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Hello all,
This is probably an obvious question but it's Monday and my brain is not working.
I recently took up an offer of a magazine subscription (not this fine publication). How it worked was a special offer of £10 for two copies, issued every two months, then automatically going up to the full amount and carrying on automatically. So just in case I don't want it to carry on, is it best to cancel the DD after the first payment, which they took recently, or after I've received both copies, of which neither have yet arrived. It said you can cancel at any time, but I still want my two copies! 🙂
I think if you've paid for 2 copies you have a reason to expect 2 copies even if you cancel the day after you paid. However I can certainly imagine some automated systems buggering that up - so the "safe" option would be to set a diary reminder when you should have received the second copy and cancel then.
Cancelling the direct debit will stop the payment but not the subscription. You may still be liable for the payment if you don't actually cancel with the magazine
That 👆
Just cancelling the DD payment is a really bad idea. It'll bump on your credit score as a non-payment, with hilarious consequences. You have to cancel with the company you ordered from.
As for when, well, you've paid for two issues so you should receive two issues even if you cancel right now. No?
Yeah, ok, cancel with the magazine I mean. I just wonder whether if I cancel now, they'll not send my two copies because, well I cancelled. But if I wait until the second issue has dropped they may say - "ah but you've now entered a new cycle" or something. Your subscription will end from 2027.
is confused. maybe that's the business model. A confusion trap. Reminds me of that Friends episode where they're trying to quit the gym 🙂
I've recently cancelled a couple of magazines and they don't make it easy. I needed to sign up to an account as I couldn't face phoning. Once I'd done that it wasn't too bad and I could find out when my last issue would be posted. DD cancelled straight away too.
I took out a subscription last year that renewed on the 3rd January. I couldn’t cancel it online so sent them an e-mail on 1st January to cancel it - they replied on the 3rd to confirm they’d cancelled my subscription on 3rd Jan 2023! My only hope is that I did change the CVC code on my credit card to a wrong number so hopefully it ‘bounced’. I didn’t receive any confirmation renewal e-mail or anything.
maybe that’s the business model
It sometimes is - short term profit, though, you won't deal with them again. If you tell them you're cancelling, and you're in line with their terms for when you cancel, then they take from the DD when they shouldn't, you get onto your bank and tell them to reverse it. That's "The DD guarantee" the bank give you; if a payment is taken that you haven't authorised, they claw it back. But as Cougar says, don't cancel the DD until you've cancelled the service, because you'll still owe them and if they can't get from the DD they'll treat it as a debt.
Edit - that only works with actual bank DDs. A credit card authority is different and you don't have the same protection - maybe a s75 would work.