Half of Americans have forgotten to cancel a trial subscription

A new survey reveals that almost half of Americans have forgotten to cancel a trial subscription. It also corroborates earlier findings that we’re now spending around $1,000 a year on subscription services.

The survey comes as the FCC announced new rules ensuring that companies can’t use deceptive practices to hook us into taking out subscriptions, nor make it hard to cancel them …

Americans spend almost $1,000 a year on subscriptions

Earlier in the year, a survey found that subscription streaming spend of the average American is now close to a thousand dollars per year, and a new CNET survey found it’s now even higher.

According to an exclusive CNET survey, US adults spend an average of $91 on subscription services each month ($1,092 per year).

In recent years, “subscription creep” has led to consumers paying for unwanted monthly or annual memberships. What’s more, companies increase the price of existing services on short notice or without much disclosure, sometimes in tandem with rollouts of new or expanded features. The average amount paid for recurring memberships and subscriptions is likely to keep going up. 

Almost half have forgotten to cancel a subscription

The survey also found almost half of Americans have forgotten to cancel a subscription at the end of a free trial.

A total of 48% of respondents said they had signed up for a free trial of a paid subscription and then forgot to cancel it. Some said this had happened multiple times per year. Millennials and Gen Z adults were the most forgetful, with 65% and 59% of respondents, respectively, saying they had forgotten to cancel a trial at least once.

FTC rules should help

While new FTC rules won’t prevent people forgetting they’ve signed up for a trial subscription, they should at least reduce the likelihood.

That’s because companies will have to clearly point out that a subscription will renew unless cancelled, and get informed consent for this. By drawing explicit attention to the terms, it should mean fewer people forget.

Companies will also be prevented from making it difficult to cancel a subscription. Under the “click to cancel” rule, it should be as easy to cancel a subscription as to sign up for one.

We noted yesterday that Apple’s App Store has long demonstrated best practice in this area.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash