Forgot to cancel a free trial and turned it into a budgeting lesson

I signed up for a streaming service trial and almost let it charge me. Now I set calendar reminders for trial end dates to avoid fees. What do you do to remember cancelations?

4 comments

4 Comments

hayden_mason1mo ago

Has using reminders actually stopped all the accidental charges for you? I feel your pain, as I've lost money to forgotten trials before. Setting alerts right after signing up is the only thing that works for me.

noahsanchez1mo ago

My reminder app has more alerts than my boss has meetings. Still managed to miss one last week though.

kelly_dixon611mo ago

Totally get what you mean about setting alerts right after signing up. I used to do that, but then I'd forget to set the reminder for the right day, like a week before the trial ends, not the day it starts. Once I had this app that charged me because I set the alert for the same day I signed up, which was useless. Now I make sure to set multiple reminders, like one a week before and one the day before, and it's saved me a bunch of times.

tarahall1mo ago

Yeah, the "multiple reminders" thing is smart. What I started doing is putting the actual cancel date in the reminder note itself, because sometimes I'll see the alert and think "oh I have time" and then forget again. So my phone might say "Cancel Netflix trial - do it by the 15th!" right on the notification.