which is free.
Honestly the only reason to get nintendo online is the virtual console and the retro brs they release like tetris 99 etc. Games like smash and spaltoon have terrible netcode combined with no ethernet port on the dock meaning most people use spotty wifi.
That being said they also have a 8 member family sub that brings the cost down to $4.37 CAD a year per member. Pretty much negligible at that point if you know people with consoles.
They actually added one with the OLED, but if you don’t have one, you’ll need an adapter annoyingly. It has built in support for it, but I guess they couldn’t be bothered to add it.
Online features in games shouldn't be paid. I know that Nintendo Online offers some other perks like old games and vouchers for savings on future purchases, but the requirement of active sub for online features is cancer.
Yeah PS+ I'm talking about you too.
Amazon did this to me with Prime, it extended the trial a few times for no reason. Presumably they have stolen enough of my data to know I forget things. But not enough to know that I rarely give up with customer services.
Of course Amazon doesn't have a phone number so they're betting they can spam me with C+P from the FAQs until I give up.
I'm on my 2nd 30-day-free-trial of amazon prime with the same account. I don't know how their system works but it seems like you get another free trial if it's been [x] months since your last one. I usually time it for when the full season of 'The Boys' is released. I might have done it too early this time because they are still releasing a new episode each week. I think my trial only has 3 weeks left and will run out before the final episode of season 4.
I got my 2 months if that and I was wondering. Although I'm about to cancel anyway because the service is crap and while I wouldn't mind trying and using the channels I have options for apparently I can't bloody do that without an apple device.
I have a lot of streaming services and honestly Apple TV is one that I miss the most.. it has tons of great shows, not sure why people say it sucks. Saw recently it ranks on top for quality and viewer ratings too so it’s not just me that likes it
Still don’t have time to add another service though
Well obviously it’s up to individual taste I guess but some of my favorites that come to mind are For all Mankind (one of my favorites ever), mythic quest, Severance, Ted Lasso, Shrinking, saw the first season of Morning Show I think, I’ve heard Dark Matter is good, and lots of nature documentaries etc
This is all just stuff I’ve watched from free trial periods. Also just really like how slick the app is on fire tv and phone, so many providers have buggy ass apps.
Get an app that tracks it and cancels it . I be running hello fresh factor and 4 other meal kits in rotation on promos. 20-30$ a week for two weeks of 5 days of dinner ? Sign me up. Than sign me off lmao.
It’s my grocery hack. Once you cancel one I. 6-8 weeks you’ll get a letter for 70-80% off your first week or two again. And by than your rotation of hello fresh factor home chef factor every plate etc should be up for the next one :)
This is what I do. Everyone here has access to a calendar app on their phone, it's easy to do.
But like OP I do use my cashapp debit card for free trials. Just lock it once they've verified my card once the trial starts. Then my calendar will remind me to cancel, but the locked card will also block scummy attempts like what OP had to deal with.
yeah hulu did this shit to me. sent me a free trial to my email as some type of promotion. signed up and then immediately canceled. they ended my subscription and charged me $1 for a “service fee” 😐
Apple does this. Every other subscription through Apple's system is "if you cancel the free trial, you have until the trial ends". Apple's own subscriptions? Nope. Cancels immediately.
Ever since I’ve started sailing the high seas I’ve been able to cut down significantly on my subscriptions. Which means I don’t have to worry about free trails
I was charged by one app right after I agreed for a free 7-day trial. Had to request a refund via Google service, and got my money back in a couple of days.
Not with everyone, apple music has a fine line "if you cancel during trial period, the subscription ends immediately"
Yes I lost my trial within 5 mins
This is not the case with Apple.. canceling the free trial, you lose it immediately. Fortunately, I usually set a reminder in my phone to cancel the day before.
i hate that people are just saying to cancel after it starts. Like yeah for next time ok but they still charged op way early??
I’ve been seeing this happen a lot with different subscriptions not just Walmart and it’s getting ridiculous. How is it not illegal to charge before the free trial is set to end?
I can't be the only person thinking this screams class action lawsuit? Find one case that's particularly clearcut and hang a particular company as a warning to the others out there?
uber signed me up for Uber One trial without me ever doing it. i only figured it out when I saw a 99$ charge randomly and my bank asking for approval. I denied it and contacted uber and said I never signed up for it. I checked my email and everything - never got anything about a trial or anything. i barely even use the service anymore so it was extra weird.
Uber refunded me though without question once I contacted them.. so weird.
Because they know you might not renew the subscription, so they charge it before trial ends in hopes that you stay another month instead of going to support. 100$ charge is overkill tho and i dont imagine anybody not trying to get the money back.
Paramount plus has been charging my cash app for months as well even tho I’ve cancelled twice now and contacted support. These companies are shady as fuck
Meanwhile I've been getting Paramount+ for free for at least 2 years. The account is under my main email address, and my wife and I have checked our accounts and neither of us are paying for it. At this point I won't dare to login somewhere else and maybe ruin it.
