The Subscription Dilemma
So we’ve all been there. We have subscriptions we’ve signed up for. It might be streaming video, it might be automated delivery, it might be products that show up in your mailbox, it might be newsletters that you get, or it might be emails. You have something you pay 15, 20, or 30 dollars a month for on your credit card every single month. If you look at your online banking or your credit card, you’re going to see a lot of subscriptions. Some of those you only have because it’s hard to cancel, and you may have forgotten about them.
The Problem with Free Trials
They make it very easy to sign up. Most of these subscription companies have a free trial—sign up for free for seven days, for one month, whatever it is. Then, when you want to cancel, it’s very difficult, and you say, “Well, the heck with that. I’ll just keep it. Maybe someday I’ll use it.” Does that sound familiar? Well, they’re proposing a law that companies have to make it equally as easy to cancel something as it was to sign up for it. As an example, we normally subscribe to the Wall Street Journal online to read the news. Every once in a while, we’ll cancel it for six or eight months when we’re not using it. Every few years, we do this. The problem is, when you sign up for it, you can do it online by just clicking a button. But when you cancel it, you have to call them up and wait on hold. It doesn’t seem fair that you have to do more work to cancel than you did to sign up.
Proposed Law and Its Potential Impact
Well, the government is proposing to make a law to make it easier. A lot of people don’t like government rules and regulations, and this one is controversial. However, my personal opinion is this will actually help companies, and I’ll tell you why. There are many times that I see, personally and within our company, a potential for an online subscription trial, a free trial, or maybe a tool we can use for our business. It could be a resource or some type of automation process, and it might be great, something we could really use. But we don’t sign up for it because we know how hard it’s going to be to cancel.
Access to Expert Consultation
In the meantime, remember you have access to live, one-on-one consultation and the undivided attention of a licensed, certified expert in this subject and many others. We want to listen to your story, hear your questions, and give you expert advice on your options. We want to tell you what we know about your situation and what options you have.
The Burden of Cancellation
If we knew it was going to be easy, we would sign up for it in a heartbeat. But we don’t have the time to spend an extra hour later trying to cancel something or forget to cancel it and end up spending $30 a month for seven months—couple hundred bucks that we didn’t count on. So, we don’t sign up for a lot of things that could be good resources. I suspect that companies who, even without this rule, make it easy to cancel and make that part of their marketing can put it right in their advertising: “You don’t have to do anything to cancel, just click a button—easy cancellation, one-click cancellation” or “Don’t even require a credit card.” Some companies do that now; they say no credit card required.
Payment Fatigue and Subscription Fatigue
But this cancellation thing is causing payment fatigue for consumers and businesses. I’m sure you feel the same way. There are probably things that you would have signed up for three or four years ago, but now you don’t because you know what it’s going to be like to try to cancel it. What are your thoughts on the government making a rule to make it as easy to cancel as it was to sign up for? Do you think the government should be involved with this, or do you think it’s an overreach? Or do you just take it upon yourself not to sign up for things unless you’re 100% sure?
The Subscription Model Debate
The other question is, why does everything have to be a subscription? Why can’t you just pay for something once and then own it? They’re even starting to put subscriptions on car options. Some cars now, let’s say, if you have heated seats, you have to pay $10 a month for the heated seats to work. If you don’t pay that $10 a month, they’re going to shut that off, and you won’t have heated seats in your car. So many things are going to a subscription model because people think it’s a profit center. But I think there are a lot of consumers who are getting away from that because they don’t like having their budget drained for no reason.
