The problem with subscription services

I really hate subscription services online. There are many that automatically renew without me knowing and, even worse, there are those that you sign up to without even knowing. A good example is one I discovered on my bank account the other day. Apparently I had signed up for a service that costs £3:00 a month, but was offered as a free trial in the bank’s app originally. The service charging started this month, after the six month free trial. Obviously, I cannot go back to six months ago, but I immediately cancelled the service and wondered: did I really sign up for that service?

To put this in context, it is not my main bank account. I only transact with them once a month to repay a loan, and definitely did not need or sign up for this extra service … as far as I know. They insist I did.

Anyways, it is cancelled now but it made me think: how many other secret subscription services have I signed up for?

When I use the word secret, I mean services that autorenew without approval. There are many news and media services I use that autorenew; many cloud services from Apple, Microsoft and Dropbox that autorenew;  then there are the apps you download that autorenew, even though you never use them; streaming services like Netflix and Spotify that autorenew; services like Audible that autorenew … the list goes on and every now and then I go WTF? I don’t use this service, don’t need it, don’t want it and so why has it autorenewed?

In fact there are two things here. First, if someone is clearly not interacting with the service why does it autorenew and, second, when the renewal is coming, make sure you tell the customer that the renewal is coming.

Now, there are ways to manage these things. Rocket Money and Recurly are examples and, more importantly, firms like Visa and Capital One are offering subscription management services.

The issue is that all of these options involve two things again. First, that the customer signed up for the subscription and knew that they were signing up and, second, the customer can be bothered finding the subscription to cancel it, which is often hidden in layers of clicks and screens that make it incredible difficult to cancel it.

So, what’s that answer?

Well, I’ve already given it but the most critical point is that, when any subscription service is renewing, it should be the duty that the provider sends alerts on all communication channels – text, email and more – to say you are about to be charged X for your next month’s service.

This should be a legal obligation, and this is where I think regulators are letting us down.

Regulations should specifically manage any digital subscription service and state that the provider must, by law, be obligated to communicate any payment renewal that is due in advance by all communication channels allowed by the user and, more than this, make it clear how the consumer can cancel any such service.

We should not have to navigate a labyrinth of complexities online to cancel such services. It should be a simple swipe or click.

Obviously, that is not in the interest of the sneaky providers who want these services to stay in place forevermore. But, by law, it should be regulated better.