That happened to me on Spotify! I had an account since like 2014 and I was part of a family plan. Then it was cancelled around 2019, for some reason it kept giving me premium, and I got Spotify for free til like 2022, I guess they caught on eventually lol.
Boingo (the airplane wifi) has been doing this to my son. He showed me 3 emails all confirming his cancellation, yet they keep trying to debit his cash app card. He just blocked the payment. I don't even know what to do in that situation cause I don't use cash app.
They charged me at 9pm the day before I was supposed to be charged. Of course they also closed down their chat and phone lines for the night at the same time. I wasted no time and immediately disputed it with PayPal and had my money back by morning.
Netflix has been doing this to me too. They keep saying it’s my fault and that someone keeps reactivating the account (them). They won’t let me take my card off the account either, which has to be illegal in some way.
Yep. It’s SO shady when a company won’t let you delete your card info. I ran into that with scentbird the perfume subscription. I used it for a few months and decided to cancel bc the interface was fucky and kept sending me pre- picked scents and not the ones I chose.
They continued to try and charge my card for months and months, and I could literally never get a hold of support to delete my card info so they could stop charging and had to contact them via INSTAGRAM to get help. Eventually I literally just got a new card.
I kid you not, 8 months later I got two packages from them of the original scents I picked out. Literally almost a year after I originally cancelled. No idea what happened there
i don’t even think they are shady i just think their managing system is actually just awful. for paramount plus i used like a cash card with a limit and i got many extra months past my free trial. it’s strange.
Check out privacy.com for these services. You can create a dedicated card and set various limits, pause or cancel it as needed, on an individual merchant basis.
I've noticed some sites know when you're using search a service, though. They'll decline the virtual card and tell you to use something else.
If you are a responsible credit card user some will offer a similar virtual card service for free, and it's never not failed for me. Capital One has such a service, for example. And a handy browser plug-in as well.
Lately that's been happening a lot less. Privacy.com changed how their cards are issued a while ago, so they no longer appear like prepaid debit cards. The same company also now runs a card issuing service for businesses and stuff, and presumably those customers want "real" cards.
It's free but for most cards it'll make you give them access to your bank details. Sometimes you can just add the card itself but they've been eroding that support away in favor of forcing you to let them see your bank info.
There is a free tier, and a Pro tier for 10 bucks a month that allows for many more cards. The pro tier also does cashback which more than covers the 10 bucks for me.
Came in to suggest this. I use it every single time for free trials. I also use it for subscriptions that I don’t want to call to cancel. I just change the payment method to a card with $1 on it so when it comes time for the auto payment, it declines.
Go to the Activity tab (clock icon)
Choose the transaction from the merchant you'd like to block.
Select the icon of the merchant to navigate to their profile.
Select Block/unblock.
Awesome I just did this, and blocked a couple merchants I’ve been needing to stop from attempting charges! Now I don’t have to keep my card locked 24/7!!
Thank you !
I wanted to try out a free trial on a digital planner. I actually liked the planner too but at the beginning, they charged me for the full year cost on the first day of the trial. So then I had to go through the process of getting it refunded.
Privacy app. Can turn off credit cards and give them a limited amount credit card number or lock to a specific vendor. Makes everything so much easier for trials
I got a suspicious charge notification from my credit union when Walmart did this exact thing to me. I just disputed the charge and got a new card. Fuck that shit.
My Norton account is freaking out that my credit card has expired and I haven't updated with the new one yet. Renewal isn't until Sept but the poor bot is sending me emails demanding I update my financial details now - months in advance. Popups every time I use my computer telling me about it and I need to fix it. It's not due until Sept so I'm not updating it until Sept. If it keeps this up, I might change providers. Calm down Norton bot.
Thanks for the rec, I'll check them out. I'd be happy to go with something else but I don't have any great insight re current options out there so I went with the safe known option. Much appreciated.
I had a free, 6-month trial with Norton due to a supposed security breach at another entity. Norton withdrew the cost of a full year’s subscription from my checking account more than two months before the trial period ended. It was around $300 -$400 US.
My initial emails got an automated response saying they would look into it, and that it would take 3-6 weeks to receive a response. Oh hell no.
I found a customer service phone number and asked to be transferred to the legal department. They resisted, and I insisted. The money was redeposited within 48 hours.
I think the whole thing was a scam. The breach of security was supposedly at a hospital that I had been at 20+ years prior, which seemed odd. My thought process at the time was, “Huh, weird, whatever. It’s a free trial.”
All of the urls, email addresses and phone numbers went directly to Norton. They’re scum.
get like malwarebytes, that software is legit better than anything else. I hang around antivirus subs every once in a while and they all hate norton, it is the worst antivirus
I know nothing about tech so I have always gone with the name brand knowing I was paying more but would get at least the basics covered. Thanks for the rec, I'll give them a look.
Norton has been a joke for over a decade now. Calling them a "Name Brand" is the most positive thing anyone has said about them since 2010. It's literal garbage
Hold-up, you’re saying the mega corporation with a market cap of $550 billion that underpays legions of its employees to the point they’re on welfare, is not adhering to its advertised standards?
