Technology

How to . . . end automatic subscriptions

You signed up for a two-week free trial. Six months later, you’re still being charged.

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Ciara O'Brien
Sun Jul 29 2018 - 12:00

We’ve all been there. That free trial for a service that you desperately wanted to looked so tempting when you signed up through the app on your smartphones. But then it turned out to be either not what you wanted or not worth the money to keep going. The only problem is the subscription auto-renews after the trial is up, and you’re not entirely sure when it finishes, or how to cancel it.

Auto-renewing subscriptions are partly to blame for me collecting (in order) an Amazon Prime account (now cancelled) an Audible account (still struggling on through) and a Disney Life subscription (ostensibly for the kids, but let's be honest, I have my own profile on there).

It’s not enough to uninstall the app and hope for the best. Once the service has your payment information - and if you subscribed through the respective app stores on your phone, chances are there’s a credit card attached - they’ll keep charging you until you tell them to stop.

But it’s actually really easy to manage your subscriptions once you know where to look.

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Google Play:

If you are on your phone, open the Google Play Store and tap the Menu icon in the cormer. Go to Subscriptions. Tap the one you want to cancel, and hit cancel when the option comes up.

On your computer, go to play.google.com and select My subscriptions from t he menu on the left. Scroll down to find the subscription you want to cancel. Click Manage. Click Cancel Subscription.

iOS:

This is a little less easy to find. Go to Settings and select your Apple ID. Go to iTunes & App Stores, select your Apple ID again and touch View Apple ID. That brings you to your account. Scroll down to Subscriptions, and select that option.

You’ll see a list of your active subscriptions, plus the date they renew. Select the subscription you want to cancel, and select Cancel Subscription. A pop up box asking you to confirm the cancellation will also let you know when your current subscription will end.

If you change your mind and decide you really miss your streaming service/audio books/magazines, you can always resubscribe by following the steps above and reactivating your subscription. It won’t be available for all services, but it should be your first port of call regardless.

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