The free trial is an insidious business practice. Try us for a month free with no obligation. Be sure to read the fine print. These agreements usually come with an auto renew "feature".
A friend of mine sent me a groupon offer. One year of Mad Magazine for $5. Cheap. Sign me up. Then I looked through the fine print. They want $1 as a processing fee. Fine. Now it's $6 a year. Still a steal.
What they don't make obvious is that you also signed up for an auto renewal of your subscription at full price. Which starts in October. 8 months into the subscription. No normal person is thinking about renewing their subscription 2/3rds of the way into it. That's how they get you.
I am offered a free subscription to Amazon prime every 4 or 5 months. Free shipping is the best. It also auto subscribes to prime at the end of your trial period. How convenient, for Amazon. That's how they get you.
I signed up for a Chase United Explorer credit card. They gave me a two free flights and the first year with no fees. Then they want $95 a year to keep the card open. I don't use the card anymore but I don't want to cancel it because that will effect my credit score. That's how they get you.
All these transactions have one thing in common. They prey on natural human laziness. They give you something free and then collect their payment later when you aren't paying attention. Even if people can remember they need to cancel it they may not know how or have the energy to do so.
I have a simple system to get the free stuff and not pay in the end. The moment I sign up for a free trial I pull up my google calendar and make a note to cancel the service.
Once you get into this habit it becomes easy. Just today I received a notification, "cancel credit card". I remembered the bitter feeling I experienced when I paid the $95 fee that credit card around this time last year. I made a note on my calendar which I acted on today.
It was easy to have the fee removed. I called the number on the back of the card and told them I needed them to either remove the fee or cancel the card. The customer service agent was happy to switch my card to another no fee card with the same credit limit as before. Saving me $95 a year and preserving my current credit ratio.
This also moves the worry about remembering out of your mind. This part of my memory is now automated. Let your phone worry about it for you. I'll get a notification to cancel my Mad Magazine subscription in October. Thanks google.
The things that are easy to to are easy not to do. With this system you can have all the advantages up front and not pay later unless you want to, not because you forgot.