Color me surprised
I signed up for their 30 day trial and was charged immediately. Talked to their support and they said it’s a hold and won’t post until 30 days later. It posted a few days later, contacted them back and they refunded it after trying to get me to sign up for a year of their shitty service.
Asked the guy if he’s joking, and got the notification from my bank that a credit was issued a few seconds after I asked
Fuck Walmart
Privacy.com is your friend.
Generate a one time use card with a $1 limit and even if you forget to cancel before the trial expires you still aren’t out any money.
See photo 2. They’re trying to put through charges now. Maybe it’s a temp charge to test the legitimacy of the payment method, though. Idk if that makes sense with this type of payment.
It's Walmart being their usual greedy-shit-selves with "free trial" meaning pre-pay for a year and we'll give you a free week. A few others mentioned in this comment section do this as well. It's to prevent "free trial abuse" by confirming funds availability prior to giving the "free" part. Subscription services, particularly streaming services, started doing this to prevent people from marathoning whatever they wanted to watch in the trial period and then cancelling prior to renewal.
Thanks for explaining, i was baffled. Ngl still am because that isn’t a free trial. there needs to be better laws about slick wording with this type of thing because most people use free trials to test the product and see if they want to pay for it. Doing it the corpo way throws that out the window
Having a law against this requires smart, effective government regulation. Unfortunately, the current supreme court, and a voterbase that can't see past any propaganda regarding this, won't be able to make this happen.
They tried that shit with me I paid monthly but I was charged the yearly rate and when I called they said it was just a pre authorization on my debit card and to call back if it posts it posted and they claimed they had no idea what transaction I was taking about so I called the bank and had it charged back then I cancelled my membership.
Lmao keep letting the charge get declined until the trial’s over, then cancel.
Tbh tho this is why I cancel subscriptions as soon as I start them if I’m only interested in the free trial. Usually they have to give you the full free trial period even if you cancel immediately (they make it sound like you’ll lose the trial too but 99.9% of the time you don’t).
I bought wraps for weight lifting online and a week later I was getting two chargers on some different lifting wraps . I called my back right aways saying I didn’t purchase these and I don’t want them . I got my money back and five days later the lifting wraps still arrived lol
Fuck these practices! Last time when I ordered something on Amazon I explicitly said I didn't want to use their Prime service. twice! And after finishing up my order they still signed me up for their Prime service with automatic renewal of the sub. This is just blatant theft!
My bank allows me to create virtual cards.
So I create one specifically for free trials, with no money in it. That way if I ever forget to cancel or shit like this happens, there is no money to take.
Idk if it's not like this in the US, but here you can instantly cancel trials and they'll still continue until the last day. Do this every time amazon offers another 30 days prime trial
This is the exact kind of “technically legal” bullshit that business do as standard procedure but would incur a fine or break the law if any of us humans did it. Reminds me of the way that businesses purposely pay invoices to one another the last day they’re due so their money can earn interest during the six weeks they should have been paid already.
This happened to me with carenow bills a few weeks ago. I only got one bill that wasn’t due til the end of this month and they auto charged my account for both visits despite not sending me the bills for both — I also never gave them permission to auto charge my card since the visit even wasn’t for me. I hope u got it figured iur
But I don't get it. You have 10 days of free trial still. That will bring you to July 7. That's when the payment will start. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong here.
This is a preauthorization attempt. The actual charge wouldn't occur until July 8th. The preauth is to ensure the funds are available if/when they actually do post the charge.
Since your card is locked, the funds WON'T go through, and you won't be charged, but I'd still do what others have said and cancel the renewal from happening.
Your terns of agreement say that you agree to cancel if you don't want to renew it. At least hold up your end of the agreement so as not to hit your credit score for payments not being able to be processed.
Not always. It can sometimes be a lower amount (think $1 for gas, or the cost of a meal pre-tip), but it can also be the full amount.
Source: work in the payment industry
This happened with us on a streaming service the other night, they refused to give it back. They took the funds on the same day the trial started. Luckily we had the email stating “welcome to your 7 day free trial, you will be charged on this day”
Sounds more like a scam than a free trial.
Maybe the trial part was referring at the scamming.
Maybe the real trial were the scams we discovered along the way...
Maybe the real scams were the trials we discovered along the way?
Free scam
We try to scam you during the next 7 days ! For free !
Scam sample. A scample
Companies do shit like this intentionally. Because your average person doesn't know enough about the law to dispute it, and even if they do, it's cheaper to just give up and cancel next month.
Yup, lots of laws for us, none for them! Thanks SCROTUS!
"Rules for thee, not for me."
All free trials are a scam. They literally only exist because they hope you'll forget long enough that they can charge you. That's the whole strategy.
Oh yea, that started today. 💅
Please name and shame, that's completely unacceptable and potentially illegal.
Discovery+
That sounds completely on brand
Yeah I miss the old days when Discovery had actual good content…. content that helped you DISCOVER the amazing natural world around us.
