How to cancel a subscription before it renews: a checklist

What are the steps to cancel a subscription?

Find the real renewal date, work out where you are billed, cancel there a few days early, finish every screen of the process, keep proof, and check your next statement. The rest of this guide explains each step.

1. Check the next billing date and any notice period.
2. Set a reminder a few days to a week before that date.
3. Work out how you pay: app store, website account, direct debit, card or PayPal.
4. Cancel in the right place and go through every step until you see a confirmation.
5. Save the confirmation.
6. Check your next statement for that merchant.

How do you find the real renewal date?

Look at the billing or subscription page in your account, or the latest receipt email, for the next billing date. Do not assume it matches the day you signed up.

A free trial usually converts to a paid plan when the trial ends, not a month after you joined. Annual plans renew eleven or twelve months after you last thought about them. Some contracts, such as gym memberships and broadband or phone deals, have a minimum term or a notice period, so check the terms for how much notice you must give and whether cancelling early costs anything.

Then set a reminder a few days to a week before the date, not on the day itself. That leaves time to act if you are busy, and time for the cancellation to go through before the next payment is taken.

Where do you cancel a subscription?

Cancel with whoever bills you. That is Apple or Google for subscriptions bought in an app on your phone, and the company itself for anything bought on its website.

Working this out before your reminder fires means you are not hunting for the right menu with the deadline close.

How do you cancel an Apple or Google Play subscription?

Use your device's subscription settings, not the app itself. Deleting the app does not cancel the subscription, and you will keep being charged.

Apple

On an iPhone or iPad, open Settings, tap your name, tap Subscriptions, choose the subscription and tap Cancel Subscription. On a Mac, open the App Store, click your name, then go to your account settings and find Subscriptions. Apple's guide also notes that if a subscription is not listed there, it may be billed by a different company.

Google Play

Open the Google Play Store, tap your profile icon, tap Payments and subscriptions, then Subscriptions. Choose the subscription and tap Cancel subscription. Google Play Help confirms that uninstalling the app does not cancel it.

Why do some cancellations not go through?

Usually because the process was not finished. Many cancellation flows include one or more extra screens, and closing the page part way leaves the subscription active.

Expect a discount offer, an option to pause instead, a short survey or one more Are you sure? button. A message such as sorry to see you go can still be a retention screen rather than a completed cancellation. Keep going until the page says the subscription is cancelled or will not renew, and the account shows an end date.

Pausing is a genuine alternative for seasonal things, but only choose it deliberately. A paused subscription usually restarts on its own, so note the restart date as a new renewal.

What proof of cancellation should you keep?

Keep the confirmation email, or a screenshot of the account page showing the subscription as cancelled with its end date. Note the date you cancelled and any reference number.

If no confirmation email arrives within a few minutes, check the account's subscription status directly rather than assuming it worked. Store the proof somewhere you can find it later, such as an email folder or the notes of your renewals list. If you are charged again, this is what you will need when you ask the company, or your bank, to put it right.

Can you cancel a subscription through your bank?

You can stop the payment through your bank, but that is not always the same as ending the contract. Use it as a backstop, and cancel with the company as well.

Recurring card payments, also called continuous payment authorities, can be cancelled by contacting your bank or card provider. The Financial Conduct Authority says your card provider must stop the payment when you ask, and you do not need the company's agreement first. It also warns that you may still owe money under your contract.

Direct debits can be cancelled at any time through your bank or building society, and you should tell the company too. The Direct Debit Guarantee entitles you to a full and immediate refund from your bank if a payment is taken in error.

How do you make sure you are not charged again?

Check your next statement after the old renewal date. It is the step people skip most, because by then the job feels finished.

Almost every missed cancellation traces back to the reminder: it did not exist, or it came too late to act on. Renewal Tracker, a free-to-download desktop app for Windows and Mac, is one way to fix that. Add the subscription with its real renewal date and it reminds you a set number of days before (7 by default) with a desktop notification and a daily summary email, and you can mark it done once cancelled. A calendar can work for one or two items; our Google Calendar comparison covers the trade-offs, and how forgotten subscriptions add up shows how to find the ones worth cancelling.