New Click to Cancel rule

[MichaelB]

The FTC announced a new “Click to Cancel” rule today. A preliminary version of this rule had been proposed, comments were reviewed, and the final rule announced today. The new rule requires businesses to make online cancellation as easy as online subscription, and also requires upfront clear and simple disclosure of all purchase related costs. The FTC announcement is here and a fact sheet here.

This issue has appeared many times in our pet peeve thread, so it clearly is of interest to members. It is especially useful for subscription businesses such as media and streaming.

 

[aja8888]

Sounds like a good plan but I wonder how they are going to enforce it with thousands of companies that are tricking people or making print so small you can't easily read it? Then there are the TV ads which only flash the small print for 3 seconds that contains the "details". Then there are the companies that operate outside the U.S, that you can't contact through any system. What a mess for the FTC to try to work enforcement.

 

[pacergal]

Thank you for the information.

 

[braumeister]

The new rule requires businesses to make online cancellation as easy as online subscription

Why does the cynic in me think this means starting a subscription will soon require more steps than today?

 

[sengsational]

I implemented click to cancel years ago, independent of laws or rules. It's called privacy.com and you mint separate credit cards for each shady business. Cancelling is as easy as clicking "pause" on the card.

That doesn't mean I don't welcome the law, because some of the worst experiences were when I was trying to stop these shady businesses from billing family members.

 

[MichaelB]

I implemented click to cancel years ago, independent of laws or rules. It's called privacy.com and you mint separate credit cards for each shady business. Cancelling is as easy as clicking "pause" on the card.

That doesn’t work with subscriptions with auto-renewal, such as newspaper or magazine subscriptions. They continue to deliver, charge full price, rack up a sizable overdue balance, and then turn the account over to collections if it’s not paid,

 

[MichaelB]

Why does the cynic in me think this means starting a subscription will soon require more steps than today?

It may, and certainly some businesses will continue to look for ways to exploit, It’s in their DNA.

Much of media streaming has already implemented this, making it easy to both subscribe and cancel. They have pretty high churn so we’ll see if they continue. I expect they will.

 

[audreyh1]

Most of my subscriptions including TV streaming are through my Apple App Store account and they make it super easy to manage and cancel subscriptions all in one place in my iOS settings.

 

[sengsational]

That doesn’t work with subscriptions with auto-renewal, such as newspaper or magazine subscriptions. They continue to deliver, charge full price, rack up a sizable overdue balance, and then turn the account over to collections if it’s not paid,

That's a risk. I document my legit, single attempt to cancel (recorded phone call, typically), and press pause on the card. They usually turn off the subscription sooner or later. They've said I owe them, but they never sent it to collections. I wouldn't care if they did because it's too small to go to court for... I'd write a "drop dead" letter and be done with it.

 

[Mark1]

Surprising, this may be good for business. If cancelling was always as easy as signing up, I would have many, many subscriptions right now. For example, I subscribed to Amazon Prime on Thursday, Sept 19th knowing that cancelling (pausing) at the end of football season would be a breeze. I would likely sign up for the Athletic sports coverage in the NY TImes and maybe even the Denver Post News if I thought canceling would be easy. I'm sure there are a lot of other examples I could come up with if I thought about it.

 

[Jerry1]

I understand that there are many situations beyond my experience, but generally, I haven't had a problem canceling. My problem is making sure that I do so in time to not get billed. I've done way better in setting up a reminder on my calendar a couple days before the required date and that seems to be working well for me so far. I forget which one it was, but I do recall not too long ago that one subscription required me to call in order to cancel the subscription. A bit of a pain, but it worked. They certainly take advantage of the less organized and the less technically capable.

One thing I really like are the companies that allow you to cancel and you stay subscribed until your anniversary date. I just recently cancelled a trial of Apple Music and it shut off the day I cancelled even though I had a couple more days left on my trial. Didn't matter - I've not been impressed with Apple Music.

 

[Buckeye]

I understand that there are many situations beyond my experience, but generally, I haven't had a problem canceling. My problem is making sure that I do so in time to not get billed. I've done way better in setting up a reminder on my calendar a couple days before the required date and that seems to be working well for me so far. I forget which one it was, but I do recall not too long ago that one subscription required me to call in order to cancel the subscription. A bit of a pain, but it worked. They certainly take advantage of the less organized and the less technically capable.

One thing I really like are the companies that allow you to cancel and you stay subscribed until your anniversary date. I just recently cancelled a trial of Apple Music and it shut off the day I cancelled even though I had a couple more days left on my trial. Didn't matter - I've not been impressed with Apple Music.

Subscribing, paying for the year subscription, and then cancelling a day later is how I managed several subscriptions. WAPO and Peacock end ran this workaround by making the discounted offer an up to 12 month, month-to-month, offer. If I cancel right away, I only have until the end of the 1st month to enjoy the discounted rate. So, now I have to put a reminder in my phone to cancel at the beginning of the 12th month.