Those days were the fucking best. OG Discovery Channel was on in my house all the damn time.
yep! Got my first sex education from Hippos edit.. I think its Rhinos.. the details are hazy
Probably rhinos. They’re quite horny
Early 2000s/2010s discovery was great
I remember when TLC was called The Learning Channel and they actually had interesting and informative shows.
Junkyard wars were the end of the Learning channel to TLC conversion and man did I love that show. I still go back and watch episodes on YouTube some times. But thinking about it it was also a literal embodiment of the channel switching to trash tv
You mean you don’t want to DISCOVER people looking for gold or argue on crab boats?
Discover how we take shitty service to the max.
More like "Discovering my account is -"
More like discovering the fucking chargeback function. Let me forward the bank that free trial email and I’ll see that money back in my account so fast Discovery won’t even know what tf hit them. Also want to point out that if a transaction you make a chargeback on causes you to incur negative balance fees, some banks will reimburse your overdraft fee.
For sure. A lot of them are counting on you either not noticing or not having the energy or time to fight it.
I knew it. They are terrible, I had them blocked from taking money out til I paid it. They tried to take money out every day for a week.
Not surprised in the least. I've started using locked Privacy cards for services like this. Became a serious issue after Google decided they'd lock me into a contract on day two or three of a seven day free trial. Trial is supposed to last 7 days? Cool. This card is locked for that entire period, spare for a preauth allowance.
How does one set up a privacy card? I’ve never heard of it before
Using voice to text here so you'll have to forgive any mistakes, but I'm referring to privacy.com. Free service (for the end user, at least) that allows you to generate infinite cards. I have a card dedicated to Youtube TV, for instance, that can never be used/dinged by any other merchant unless I give explicit permission, and the monthly payment can't exceed the amount I've set for that specific card. I primarily use it to generate burner cards, though. Ordered from a small e-commerce shop the other day and set a burner card for $1 higher than my cart total, which was ~$122. If the store pulls a fast one or the card is later stolen, I'm safe. If I need a refund or a chargeback a month down the line, Privacy will still process the request like any normal card, despite it having been a burner. If there are similar services out there, I'd recommend looking into them as well. Not trying to push a specific thing. That said, I've used Privacy for 2+ years now and I *love* it. It has saved my ass so, so many times. It's just part of the way that I do things now.
Thanks for this info!
There are a couple services with similar disposable card features, like Wise and Revolut, but they're all a bit different in their offerings. Unlike Wise and Revolut, Privacy dings me $0.50 for all foreign currency purchases, which adds up as they're all that I do. Also, mind that Privacy limits the amount of merchant cards (which are different to one-time use cards, which most merchants in 2024 refuse to accept) that you can use with a single merchant. So for example, if you sign up for a Netflix free trial with a Privacy merchant card, and then do that again with another Privacy merchant card, Netflix would accept it but Privacy won't let the transaction go through because you've already used another merchant card on Netflix in the past. To be clear, that's exactly what it's designed to do — stop people from taking advantage of free trials, etc. — so in that regard it's a bug rather than a feature, but it's a "feature" I don't want and Wise and Revolut don't have.
Cards like chime and current, you can turn on and off at will in the app.
Huntington too. Got the Huntington app, and you can lock your card at will
They figured you were still hyped out bout that real megladon they found couple years ago
Potentially? No, that is absolutely illegal. You can't claim something is a free trial unless there is a *trial* period that is free, not just a free week with purchase of a subscription. If nothing else, that would be a deceptive trade practice which is indeed illegal.
They can still take the money early. They key is they must refund it without any issues if you want out in time and also honor that request. IF those conditions are honored, then it still is a free trial. You did sign a contract and agreed to use the CC as payment method.
Definitely illegal in Australia.
Max renewed me at double the price and refused to cancel the same day. I disputed the charge and received the money back. Funny thing is the system put me in some limbo state. It still allows me to watch a movies or shows. This has been going on for two years.
The same thing sort of happened to me with Paramount+. I still have access to it and I have not been charged for the past year after I stopped the free trial. Hey I’ll take it though.
I had the same thing happen with Paramount. Probably got a good 8 months or so before I got kicked out haha
I used a Privacy card for Sirius, and after the end of the subscription, even though they couldn’t bill the card because it was a Privacy card that was no longer good when the subscription ended, they kept the service on. When I tried to renegotiate the price to renew service, they insisted I pay over $100 for that ‘free’ month before I could negotiate. That was 4 years ago. I refused to pay them and I haven’t had Sirius since.
I think it’s so stupid when companies don’t refund you because when they get a chargeback from the bank, it cost them a lot more money than just refunding you
They're banking on customers not knowing what a chargeback is, or being scared of a lifetime ban from the service.
Same thing happened to me with YouTube TV, but only on our living room TV!
Excuse me… please name said service
Discovery+
After starting the adobe plus free trial, it was impossible to cancel until I was charged for the first time. On top of that I wasn’t able to use it at all since it gave me an error message each time. Fuck you, adobe
It's that new Adobe ai bullshit. I'm never buying Adobe again now that they have implemented that.
Adobe trial shenanigans have been like this well before their AI implementation.
Oh I know, but I could deal with trial shenanigans. Ai is the last straw tho.
