It’s Easy to Forget to Cancel a Free Trial
Gone are the good old days when you could buy many iPhone apps for a one-off purchase of $0.99 and never need to pay again. These days, a lot of apps have opted for a subscription model where you need to pay a monthly or annual fee, and for some apps, the cost of an annual subscription can be $50 or more.Free trialsare a good way to try out the full features of an app or service before you commit to paying for it.
A free trial gives you the chance to see whether the app is really worth paying that much for, but there is a downside to using free trials. If you don’t cancel by the end of your free trial period, you will automatically be charged for a full subscription, which can sometimes be the most expensive annual option.Apple’s support websiterecommends canceling at least 24 hours before the trial ends if you don’t want to be charged.
The trouble is, it’s all too easy to forget to cancel your subscription and find yourself having been charged a significant sum of money for an app you don’t even want. Even with email notifications or other reminders that inform you that your app is about to renew, it can still easily slip your mind.
You Can Cancel Most Subscriptions Without Stopping the Trial
The good news is that you don’t have to cancel your subscription at the last minute in most cases. Regardless of when you cancel the free trial for an iPhone app, you keep access to the premium features until the free trial ends. Even if you cancel as soon as you’ve taken the free trial out, you’ll still get the full length of the trial; the only difference is that once you’ve canceled, you don’t have to worry about being charged.
Canceling is simple to do. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > Subscriptions. Select the subscription you want to cancel. Beneath the “Cancel Free Trial” button, you should see text explaining that if you cancel now, you can still access your subscription until the date of the end of the free trial. Tap “Cancel Free Trial,” and then tap “Cancel Subscription” to confirm. You can still access the trial until it ends, after which you won’t be charged.
The Trick Does Not Always Work for Apple’s Own Services
Unfortunately, there is an exception to this trick, and it’s one you might not expect. Apple makes third-party app developers honor the full length of trial periods even if the user cancels early. However, Apple doesn’t always apply the same standards to its own apps and services.
Whether this happens or not does seem dependent on your location. US users have reported having access removed as soon as they canceled the trial, but users in the UK have still been able to use the trial for the full three months, even after canceling early. Whatever your location, you should always read the small print relating to your cancellation before you cancel your trial, so you may be certain whether your subscription will continue or not.
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Apple May Allow You to Cancel a Subscription if You Forget
It seems a little unfair that Apple removes access to free trials for some users if they cancel Apple services early. However, they’re not always the bad guys. If you genuinely forget to cancel a subscription or trial, and you’re charged the full amount, you may be able to get a refund if you apply quickly enough.
I recently forgot to cancel an annual subscription to a workout app and was charged a significant amount of money for another year. However, in the email receipt from Apple, there was a line reading “To cancel your purchase within 14 days of receiving this receipt, report a problem or contact us.” I went toApple’s “Report a Problem” page, signed in, and selected “Request a Refund.” Within two days, the full amount had been refunded to my card, and the subscription canceled.
In the vast majority of cases, canceling a free trial early on your iPhone will still allow you to use the full length of the trial. It’s definitely worth getting into the habit of canceling trials as soon as you take them out, as you get the full trial length without having to worry about remembering to cancel. It’s now become muscle memory for me to open Settings and cancel a trial the moment that I take it out.
