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What to Do When a Company Won't Let You Cancel a Subscription

Use the free tool — Subscription Audit

Why This Happens

Some companies make it easy to sign up but hard to cancel. This is common enough that people report paying more than $200 a year for subscriptions they forgot about or never meant to keep. That figure comes from consumer research — surveys vary, but the pattern is real.

Try the Standard Cancel Path First

Most app subscriptions cancel from your phone, not from the company's website.

• iPhone: Settings → Subscriptions
• Android: Play Store → Payments

This is usually a two-screen process. If a charge on your statement has a strange descriptor, check your email receipts for that exact amount before you try to cancel — you want to know for sure what you're canceling.

Know Your Rights: Click-to-Cancel

The FTC's Negative Option Rule, known as "Click to Cancel," says canceling must be as easy as signing up. If a company stalls you, transfers you between departments, or forces a phone call when you signed up online, that may go against this rule. This is not legal advice — read the rule yourself and check with a professional if you need to act on it.

If They Keep Charging You Anyway

If you've canceled — or tried to — and charges keep coming, your card issuer can often block future charges from that merchant. Treat this as a backstop, not a first step. Try the standard cancel path and your Click-to-Cancel rights first.

Before You Dispute Anything

Confirm the charge against your own records first. Descriptor guesses and patterns are a starting point, not proof. Never send anyone your full card number to "confirm" a cancellation — a legitimate company does not need it repeated back to them. If you're pasting statement lines anywhere, remove full card numbers first.

What to Do Next

Paste one to three months of transaction lines from your statement into the free first look. Nothing you paste is stored. You'll get every recurring charge named in plain words, the yearly cost it adds up to, and the cancel path for each — plus a phone script and dispute text for when a company keeps charging you after you've canceled.

This tool makes best-effort identifications of recurring charges. It can be wrong. It is not financial advice. Always verify against your own statements.

Subscription Audit makes best-effort identifications of recurring charges; it can be wrong and it is not financial advice. Verify with your own statements. Nothing you paste is stored.