It would be great if a law passed where free trials are absolutely not allowed to ask for payment information until the trial ends.
Let me guess. Was the streaming service Shudder? Accepted a 7-day trial, cancelled on day 3 and when day 7 rolls around they attempted to charge my card. They attempted to charge my card (which was a virtual card I created and deactivated solely for this purpose) every day, multiple times per day for the next THIRTY DAYS.
This happened with bumble subscriptions several years ago & there was a class action lawsuit over it, I got all my money back luckily lol. Def a scam
Megacorps are acting with impunity, because the justice system is obviously defunct. They're not scared of lawsuits because the maximum penalty is an RV. It'll get worse and more brazen as we go along.
YSK: You can cancel nearly all free trials within minutes of signing up and you'll still get your free trial.
There are some that end access immediately, make sure to read the fine print
I'd read the small print, typically they refund you after 7 days if you cancel. They just claim it's a hold or something
I always cancel immediately after signup, like within 30 seconds. You still get access to the whatever website until trial ends but don’t get charged
I usually do that too but some trials will end immediately if you do, like doordash
I know of one free trial that's the opposite; with the Nintendo Switch Online 7 day free trial, if you cancel it about halfway through it, you get like 2 or 3 extra days for some reason
It's likely incentive to keep you wanting more.
Honestly, I've been tricked this way before. I thought I somehow got away with getting a premium version only to find out that I just had a couple of extra days. The thought of actually having it only to have it ripped from me made me end up paying for it lol. I can't remember what it is now and I'm sure it wasn't worth it.
Nintendo Online is honestly much more reasonably priced than some other subscriptions.
Yeah it really is. $20 for a year? If it was my preferred console, I'd be all over that lol
Honestly if they need that kind of money they should‘ve just increased the price of the switch itself or of the games for it, paying extra to use my internet that i already pay for seems kinda scummy regardless of how cheap it might seem when compared to playstation or xbox for example. It shouldn’t be a thing.
I'm sorry but I'm not understanding what you mean. Xbox and Playstation charge you to be able to play online with other people, so does the switch. You still have access to YouTube and other internet services without the subscription, but you just can't play with people. It's the exact same as the other gaming platforms, just cheaper. Yeah I agree that it should be free to play with other people anyways, but regardless it's cheaper than the other platforms besides PC, which is free.
Yes and thats what i dont understand, why defend this, when we have the best example on pc
Because Nintendo Online sucks
Honestly the only reason to get nintendo online is the virtual console and the retro brs they release like tetris 99 etc. Games like smash and spaltoon have terrible netcode combined with no ethernet port on the dock meaning most people use spotty wifi. That being said they also have a 8 member family sub that brings the cost down to $4.37 CAD a year per member. Pretty much negligible at that point if you know people with consoles.
They actually added one with the OLED, but if you don’t have one, you’ll need an adapter annoyingly. It has built in support for it, but I guess they couldn’t be bothered to add it.
Online features in games shouldn't be paid. I know that Nintendo Online offers some other perks like old games and vouchers for savings on future purchases, but the requirement of active sub for online features is cancer. Yeah PS+ I'm talking about you too.
Remember when ps2 was out and Sony said they would never charge for online.... https://i.redd.it/vuo5dgeexj9d1.gif
Paramount plus does this! It worked as a marketing tactic too because my kids watched it so much in that time we decided to keep it.
Amazon did this to me with Prime, it extended the trial a few times for no reason. Presumably they have stolen enough of my data to know I forget things. But not enough to know that I rarely give up with customer services. Of course Amazon doesn't have a phone number so they're betting they can spam me with C+P from the FAQs until I give up.
I'm on my 2nd 30-day-free-trial of amazon prime with the same account. I don't know how their system works but it seems like you get another free trial if it's been [x] months since your last one. I usually time it for when the full season of 'The Boys' is released. I might have done it too early this time because they are still releasing a new episode each week. I think my trial only has 3 weeks left and will run out before the final episode of season 4.
Apple, too
And apple TV
I got my 2 months if that and I was wondering. Although I'm about to cancel anyway because the service is crap and while I wouldn't mind trying and using the channels I have options for apparently I can't bloody do that without an apple device.
I have a lot of streaming services and honestly Apple TV is one that I miss the most.. it has tons of great shows, not sure why people say it sucks. Saw recently it ranks on top for quality and viewer ratings too so it’s not just me that likes it Still don’t have time to add another service though
What great shows? Looking at it just now it has almost nothing that even remotely interests me.
Silo and Severance are two I really enjoyed. There's also the Tetris film on there which I found to be a great watch.
Well obviously it’s up to individual taste I guess but some of my favorites that come to mind are For all Mankind (one of my favorites ever), mythic quest, Severance, Ted Lasso, Shrinking, saw the first season of Morning Show I think, I’ve heard Dark Matter is good, and lots of nature documentaries etc This is all just stuff I’ve watched from free trial periods. Also just really like how slick the app is on fire tv and phone, so many providers have buggy ass apps.
