Why is it still so hard to work out how to cancel subscriptions?

I recently bought to pair of slippers from a company called chums.co.uk.

Ever since they have been bombarding me every single day with emails highlighting some other item they sell. I've already been through their catalog when I bought the slippers and there wasn't anything else I wanted but they just won't leave me alone.

There was a link to unsubscribe so I followed it and it said "you have unsubscribed" and yet the next day I got three emails from them in the space of three hours. Oh my god I just feel like I'm under bloody siege from this company.

They didn't for me, they kept telling me to phone to "discuss my options".

So I told them I wasn't phoning them, I didn't need options and I cancelled the direct debit. Then I resubscribed to the digital only option via Google Play.

There was going to be, but there was so much lobbying against it that the (previous) government watered things down. But the Times will have to provide an online cancellation option - it will be unlawful to require a phone call.

A scummy business practice, and yes it needs to be regulated so that cancelling is as easy as signing up. I hate that everything is going to subscription now. Much prefer to just buy the thing I want.

Yes yes yes. Free trial yet they want your card details. How is that not false advertising?
Agree with another comment about getting Martin Lewis on the case

Can you cancel it with your bank?

Yes my Revolut does this.

I had a trial of an ap, didn't use it, couldn't cancel it. I used the app to ban payments.

I bloody hate subscriptions.

Good Housekeeping magazine is impossible to cancel. I subscribed ages ago to get a good deal and free gifts but it’s very boring and I rarely read it. I emailed them but they ignored my request to cancel. I can’t find another way to do it and I can’t remember how I signed up (ie if it was a publisher site or one specific to the magazine itself). I’m paying full price for a magazine I don’t read, but can’t get out of the subscription.

Yes this is so annoying! If you email them however they will cancel

Totally agree with this , it shoud be law that there is an easily accessible button to cancel.

If you live in the EU there may be new rules too, as the European Commission has carried out a "digital fitness check" and found subscriptions were a big problem for consumers. Might take a couple of years, though.

On the apps most seem to give you a 7 day trial but you have to give your card details.

However there was one app I tried which gave you 14 days and didn't take your details, I was quite impressed with that, and I did end up subscribing for three months (it was easy to cancel, too). I then resubscribed for a year.

With a lot of the apps, it makes sense to do it via Google Play as it's very easy to cancel that way.

Yes, I cancelled my direct debit when they wouldn't let me cancel by email.

Then I resubscribed by Google Play.

The rules will be changing in the spring of 2026 (see the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act) but only for new subscriptions. However, many more reputable companies have already changed their practices and made it easier (though they may still ask you if you are sure about ten million times...)

I haven't used Audible but I use Amazon Prime and Kindle Unlimited from time to time and don't find them difficult to cancel and they will send you an email 3 days before it renews so you can decide if you still want it.

You cancel Gousto on the app; it takes seconds.

This completely.

If they're so confident of the brilliance and desirability of their product, you'd think they'd happily let you sign up for a month's trial, without setting up a direct debit that you then have to cancel, and then leave it up to you to respond to their emails urging you to subscribe.

If their product/service is so indispensable, the shock of a few days with it suddenly switched off will have people clamouring to make sure to sign up and subscribe!

It's the same with broadband and other utility suppliers: the better they are, the easier and more straightforward they make it to leave them - as they know that most of the cancellations they get will just be family cancelling a deceased person's services, people moving abroad etc. rather than unhappy/disgusted customers.

Apologies to Laithwaites it was actually very easy to do, like Audible it helps being on the full desktop version of the site not the mobile site, so worth trying that if you're trying to cancel something!

I'm not sure, i saw a thing on - i think YouTube shorts, with a short explanation (and a gym owner and online subscription service whining that it will destroy their business model) but i can't remember where it was. Possibly USA. Deffo not related to the pestillance that is free subscriptions that require your payment details.

Actually Gousto is really simple on the app.

The Times is a nightmare. Never again.

@Brefugee if it's part of the free trial automatically changing to subscription then its the Uk

Adobe yes, I’m looking at you! Sends you round in circles purposely.

Healthspan (vitamins) you can subscribe at the touch of a button, unsubscribe by phone only (probably on a Tuesday in March at 3am).

They must think we came down in the last shower

I'm not sure if it's the UK or EU or USA but one of the three is shortly bringing in a law about this, that unsubscribing from things must be as easy as subscribing.

Certainly a lot of Gyms are going to lose their complete business model when that comes in.

I'm ok with my Times sub, it's a tenner a month, but always have it in the back of my head that unsubbing may be an issue from Germany.

Yes! This is the most frustrating one for me. To be fair the couple of times I've done it (after an offer usually) they don't try very hard to persuade me to stay on but it is such an annoying thing to have to do. They clearly hope people just hate phone calls so much they won't ever bother cancelling!

Yep. I spent 45 min on hold on the phone to Virgin to cancel my gym membership. There was no ‘humane’ way to close it🥺

Agree with this. This used to be my newspaper but I have completely lost faith in them after having to cancel a subscription for one of my parents after they had died.

It must be somewhat counterintuitive, I find HelloFresh easy to cancel so I frequently sign up and cancel, I'm a repeat customer, but once I get this wine subscription closed I won't be going back if I dont have the freedom to switch it on and off myself.