{"id":857300,"date":"2026-08-14T02:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T02:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/857300\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T02:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T02:50:09","slug":"i-got-an-89-refund-how-to-cancel-and-avoid-unwanted-subscriptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/857300\/","title":{"rendered":"I got an \u00a389 refund \u2013 how to cancel and avoid unwanted subscriptions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ever been confused by a random amount leaving your bank then had that sinking feeling it’s a subscription you forgot to cancel or didn’t mean to sign up to? <\/p>\n

From TV streaming, to meal deliveries and beauty boxes there are subscriptions for almost everything. <\/p>\n

Often the first order is free or heavily discounted so you give it a try and tell yourself you’ll cancel it before the deadline. But it’s easy to forget and sometimes not straightforward. <\/p>\n

Following Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s crackdown on subscription traps<\/a>, three people tell us how they got into – and out of theirs. <\/p>\n

1. Set reminders <\/p>\n

Sophie Branscombe, 23 from Wirral, says she signed up for a free trial of a photo editor app then saw a payment of \u00a389.99 had gone out of her bank. <\/p>\n

“It was a free trial, and they did make it clear I was signing up to a subscription, but there was no reminder of when [the free period] would end,” she says. <\/p>\n

Sophie says she wasn’t able to get a refund through the firm. Instead she submitted a refund request via Apple “report a problem” which refunded everything. The BBC has asked the company for a response. <\/p>\n

Sophie’s advice to others is to set reminders as soon as you sign up to a subscription for when the free trial ends. <\/p>\n

“Make it a habit of checking what subscriptions run out and if you also find that you don’t like something after signing up to a free trial, cancel straight away,” she says. <\/p>\n

2. Read the small print \"Hussein<\/a> Hussein described the cancellation process as “near impossible” [Hussein] <\/p>\n

Hussein Zaaiter, 21 from West London was using a free software trial for his university work and says when he tried to cancel he faced several complications. <\/p>\n

“I tried online chat, email and even the phone at one point as they were constantly charging me,” he says. <\/p>\n

He says a payment of \u00a316 left his account, then another of \u00a332 before he froze his card. “They tried to charge me seven times,” he says. <\/p>\n

He contacted his bank to explain the situation in the hope of being reimbursed. <\/p>\n

“I felt like it was marketed as a free trial that was easy to cancel. <\/p>\n

“It was difficult to contact them, and the cancellation was near impossible,” he says. <\/p>\n

Hussein’s tip for others is to read the terms and conditions and take caution before starting subscriptions. The BBC has contacted the firm for a response. <\/p>\n

3. Don’t assume your trial will end \"Rosalinda<\/a> Rosalinda spent 1.5 hours trying to contact customer service [Rosalinda] <\/p>\n

Rosalinda Kwafo-Akoto, 22 from the West Midlands signed up for a one-week free TV trial. After the trial, the subscription would be \u00a39.99 a month. <\/p>\n

“I remembered before the end of the week that the trial was ending and tried to cancel it so I wouldn’t be charged,” she says. <\/p>\n

She says she couldn’t find the subscription anywhere on her account so assumed that they had automatically ended and removed it. <\/p>\n

After a week, she realised that money had been taken out of her account. <\/p>\n

She says it took her an hour and a half to get through to speak to someone on customer service and locate the subscription. Ros managed to cancel it and was refunded the full amount. <\/p>\n

Ros’s tip for others is don’t assume that a subscription will automatically cancel just because you can’t find it on your account. <\/p>\n

“These companies make it as difficult as possible for you to cancel so make sure you get a confirmation email of your cancellation,” she says. The BBC has contacted the firm for a response. <\/p>\n

\"tracking\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever been confused by a random amount leaving your bank then had that sinking feeling it’s a subscription…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,298143,298144,52976,58671,61],"class_list":["post-857300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-free-trial","tag-sophie-branscombe","tag-subscription","tag-subscriptions","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}