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Fell for that 3 day free trial on a streaming service
Signed up for what I thought was a free week of some niche show streaming platform last month. Forgot to cancel and they hit my card for $60. Has anyone else had a subscription sneak up on them like that?
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the_miles1mo ago
Prepaid cards work great for dodging surprise charges.
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umasullivan1mo ago
The 3 day trial stuff is basically designed to catch people off guard. I always set a phone reminder for the day before the trial ends so I don't get burned again. Learned that one the hard way after a gym membership did the same thing to me.
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derek_burns1mo ago
Yeah but here's the thing nobody really talks about - those trial periods are actually a data mining operation too. You give them your credit card info up front, and even if you cancel on time, they still have your details forever. I read somewhere that some companies use the trial signups to build profiles on people, like what kind of stuff they're interested in, how likely they are to forget to cancel, that sort of thing. It's not just about catching you off guard with the billing, it's about collecting info on you that they can sell or use later. Not saying every company does that, but enough of them do that I'm super careful now. I actually use a virtual card number with a low limit for trials, just in case they try to pull something.
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