Free Trial? Mark It On Your Calendar

January 2019 — Tip of the Month

Like it or not, we live in a subscription-based world. Netflix, Amazon Prime, music-streaming, cloud storage, and even popular software programs require recurring payments. Most of these services offer free trials to get you started.

A free trial might sound like a generous offer, but companies make a lot of money from users who simply forget to cancel their subscription before the free trial ends. In some cases, once the trial ends, a company may charge you for a full year of service. Other companies charge early termination fees if you decide to cancel after the free trial has ended.

Chances are you have forgotten to cancel a free trial at some point. Most of us have. So here is a practical new year's resolution for 2019:

Every time you sign up for a free trial, mark the end date on your calendar.

To be safe, I suggest marking the event two business days before the trial ends so you can be sure to cancel before you are charged. I also recommend creating an alert along with the event in your digital calendar to make sure you don't overlook it.

This strategy has helped remind me to cancel dozens of free trials over the past few years. I hope it's effective for you as well. But remember - you still have to take action to cancel the trial after seeing the reminder. I learned this the hard way more than once in 2018.

- Per Christensson