Save Money By Trying To Cancel Subscriptions

[Zwielicht]

I've been cancelling memberships and subscriptions for everything because I can no longer afford them.

Even when I am able to afford them again, I will not be renewing any of these subscriptions as most were unnecessary and I wasn't using them as much I used to.

To be honest, I developed some bad habits and was only using them out of indolence last year. Having reduced income right now has reminded me of what it was like when my family was poor a kid, and I've instead taken it as an opportunity to be less wasteful.

Anyway, with just about every single subscription, all of them have offered me some kind of major discount if I stay with them.

Take this one from Uber as an example:

I was on the monthly plan as well. That would've only been about $1 a month for the next 3 months without any obligation to even keep it after. Seems like a great deal, right?

No, it isn't, at least not for me. I don't need the service and it's using the service itself that makes them money. The price increase on food items when it comes to using them for Uber Eats versus just getting the food from the restaurant myself is usually around 50% where I live. Add in all of the fees and the expected tip, and that $20 meal can easily become $50.

Renewing it would've meant that I would've felt obligated to use the service even though I can't afford it. The companies know this as well, it's why they offered such a massive discount on this $10 membership.

Even still, I know some people use Uber Eats or Instacart when they're disabled and not able to easily do their own shopping. I was like this at one point when I was very sick in 2023 and could no longer drive, and Instacart in particular was the one that I found to be very useful as their fees were reasonable.

If you decide to do this, remember that they don't provide these offers on the first cancellation page. It's almost always in this order:

1. You cancel the membership using the button.
2. They ask you the reason why. You provide them with a reason (I select Other, and I always seem to get these offers).
3. They provide you with a discount to convince you to stay.
4. You either claim the offer or cancel the subscription.

I've found that even cancelling over the phone seems to go the same way. I had some local services I needed to cancel, and even they were offering me huge discounts to stay. After all, they don't want to lose your money.

 

[MisterF]

This was a common thing years ago in the UK, when broadband and mobile companies were competing for business. You'd do your 12 months at the discounted rate, then ask to speak to retentions team and tell them you were leaving because their main rival were offering X, Y and Z for half price for 12 months.

I ended up with Virgin Media offering me their fastest fibre at the time, with the Sky movies thrown in at under half price.

Mobile phones were another one on the old 12 month contracts. I wasn't that bothered about the latest phone, so I'd negotiate on the sim only deal at a discount, to keep my old phone.

Happy days.

 

[t2van]

This was a common thing years ago in the UK, when broadband and mobile companies were competing for business. You'd do your 12 months at the discounted rate, then ask to speak to retentions team and tell them you were leaving because their main rival were offering X, Y and Z for half price for 12 months.

I ended up with Virgin Media offering me their fastest fibre at the time, with the Sky movies thrown in at under half price.

Mobile phones were another one on the old 12 month contracts. I wasn't that bothered about the latest phone, so I'd negotiate on the sim only deal at a discount, to keep my old phone.

Happy days.

Yeah they still do this today.

I think it's the only place they do it. It's down to the cost to acquire you back vs keeping you. Without you the overheads are so high for that company that you can see them go bust. Problem is it takes 100000s of people to leave at the same time. OR if you happen to be a bank called Northern Rock.

Insurance it almost like the total opposite.

Subscriptions or any pay monthly relays on YOU being lazy and forgetting about it, there's no rewards to stay only when you try and leave. It's that same reason they don't do any rewards for staying, if they did the subscription model would be a race to the bottom.

 

[MisterF]

Subscriptions or any pay monthly relays on YOU being lazy and forgetting about it, there's no rewards to stay only when you try and leave. It's that same reason they don't do any rewards for staying, if they did the subscription model would be a race to the bottom.

This is why if you're doing a monthly subscription, making it $9.99 or less it's not that noticeable and less likely to get cancelled as an SEO tool, than one at $50 or 100 a month.

 

[MR.Spuf]

I would recommend also to learn a bit of ai automation, it can save you lots of mini subscriptions. Also don't be shy to buy black market subscriptions: yt, spotify etc, lower prices than official subscriptions. At the end of the day, they are tryong to squeeze us so it's a tiny payback