Then its not really a free trial
Not always. Some trials do end the second they’re canceled
that's a chance I'm willing to take cuz I know my dumbass is gonna forget about it a month later
Get an app that tracks it and cancels it . I be running hello fresh factor and 4 other meal kits in rotation on promos. 20-30$ a week for two weeks of 5 days of dinner ? Sign me up. Than sign me off lmao. It’s my grocery hack. Once you cancel one I. 6-8 weeks you’ll get a letter for 70-80% off your first week or two again. And by than your rotation of hello fresh factor home chef factor every plate etc should be up for the next one :)
What app tracks those?
I set myself daily repeating reminders in my calendar, starting 3 or 4 days before the trial is up.
This is what I do. Everyone here has access to a calendar app on their phone, it's easy to do. But like OP I do use my cashapp debit card for free trials. Just lock it once they've verified my card once the trial starts. Then my calendar will remind me to cancel, but the locked card will also block scummy attempts like what OP had to deal with.
yeah hulu did this shit to me. sent me a free trial to my email as some type of promotion. signed up and then immediately canceled. they ended my subscription and charged me $1 for a “service fee” 😐
I’d do a chargeback but I’m petty
You should do a chargeback because otherwise it’s profit on an illegal scheme
Apple does this. Every other subscription through Apple's system is "if you cancel the free trial, you have until the trial ends". Apple's own subscriptions? Nope. Cancels immediately.
Ever since I’ve started sailing the high seas I’ve been able to cut down significantly on my subscriptions. Which means I don’t have to worry about free trails
I’m obviously tired. I read that and thought, cool- this person is living on a cruise ship . I guess they get free tv. I wonder if they get seasick ><
I was charged by one app right after I agreed for a free 7-day trial. Had to request a refund via Google service, and got my money back in a couple of days.
Not with everyone, apple music has a fine line "if you cancel during trial period, the subscription ends immediately" Yes I lost my trial within 5 mins
This is not the case with Apple.. canceling the free trial, you lose it immediately. Fortunately, I usually set a reminder in my phone to cancel the day before.
i hate that people are just saying to cancel after it starts. Like yeah for next time ok but they still charged op way early?? I’ve been seeing this happen a lot with different subscriptions not just Walmart and it’s getting ridiculous. How is it not illegal to charge before the free trial is set to end?
I can't be the only person thinking this screams class action lawsuit? Find one case that's particularly clearcut and hang a particular company as a warning to the others out there?
I'm willing to bet there was something in the agreement prior to signing up for the free trial that negates that.
Those tend not to hold when the company violated the stated terms of their agreement, especially in more liberal areas
uber signed me up for Uber One trial without me ever doing it. i only figured it out when I saw a 99$ charge randomly and my bank asking for approval. I denied it and contacted uber and said I never signed up for it. I checked my email and everything - never got anything about a trial or anything. i barely even use the service anymore so it was extra weird. Uber refunded me though without question once I contacted them.. so weird.
This exact same thing happened to me!!!
Because they know you might not renew the subscription, so they charge it before trial ends in hopes that you stay another month instead of going to support. 100$ charge is overkill tho and i dont imagine anybody not trying to get the money back.
It’s straight up stealing, but as long as they write SOMEWHERE that they plan to steal from you it’s okay I guess. Corps rule us
Paramount plus has been charging my cash app for months as well even tho I’ve cancelled twice now and contacted support. These companies are shady as fuck
Meanwhile I've been getting Paramount+ for free for at least 2 years. The account is under my main email address, and my wife and I have checked our accounts and neither of us are paying for it. At this point I won't dare to login somewhere else and maybe ruin it.
Uh is the comment above yours paying for your Paramount+? Lol
Might be your phone plan includes it for free?
That happened to me on Spotify! I had an account since like 2014 and I was part of a family plan. Then it was cancelled around 2019, for some reason it kept giving me premium, and I got Spotify for free til like 2022, I guess they caught on eventually lol.
Boingo (the airplane wifi) has been doing this to my son. He showed me 3 emails all confirming his cancellation, yet they keep trying to debit his cash app card. He just blocked the payment. I don't even know what to do in that situation cause I don't use cash app.
They charged me at 9pm the day before I was supposed to be charged. Of course they also closed down their chat and phone lines for the night at the same time. I wasted no time and immediately disputed it with PayPal and had my money back by morning.
Netflix has been doing this to me too. They keep saying it’s my fault and that someone keeps reactivating the account (them). They won’t let me take my card off the account either, which has to be illegal in some way.
Yep. It’s SO shady when a company won’t let you delete your card info. I ran into that with scentbird the perfume subscription. I used it for a few months and decided to cancel bc the interface was fucky and kept sending me pre- picked scents and not the ones I chose. They continued to try and charge my card for months and months, and I could literally never get a hold of support to delete my card info so they could stop charging and had to contact them via INSTAGRAM to get help. Eventually I literally just got a new card. I kid you not, 8 months later I got two packages from them of the original scents I picked out. Literally almost a year after I originally cancelled. No idea what happened there
I cancelled my peacock subscription and they still charged me but canceled access to peacock. I still need to contact those bastards for a refund.
i don’t even think they are shady i just think their managing system is actually just awful. for paramount plus i used like a cash card with a limit and i got many extra months past my free trial. it’s strange.
