The government has announced new rules to protect people from being stuck in subscriptions.<\/p>\n
It says the move will save a collective \u00a3400 million a year. <\/p>\n
ITV News explains what the new rules are and how you could be affected. <\/p>\n
What are the new rules?<\/p>\n
Companies offering subscriptions will have to send reminders before free or discounted trials end or before contracts of 12 months or more automatically renew.<\/p>\n
They will also have to allow people to easily cancel a subscription online if they originally signed up directly through the company, which should prevent lengthy waits on the phone to end a contract.<\/p>\n
There will be a 14-day cooling off period after a free or discounted trial ends, or when a contract renews for 12 months or longer.<\/p>\n
Which organisations are exempt?<\/p>\n
The new rules won’t apply to certain membership of charitable, cultural and heritage organisations because of “their role in preserving and providing access to locations and cultural collections”. <\/p>\n
When will the new rules apply?<\/p>\n
The new rules should come into place sometime next year.<\/p>\n
How many people will be affected?<\/p>\n
There are 155 million active subscriptions held by people across the UK, with almost 10 million of them believed to be unwanted, the government said.<\/p>\n
More than 3.5 million people are being \u201cquietly rolled\u201d from free or discounted trials into fully costed contracts, while another 1.3 million are caught out by unexpected autorenewals, it added.<\/p>\n
How much money will be saved?<\/p>\n
The government said the new rules could save people around \u00a314 a month on average per unwanted subscription, or almost \u00a3170 a year.<\/p>\n
Collectively, that adds up to \u00a3400 million a year.<\/p>\n
Why are these rules being introduced?<\/p>\n
Minister for Consumer Protection Kate Dearden said there’s “nothing more frustrating than seeing money you\u2019ve worked hard for, disappear from your account for a subscription you\u2019ve forgotten you had”.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese new rules will put consumers back in control of their money \u2013 making subscriptions clearer, fairer and far easier to cancel,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter<\/a> for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning. <\/p>\n So-called “subscription traps” can be “costly and wreak havoc” on finances, Which? head of consumer rights policy Sue Davies said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe strengthening of subscription laws will be welcome news for those struggling with rising costs.<\/p>\n \u201cThese new rules will help put consumers in the driving seat with proper transparency and protection.\u201d<\/p>\n How can you avoid subscription traps in the meantime?<\/p>\n Get Safe Online says subscription traps are particularly common with products such as slimming pills, health foods, pharmaceuticals and anti-aging products, but any company can use them.<\/p>\n The online safety organisation recommends:<\/p>\n Read the small print or terms and conditions carefully before entering into any agreement or making a purchase<\/p>\n Make sure the terms and conditions box has not been pre-ticked<\/p>\n If there is a limited timescale to cancel the agreement, make sure you do so before the due date if you want to cancel it<\/p>\n Never provide bank details to companies with doing some research first<\/p>\n Keep a copy of any advertisement (print it or take a screenshot) and keep a note of the webpage<\/p>\n Remember you will have a better chance or cancelling subscriptions or getting a refund if the company is UK-based<\/p>\n Check your bank statements regularly for unexpected payments<\/p>\n If you have been the victim of a subscription trap you can find more help at Get Safe Online<\/a> or by contacting Action Fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have you heard our podcast Talking Politics? Tom and Robert dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode\u2026\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government has announced new rules to protect people from being stuck in subscriptions. It says the move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-508871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}