Netflix cancelling accounts. Good on them!

[JetSetGo]

Hi, I read Netflix is automatically cancelling accounts that havent been used over the last year to avoid cusromers spending unneccesary money in case they had forgotten they had it . Good on them! I wish all recurring subscriptions would follow the same process. I remember paying for club penguin for much longer than it was used for. Could have done with this then.

Also dont you just hate it when yearly insurance policies auto renew? They must think us stupid!

Yes I think this is a good idea too. I agree the auto renew on insurance policies is infuriating, they don't seem to give the option to remove this online you have to call them to cancel it.

The reason insurance policies auto renew is because it's incredibly risky to rely on Jo Public to remember renewal dates for every policy and you would likely end up with a lot of uninsured cars, houses, etc...

That's amazing, I love them. I have NEVER heard of a company doing this.

How do people forget about a subscription, don't people check their bank statements anymore?

Because of a mix up my husband paid almost 1000 euros for a telephone line that he forgot to cancel. Wish they had done this!

Actually, the real reason subscription services prefer auto renewal is because it’s better business for them. It’s clearly proven that auto renewal drives higher renewal conversion % and it’s less effort (time/money) for companies to let this roll & then react to a cancellation request than proactively have to chase a renewal.

Netflix are getting on the front foot, good for them. Customer experience is widely viewed to be the differentiator of the future, showing your commitment to that early is a good way to get out in front of the competition.

You do have the choice of canceling auto-renew. At least you do on every single one I have ever had. And if you don't have that option, simply delete the payment method.

But this was one of the things that calendars were invented for. I put a reminder in my calendar before every single insurance, subscription, services renewal to remind me to shop around and get the best deal. It saves me a fortune. Most recently Virgin shaved £35 a month off my bill for renewing with them - matching the new customer offer for Sky; and Tesco pet insurance suddenly discovered that they could offer me a substantial reduction in my monthly insurance when I told them that the reason I was leaving was because their price comparison quote for the year was cheaper than their renewal quote ,so I was going to another provider because they were being CFs!

That’s great!

Wish Experian would do the same!!

Wow, good for them.

I admire somebody who has not watched netflix in a year!

But they might have gone in to a nursing home or something.

Slimming world did this to me after 3 months of not using it more companies should do it I agree

Lovely! Nice to see some big wigs still have a heart.

The reason insurance policies auto renew is because it's incredibly risky to rely on Jo Public to remember renewal dates for every policy and you would likely end up with a lot of uninsured cars, houses

That's sweetly naive, auto-renew is a cynical business ploy to exploite inertia in renewing or changing insurers.

I admire somebody who has not watched netflix in a year!

Why? I don't know when I last watched something although others in my house do, is there a certificate

Great business.

I’m currently irritated that my Cozi subscription was auto renewed last month. No one needs a premium calendar app in the midst of a lock down!

The reason insurance policies auto renew is because it's incredibly risky to rely on Jo Public to remember renewal dates for every policy and you would likely end up with a lot of uninsured cars, houses, etc

Mostly not for this reason. A lot do it at a much higher premium than what you paid the year before.
They hope customers won't really notice, just accept it or simply can't be arsed with the faff to ring up.
The companies I've previously worked for certainly done this but if we got a call complaining about it the premium price would almost always be reduced back down, obviously unless there'd been claims. Have you noticed any of your auto renew letters don't arrive until well after it's kicked in but will be dated before?
It's so you're out of the cooling off period (yes there's some sneaky feckers!) Don't accept this or read the letter and say oh well never mind. Always ring up to complain.

I signed up to one of the credit check things for a free trial, what was infuriating was how deliberately difficult they made it to cancel. Had to actually look at another Internet forum where someone had figured out how to get to the ‘cancel’ bit on the website. The fact that Netflix are automatically cancelling unused accounts is fantastic.

Auto renew on insurance would be OK if you could easily cancel it online, all the ones I have had need you to ring to cancel which is a right pain.

Netflix are good to do this

The FCA is pretty hot on most obvious insurance industry practices that are not in the interest of the customer (Or they are working their way through them pretty quickly). As already noted, auto renewal, particularly for vehicle insurance, ensures we don’t end up with thousands of uninsured drivers who haven’t bothered to renew their policy. Driving without insurance is illegal and does most damage for anyone hit by an uninsured driver.

Renewal notices now have to clearly state what the increase is cost is so that customers can easily see if they are being ripped off compared to new customers.

The reason insurance companies make so much money from renewals isn’t because of auto renewal. It’s because most customers can’t be arsed to shop around for a better deal.

This must mean they've come a very long way from when I had my free trial (which I barely used) and there was no facility on their website for removing your payment method details. Which meant that a year later I woke up to an email telling me I'd taken out their super duper fanciest package at 20 odd quid a month - while I was fast asleep! When I contacted them they had the nerve to call me a liar when I told them neither I nor anyone I knew had 'activated' my account. And I certainly hadn't given my password to anyone in Arizona or wherever it was the ISP address was. They then made it hard work for me to make sure they'd refunded me and wiped my account details completely.

That was last year. Sounds like they've had an epiphany since. I wonder if it has anything to do with losing business and trying to regain people's confidence?

To balance things out I have watched 3738293734 hours of Netflix over lockdown.

OP you gave me a fright! Reading the title I thought they were randomly cancelling accounts left right and centre just like that.

I think for most things auto renewal is just a licence to make money from the disorganised, but for car and home insurance it’s vital, because accidental failure to renew can have disastrous consequences. (Of course insurance companies have traditionally taken advantage by ramping up prices as well, but the FCA are gradually clamping down on this).

I would easily remember to cancel a one-off subscription (as in when I accidentally signed up to AmazonPrime) but if I had loads I'm sure I would lose track of them. This is when scrutinising bank statements is also a good 'nudge'!

Good on Netflix - it has already raised my opinion of them.

i have been stung on auto renew, since i thought the car was not autorenew and changed provider, only to have to pay extortionate admin fees to cancel!