Topic

Subscriptions and renewals

What subscription and renewal disputes have in common: working out which company actually took the money, making both requests in one message, and the dates and records that usually decide them.

A subscription is a standing instruction rather than a monthly decision. Money keeps moving on the schedule you agreed to until something in the provider's billing system changes state, which is why most of these arguments turn less on fairness than on a date, and on whose record of that date is better. Where the offer was never properly disclosed, or the cancellation flow itself was the obstacle, the disclosure is the argument instead. One guide sits here so far, on charges that posted after you cancelled. Trials that converted and renewals nobody flagged are covered by the scanner below, but not yet by a guide here.

Before you send anything, work out which company actually holds the money. A subscription bought inside an app store is usually billed by the platform rather than the developer, though some apps are only the way in to a plan billed directly; a resold, bundled, or broadband-attached plan is normally billed by whoever sold it. Search the statement descriptor verbatim rather than going by the logo on the site, and let the signup confirmation email break the tie when the two disagree; a descriptor often names a payment processor rather than the party who can refund you, and your card issuer can say where the payment actually went. Then ask for both things at once — the charge back, and the billing stopped — because providers grant one and quietly leave the other.

A note on scope. This is U.S. general practice and general information rather than legal advice; your provider's terms fill in the rest. Federal law governs how negative-option and auto-renewal offers must be disclosed and how your consent must be obtained, while the rules on how cancellation itself must be made available have been through recent rulemaking and litigation, and several states add their own notice and cancellation requirements, often the stricter ones. The guide below links the FTC's page on free trials, auto-renewals, and negative-option subscriptions; read the current position there before you quote a rule at anyone.