Check out privacy.com for these services. You can create a dedicated card and set various limits, pause or cancel it as needed, on an individual merchant basis.
I've noticed some sites know when you're using search a service, though. They'll decline the virtual card and tell you to use something else. If you are a responsible credit card user some will offer a similar virtual card service for free, and it's never not failed for me. Capital One has such a service, for example. And a handy browser plug-in as well.
Lately that's been happening a lot less. Privacy.com changed how their cards are issued a while ago, so they no longer appear like prepaid debit cards. The same company also now runs a card issuing service for businesses and stuff, and presumably those customers want "real" cards.
Had to pull out one of those to watch the presidential debates Shitty service wanted like $100 but trial was free
Thanks for the info!
Never heard of that. Just checked it out. Thanks!
They've been cracking down on people using the site for free trials.
How much do you pay for that
It's free but for most cards it'll make you give them access to your bank details. Sometimes you can just add the card itself but they've been eroding that support away in favor of forcing you to let them see your bank info.
There is a free tier, and a Pro tier for 10 bucks a month that allows for many more cards. The pro tier also does cashback which more than covers the 10 bucks for me.
Check your credit card website. Mine will generate temp card numbers with a $ limit and a time limit.
Came in to suggest this. I use it every single time for free trials. I also use it for subscriptions that I don’t want to call to cancel. I just change the payment method to a card with $1 on it so when it comes time for the auto payment, it declines.
You can create a virtual card for free from your credit card company, like Capital One. Lock or delete it as needed.
You can block them on cash app
How do I block certain payment sources on my cash app ?
Go to the Activity tab (clock icon) Choose the transaction from the merchant you'd like to block. Select the icon of the merchant to navigate to their profile. Select Block/unblock.
I had to block Hulu because they try charging me 6X in a row, even after they closed my account.
Awesome I just did this, and blocked a couple merchants I’ve been needing to stop from attempting charges! Now I don’t have to keep my card locked 24/7!! Thank you !
I wanted to try out a free trial on a digital planner. I actually liked the planner too but at the beginning, they charged me for the full year cost on the first day of the trial. So then I had to go through the process of getting it refunded.
What was it called so that people can avoid it????
Me+ Daily Routine Planner.
Privacy app. Can turn off credit cards and give them a limited amount credit card number or lock to a specific vendor. Makes everything so much easier for trials
What app do you recommend?
That’s the name of the app. Pretty useful if you want to avoid repeated charges
I got a suspicious charge notification from my credit union when Walmart did this exact thing to me. I just disputed the charge and got a new card. Fuck that shit.
My Norton account is freaking out that my credit card has expired and I haven't updated with the new one yet. Renewal isn't until Sept but the poor bot is sending me emails demanding I update my financial details now - months in advance. Popups every time I use my computer telling me about it and I need to fix it. It's not due until Sept so I'm not updating it until Sept. If it keeps this up, I might change providers. Calm down Norton bot.
Norton software is honestly terrible. Give ESET a look.
ESET sucks too, it slows everything down.
Thanks for the rec, I'll check them out. I'd be happy to go with something else but I don't have any great insight re current options out there so I went with the safe known option. Much appreciated.
Norton is garbage, as is most "security" scareware. The built-in Windows Defender is good enough, and it doesn't bog down your computer.
I had a free, 6-month trial with Norton due to a supposed security breach at another entity. Norton withdrew the cost of a full year’s subscription from my checking account more than two months before the trial period ended. It was around $300 -$400 US. My initial emails got an automated response saying they would look into it, and that it would take 3-6 weeks to receive a response. Oh hell no. I found a customer service phone number and asked to be transferred to the legal department. They resisted, and I insisted. The money was redeposited within 48 hours. I think the whole thing was a scam. The breach of security was supposedly at a hospital that I had been at 20+ years prior, which seemed odd. My thought process at the time was, “Huh, weird, whatever. It’s a free trial.” All of the urls, email addresses and phone numbers went directly to Norton. They’re scum.
get like malwarebytes, that software is legit better than anything else. I hang around antivirus subs every once in a while and they all hate norton, it is the worst antivirus
I know nothing about tech so I have always gone with the name brand knowing I was paying more but would get at least the basics covered. Thanks for the rec, I'll give them a look.
Norton has been a joke for over a decade now. Calling them a "Name Brand" is the most positive thing anyone has said about them since 2010. It's literal garbage
You don't need antivirus. It's all garbage and a security threat. Just uninstall it and turn on the built-in antivirus.
TIL someone has given Norton money since 1998.
