Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 677 posts

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#261

Post by Loughla »

paxys wrote: post #106

It's bizarre to me just how many people in this country ( especially the ones who can least afford it) simply do not take charge of their financial health. Even in this very thread you can see all kinds of excuses ("it's too hard to log in and check credit card statements every month", "they make you call or chat to cancel so I don't bother", "they should cancel subscriptions automatically if you don't use them", "it…

I'm with you on every point except

>negotiating rents

I have never, ever been in a situation where a rent negotiation would have done anything except ensure I didn't get the apartment.

Is that real? Where?

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#262

Post by Andrex »

jklinger410 wrote: post #205
idopmstuff wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use a temporary credit card number that's only authorized for one payment. When it doesn't work the second year, they'll let you know you need to pay. Sign up and immediately cancel/turn off billing, so you aren't charged again next year (again, they'll send you a bunch of notices ahead of the end of your service). Put a calendar reminder in for 11.5 months out from when you sign up. In Slack, /remind me in 11.5 mont…

Critical HN energy

So easy a toddler (with three PhDs) could do it!

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#263

Post by wolverine876 »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #233

Serious lack of empathy in this thread, mostly by a bunch of incredibly wealthy individuals that have their life in order. When a lot of people struggle with certain categories of problems, it's worth considering if those problems could be nerfed in some way rather than telling them just "get good". There's definitely a huge slew of predatory billing techniques and dark patterns to get people to keep paying for servi…

> Serious lack of empathy in this thread

I think it's something learned, and that is, something taught by the far right ideological movement and others trying to create cultural change. Empathy is outre, it's embarassing. Embracing contempt and cruelty makes people look smart, these days.

Empathy is fundamental to human rights, freedom (for others), equality, equity, justice, fairness. It leads to truth. By attacking that fundamental infrastructure (the empathy), you can undermine it all.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#264

Post by moshun »

paxys wrote: post #215
janalsncm wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one is looking out for you This is literally what law enforcement and consumer protection is for. Otherwise we could make the same argument about pickpocketing victims, which is frankly what this is more akin to.

So willingly going to netflix.com, picking a plan, entering your credit card info, hitting subscribe and watching TV for the next month is the same as getting pickpocketed?

It is when systems are intentionally designed to be extremely low friction to initiate and extremely high friction to cancel. In a lot of cases that’s exactly what happens.

To be fair, there should probably be a national consumer protection law that ties complexity of cancellation to complexity of sign up.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#265

Post by jjav »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #178
boredtofears wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the downsides of disputing a charge?

"Most places have segments in their contract that state if you do a chargeback or block a payment, they will terminate your account, and payment providers can block that card from being used on their service in the future." Also, depending on the agreement, you can be sent to collections (gym memberships are notorious for this). The chargeback doesn't supersede the vendor's control of access to the service or potenti…

> Most places have segments in their contract that state if you do a chargeback or block a payment, they will terminate your account,

When terminating my account is exactly what I want, that's totally fine.

This does highlight yet another problem with consolidating to huge companies. You'll never be able to charge back to a behemot like amazon or google, they'll just erase you off large parts of the internet which would be problematic.

But with smaller vendors that you are trying to get rid of and never want anything to do with them again, it works wonderfully.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#266

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

paxys wrote: post #181
tehjoker wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that's a dismal way to look at it. Regulations should be in place to prevent these kinds of business practices. For example, if a user doesn't use a service, perhaps they should get a refund for those months.

This is exactly the problem I am talking about. Why is the first instinct to always externalize blame? Why is big government the default solution to everything? How about – if you are not getting value out of a subscription (that you signed up for), go and cancel it. And if you choose not to, don't blame the rest of the world for your money problems.

I'm with you that someone who has been paying for a service despite not using it shouldn't necessarily be entitled for a refund.

That said, I wholeheartedly believe that there should be a legal requirement for any subscription to be as easy to cancel as it is to sign up. Gym memberships are notoriously for being criminally difficult to cancel. It's beyond ludicrous that I can sign up for a gym online or at my local gym, but can't cancel the same way. Nope, I have to pick up a form (which only the manager can give you, which means I have to go there when he's there, and he'll be conveniently unavailable), fill it out, mail it, and hope they don't conveniently "lose" it. And even if they don't lose it, they'll just sit on it for 2-3 months before the payments stop.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#267

Post by jjav »

teg4n_ wrote: post #241
HumblyTossed wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is customer service. A written notice of termination works for any consumer contract. Next time you're in a well trafficked area, ask 20 people if they know they can do this.

Also who would you even send it to? How do you guarantee they receive it? If you do certified mail that is a cost and another thing to take up your time.

True, although I'd rather pay the few dollars for that and the 10 minutes in the post office, than spend endless hours on hold just to be hung up on and start again.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#268

Post by jmholla »

I feel like this might be a good place to share something I learned recently about credit cards: interest accrues daily, not by statement (e.g. monthly). Further, your statement does not accurately reflect what you owe for that billing period. Instead, the interest for that period will be reflected on your next bill.

I had errantly figured I could postpone my payments to the due date and not accrue interest, but that is not the case and I ended up with a few hundred dollars more in interest than I expected.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#269

Post by schlauerfox »

jcranmer wrote: post #111
ryandrake wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm unusually anal retentive about this, but I have every bank account, PayPal, Venmo, both credit cards, every brokerage, 401(k), HSA, IRA, mortgage, everything... in Quicken, which I check every single day. 1. Start Quicken, 2. Hit Update, 3. Get Coffee, 4. Review everything in boldface to make sure it's not a surprise. I have the next month worth of bills and paychecks "below the line" as future transactions…

> Maybe I'm unusually anal retentive about this, but I have every bank account, PayPal, Venmo, both credit cards, every brokerage, 401(k), HSA, IRA, mortgage, everything... in Quicken This is something I'd like to have, but I don't want to use Quicken. Partially because I pretty much exclusively use Linux at home, and I don't want to have something as important as financials reliant on a maybe-it-will-work WINE trans…

GNUcash aint pretty, but it works.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#270

Post by bluGill »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #194
notaustinpowers wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a customer service. A written notice of termination works for any consumer contract. Not entirely. Most places don't accept cancellations over email, or require certified mail for cancellations, which just means now you have to go to the post office between 9-5. > Unpay for it. This is the utility of credit cards. Most places have segments in their contract that state if you do a chargeback or block a payme…

Not only can they terminate your account and potentially block that card in the future across other services using the same payment provider, more expensive subscriptions like a gym WILL continue accruing a bill for you and will send it to collections which hurts your credit score.

You can dispute that with the credit services though. Which probably won't get you anywhere but it is worth doing.

Make sure you give them negative feedback with the BBB if canceling is too hard.

Though the business model of most gyms (except the expensive ones) is to get you to enroll and then not come, so they won't care.

Post reply on HN