 

[grasshopper]

With all the notifications I get I never get one that says you goofed up and are getting a subscription that you never intended to. Little buttons on phones old guy eyes, this would help.

 

[frank05]

Take Hertz, you can signup for their loyalty program via the web but you must call to cancel it.

 

[Sunset]

Might improve some companies customer numbers.

I am extremely resistant to sign up for any place unless I know it's easy to cancel.

Netflix is great, I can cancel easy and they are clear about it, plus they let me re-signup with all my existing data available.

I stay away from Sirius radio as they have a bad rep for cancelation, so they miss out on me paying for a few months each year (when I'm in the car a lot).

 

[badatmath]

The FTC announced a new “Click to Cancel” rule today. A preliminary version of this rule had been proposed, comments were reviewed, and the final rule announced today. The new rule requires businesses to make online cancellation as easy as online subscription, and also requires upfront clear and simple disclosure of all purchase related costs. The FTC announcement is here and a fact sheet here.

This issue has appeared many times in our pet peeve thread, so it clearly is of interest to members. It is especially useful for subscription businesses such as media and streaming.

From the fact sheet:
"Signed up in person? Cancel online or over the phone."

Not sure that will help since what is to prevent them from saying you didn't call? I am not sure online option is REQUIRED but I certainly hope so.

I avoid things I'd otherwise join due to the hassle of cancelling some of them.

 

[badatmath]

I wasn't a gym member but I vaguely recall during prime Covid they introduced a bill to make cancellation easier as state law at the time required you to cancel in person or via certified mail. Arizona bill to facilitate gym membership cancelations moves forward

If it read the site right it never became law.

I suppose some of you would not consider it a burden to use those options but it seems a lot to ask IMO.

I finally joined a gym recently via my insurance so I'd not have to mess with giving them my $ info.

 

[CaptTom]

I was wondering whether this will affect gym memberships. I've heard horror stories about one national chain making it inordinately difficult to cancel. You can use any of their locations as a member, but you have to go to the one you signed up at, in person, during the hours they're staffed, to cancel. And even then apparently people have struggled.

 

[MichaelB]

I was wondering whether this will affect gym memberships. I've heard horror stories about one national chain making it inordinately difficult to cancel. You can use any of their locations as a member, but you have to go to the one you signed up at, in person, during the hours they're staffed, to cancel. And even then apparently people have struggled.

I think the difficulties in cancelling gym memberships and newspaper / magazine subscriptions were the big motivating factors behind this regulation.

 

[mystang52]

I'm lucky, I guess, but I've never had a problem canceling memberships, or subscriptions. I document all cancellations when I do it, and I'm always ready to dispute my credit card charge in the event the cancellation was ignored. I would think credit card dispute would be the simple way to challenge any entity that "forgot" to cancel. What am I missing?

 

[sengsational]

...I'm always ready to dispute my credit card charge in the event the cancellation was ignored. I would think credit card dispute would be the simple way to challenge any entity that "forgot" to cancel. What am I missing?

Nothing. This is a good way to manage the bad actors, but same as shutting down a single vendor virtual credit card, they can keep racking up charges on their side. That gets some people quaking in their boots. This is a "nice to have" law, but since it rarely offers significant impact to people like us on this board, I'd rather they concentrated on more impactful legislation.

 

[lemming]

The Care dot Com people not only make it hard to cancel, they automatically enroll you as a "premium" member for looking at the page for costs. Scam for the users and for the people who sell their services.

 

[athena53]

Pleasantly surprised. I just cancelled one of my 5 credit cards- a Hilton card I've had for 2 years, since I've taken out another Hilton card (and gotten another sign-on bonus ). It was all done by robo-agents. I've typically been passed to someone who tries to talk me out of it when I cancel a card.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Might improve some companies customer numbers.

I am extremely resistant to sign up for any place unless I know it's easy to cancel.

Netflix is great, I can cancel easy and they are clear about it, plus they let me re-signup with all my existing data available.

I stay away from Sirius radio as they have a bad rep for cancelation, so they miss out on me paying for a few months each year (when I'm in the car a lot).

Sirius XM is screwed. They are so hard to cancel. They absolutely rely on the fact that you must interact with someone to both make you avoid doing it and then to pound you with save offers. It took me two failed attempts to even try to cancel and then after W0 minutes dealing with a chat suddenly the $5 for 12 months thing popped out.

 

[GrayHare]

I'm lucky, I guess, but I've never had a problem canceling memberships, or subscriptions. I document all cancellations when I do it, and I'm always ready to dispute my credit card charge in the event the cancellation was ignored. I would think credit card dispute would be the simple way to challenge any entity that "forgot" to cancel. What am I missing?

It has been my experience the card companies have arrangements with certain vendors to ignore disputes.