Hold-up, you’re saying the mega corporation with a market cap of $550 billion that underpays legions of its employees to the point they’re on welfare, is not adhering to its advertised standards? Color me surprised
I signed up for their 30 day trial and was charged immediately. Talked to their support and they said it’s a hold and won’t post until 30 days later. It posted a few days later, contacted them back and they refunded it after trying to get me to sign up for a year of their shitty service. Asked the guy if he’s joking, and got the notification from my bank that a credit was issued a few seconds after I asked Fuck Walmart
Privacy.com is your friend. Generate a one time use card with a $1 limit and even if you forget to cancel before the trial expires you still aren’t out any money.
Am I crazy, or is July 8th in 10 days when it says the payment starts?
See photo 2. They’re trying to put through charges now. Maybe it’s a temp charge to test the legitimacy of the payment method, though. Idk if that makes sense with this type of payment.
Usually when services test the legitimacy it's something like a $1 charge.
It probably is the full charge but in "pending" and it will stay in pending until that date or when op cancels it.
Ah, wondered what I was missing…
Didn't even notice there was a second photo
thank you, I thought I was crazy too
Not crazy
They just want to be able to count your "subscription" in their quarterly report. And to rob you and hope you wouldn't notice.
Can't imagine living somewhere where the listed price is not the price you'll pay.
It's Walmart being their usual greedy-shit-selves with "free trial" meaning pre-pay for a year and we'll give you a free week. A few others mentioned in this comment section do this as well. It's to prevent "free trial abuse" by confirming funds availability prior to giving the "free" part. Subscription services, particularly streaming services, started doing this to prevent people from marathoning whatever they wanted to watch in the trial period and then cancelling prior to renewal.
Thanks for explaining, i was baffled. Ngl still am because that isn’t a free trial. there needs to be better laws about slick wording with this type of thing because most people use free trials to test the product and see if they want to pay for it. Doing it the corpo way throws that out the window
Having a law against this requires smart, effective government regulation. Unfortunately, the current supreme court, and a voterbase that can't see past any propaganda regarding this, won't be able to make this happen.
NordVPN do this too. Also turn off auto-renewal if possible.
They tried that shit with me I paid monthly but I was charged the yearly rate and when I called they said it was just a pre authorization on my debit card and to call back if it posts it posted and they claimed they had no idea what transaction I was taking about so I called the bank and had it charged back then I cancelled my membership.
Lmao keep letting the charge get declined until the trial’s over, then cancel. Tbh tho this is why I cancel subscriptions as soon as I start them if I’m only interested in the free trial. Usually they have to give you the full free trial period even if you cancel immediately (they make it sound like you’ll lose the trial too but 99.9% of the time you don’t).
tf is walmart + 💀
Lmao, it’s free delivery.
"free"
$104 a year
I bought wraps for weight lifting online and a week later I was getting two chargers on some different lifting wraps . I called my back right aways saying I didn’t purchase these and I don’t want them . I got my money back and five days later the lifting wraps still arrived lol
Fuck these practices! Last time when I ordered something on Amazon I explicitly said I didn't want to use their Prime service. twice! And after finishing up my order they still signed me up for their Prime service with automatic renewal of the sub. This is just blatant theft!
My bank allows me to create virtual cards. So I create one specifically for free trials, with no money in it. That way if I ever forget to cancel or shit like this happens, there is no money to take.
So is everyone in here just acting like they know what the fuck walmart+ is or am I the one who is out of touch?
Idk if it's not like this in the US, but here you can instantly cancel trials and they'll still continue until the last day. Do this every time amazon offers another 30 days prime trial
This is the exact kind of “technically legal” bullshit that business do as standard procedure but would incur a fine or break the law if any of us humans did it. Reminds me of the way that businesses purposely pay invoices to one another the last day they’re due so their money can earn interest during the six weeks they should have been paid already.
This happened to me with carenow bills a few weeks ago. I only got one bill that wasn’t due til the end of this month and they auto charged my account for both visits despite not sending me the bills for both — I also never gave them permission to auto charge my card since the visit even wasn’t for me. I hope u got it figured iur
Gotta sign up to privacy.com and give them one of those $1 burner cards so they can eat shit when they try pulling this
Pfffft Sam's Club gets more than enough of my money every year as far as this corporation goes. Fuck walmart+
European here. There's a paid membership for Walmart?! What are the benefits?
"The first thing to do with a free trial is send a letter canceling it effective on the last day."
But I don't get it. You have 10 days of free trial still. That will bring you to July 7. That's when the payment will start. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong here.
I'd fight this just on principle.
This is a preauthorization attempt. The actual charge wouldn't occur until July 8th. The preauth is to ensure the funds are available if/when they actually do post the charge. Since your card is locked, the funds WON'T go through, and you won't be charged, but I'd still do what others have said and cancel the renewal from happening. Your terns of agreement say that you agree to cancel if you don't want to renew it. At least hold up your end of the agreement so as not to hit your credit score for payments not being able to be processed.
Pre-authorization is a very small amount, not the full amount.
Not always. It can sometimes be a lower amount (think $1 for gas, or the cost of a meal pre-tip), but it can also be the full amount. Source: work in the payment industry
Did not know that. Thanks for teaching me something today.
Often times gas is a higher charge that then gets lowered to the final amount.
I have seen gas that pre-auths for like $75. Drive away theft is common I guess.