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Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

wsj.com

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

#491

Post by beedeebeedee »

dayjaby wrote: post #390
jjav wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you are at a stage in life where a $10 subscription is hurting, then it stands to reason you should monitor those things. Unfortunately people for whom $10/mo hurts are usually working three part time jobs while also trying to get the kids to/from school and take care of them. So I can see why they might not have time.

A monthly financial review doesn't take longer than 10 minutes. So you are suggesting that these three part time jobs offer more than $60/h and thus are more valuable than a 10 minute finance review where you identify your misspending of $10/mo?

> A monthly financial review doesn't take longer than 10 minutes.

That is an absurdly short time for a meaningful financial review for anyone- whether they have a lot of financial transactions or if they don't (and may be unfamiliar or have anxiety about their finances). Especially if they have kids and serious responsibilities- these companies bank on you forgetting or being too exhausted to change.

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

#492

Post by al_borland »

jimmydddd wrote: post #420
anthomtb wrote: post #411

I do a pretty good job of keeping only the subscriptions I use. Thankfully my S.O. has a severe allergy towards those kind of bills. Did you cancel HBO Max? We haven't watched it in 2 weeks. Are you still using Apple Music? Why do we have three music subscriptions? Is this really the cheapest mobile plan around? It can get naggy but man does it save some $$$. What drives me nuts are the subscriptions that we actually…

Haven't used Sirius in a long time. But back in the day, if you cancelled, they would follow up quickly with a lower offer.

If you don’t call them you’ll pay something like $20/month. Calling and threatening to cancel can get them down to $5/month.

If you actually cancel, they will mail and call you intensely to try to get you to sign back up, until you call again to give them an ultimatum to stop.

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

#493

Post by lr4444lr »

wolverine876 wrote: post #64

The blame falls also on businesses which take money for services they don't deliver. They often know, and otherwise often could know, when subscribers are not using the service. If you're a business, you should earn your revenue, otherwise you are frauds. This particular behavior is little better than taking money and simply refusing to provide service. Don't tell me it's unintentional - you know what's happening and…

That's not fair.

A business has to plan for the future. That means investments in capital and labor. These users have the right of their contract to resume using the service at a moment's notice, which the business is honoring by keeping the server capacity available, generating content, having support staff at the ready, etc.

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

#494

Post by earthling8118 »

Algemarin wrote: post #136
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…

> This discussion is about subscriptions but the general idea applies to so much more – basic budgeting, retirement savings, not paying random fees, not paying interest, moving spare money to investment accounts every month, rebalancing your investments every quarter, negotiating rents, negotiating your salary. I think it's one of the major failures of the education system. Why is there no class in school which cover…

Probably because people don't pay attention. I had someone at university that asked the same question, why didn't we have these classes be required. Our school required it and they were in the same class as me. They just didn't bother to pay attention to even know they had taken it.

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

#495

Post by al_borland »

quartz wrote: post #30

I recently had my credit card stolen which is a great forcing function to audit subscriptions because you have to dig them all up to update the associated payment methods. After combing through my credit card bills to identify all the recurring charges my conclusion was less that I have too many subscriptions but that cost creep is out of control on them. Ex: I stopped paying attention to my storage unit monthly bill…

This should be illegal. I lived in apartments like this as well, they would increase the rates for existing tenants while giving lower rates to new tenants. I’d also move out when they tried to pull this, just out of spite.

I have always heard that it’s cheaper to keep an existing client than to acquire a new one. Apparently these places don’t realize that. They don’t need to pay for advertising when they are filly booked up with people paying the market rate, nor do they need to do all the extra work invoiced in signing someone up or moving them out. I don’t own or operate a business, so maybe I’m talking out of my butt, but these people strike me as bad business owners who are chasing the wrong metrics.

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

#496

Post by timacles »

wolverine876 wrote: post #64

The blame falls also on businesses which take money for services they don't deliver. They often know, and otherwise often could know, when subscribers are not using the service. If you're a business, you should earn your revenue, otherwise you are frauds. This particular behavior is little better than taking money and simply refusing to provide service. Don't tell me it's unintentional - you know what's happening and…

Its the workout gym model of the 90s.

They would regularly sign up more people than the gym could hold, but most people might go to the gym once a month or once every 3 months.

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

#497

Post by notaustinpowers »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #364
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…

> Most places don't accept cancellations over email, or require certified mail for cancellations E-mail yes. But I've never seen a letter mailed fail. Especially if you Cc your state's consumer protection regulator. > if you do a chargeback or block a payment, they will terminate your account Wait, what are we trying to do?

Credit cards don't let you "unpay" a charge. You can dispute it as either an error or as fraud, but if your credit company issues a chargeback most services state in their ToS that they reserve the right to deactivate accounts for doing so.

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

#498

Post by [deleted] »

lr4444lr wrote: post #493
wolverine876 wrote: post #64

The blame falls also on businesses which take money for services they don't deliver. They often know, and otherwise often could know, when subscribers are not using the service. If you're a business, you should earn your revenue, otherwise you are frauds. This particular behavior is little better than taking money and simply refusing to provide service. Don't tell me it's unintentional - you know what's happening and…

That's not fair. A business has to plan for the future. That means investments in capital and labor. These users have the right of their contract to resume using the service at a moment's notice, which the business is honoring by keeping the server capacity available, generating content, having support staff at the ready, etc.

[deleted]

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

#499

Post by gmd63 »

wolverine876 wrote: post #64

The blame falls also on businesses which take money for services they don't deliver. They often know, and otherwise often could know, when subscribers are not using the service. If you're a business, you should earn your revenue, otherwise you are frauds. This particular behavior is little better than taking money and simply refusing to provide service. Don't tell me it's unintentional - you know what's happening and…

It should be illegal to charge someone for a month of a service that they did not use.

It's trivially easy to see that someone doesn't log in. Then you just pause their subscription after refunding that month. Next time they log in, you can prompt them to resubscribe with one click.

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

#500

Post by wilde »

dcotter wrote: post #372

I'm surprised literally no one suggested just cancelling the vast majority of your subscription services and cutting ties with unethical companies. The suggestion that poor people need yet more help from the government because they're too dumb, busy, or gullible to know when they're about to get screwed is condescending. The suggestion that the core audience of WSJ and HN needs this is pitiful. Want to watch a movie?…

Ah yes. Why do I need government help managing my subscriptions when I can checks notes literally get the content from the government?
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