How many digital subscriptions do you currently have? Most of us think we have a couple, but when you sit down and start to tally up subscriptions to food delivery apps, newspapers, entertainment and streaming platforms, that number might even edge into the double digits.
Kate Brennan Harding, podcast producer at the Irish Farmers Journal, recently discovered that she had been paying multiple times for the same subscriptions over the past year. She had been paying four times for Adobe (€25 per month) and twice for Apple (€10 per month), overpaying by a total of €85 per month. “I’m mortified,” she says. “I did a purge of my subscriptions recently, and I honestly never noticed the Adobe.”
Payment for subscription services won’t come out of your bank account in a whopping big sum; more likely it’s a couple of quid each month – €5 here, €10 there. These smaller amounts might seem almost imperceptible, which makes it hard to keep track of what you’re spending.
But the cost of subscriptions can quickly clock up if you don’t keep an eye on it. One €4 subscription for 12 months is €48, €10 for 12 months is €120, and so it goes.
And what about the subscriptions that you didn’t even know you had? Like that free trial for which you registered and forgot to cancel, and now it’s a rolling sum. It can be hard to notice these too, because the money comes out of your account in a trickle, dwarfed against the backdrop of big purchases like rent, mortgage payments or the weekly food shop.
Unsurprisingly, digital subscriptions are popular in Ireland. According to the CSO, almost six in 10 (57%) Irish internet users subscribe to a music streaming service such as Spotify or Apple music. Seven in 10 (69%) of Irish internet users subscribe to film, series, or sports streaming services such as Netflix, Disney or Sky Sports. And households with children are also far more likely to use streaming services.
Legislative landscape
While it can be very easy to sign up to subscription services, it is sometimes not so easy to cancel them. Companies can mislead consumers by quietly rolling them onto annual subscriptions through auto-renewal, or not being upfront about the terms and conditions.
In a bid to end so-called subscription traps, only last month, the UK Department for Business and Trade set out new measures to make subscriptions easier to manage or cancel.
The measures include reminders before free or discounted trials end, or before rolling contracts automatically renew, as well as straightforward online cancellations. These measures are expected to come into force next spring, and are predicted to save consumers around £400m annually.
So, should Ireland do more to strengthen consumer protection?
Orla Delargy, deputy director of communications at Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), told Irish Country Living that: “Our view is that it should be as easy to cancel a digital service as it is to sign up for it. Consumers should be given clear, straightforward information about how to cancel or renew a contract, in the same way and through the same channel they signed up. They need clear information on duration, renewals and termination so they can make informed choices and shop around.”
In July of last year, the European Commission launched a consultation as part of its preparations to introduce a Digital Fairness Act.
Orla Delargy of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
“In our response the CCPC highlighted the real challenges consumers face when trying to cancel digital contracts or subscriptions. We stressed the importance of ‘easy in, easy out’ rules, greater transparency around auto renewals, and proportionate obligations for businesses,” says Orla.
‘Easy in, easy out’ refers to the idea that businesses should make it as easy to withdraw from a contract or cancel a subscription as is it is to sign up. In their submission, the CCPC also suggested that new rules could be introduced in relation to auto-renewals, requiring businesses to include termination links when reminding consumers of a renewal date, which could nudge them to shop around.
The European Commission is due to publish a draft of the Digital Fairness Act later this year.
Three tips to keep track
While we wait for new EU rules on digital contracts and renewals, the best we can do, for the moment, is stay on top of our current subscriptions.
Read the fine print: make sure you understand the service’s refund and cancellation policy before signing up. Take a note of the information on the conditions, time limit and what is involved in cancelling a subscription.
Some experts also recommend keeping one email address or one credit card specifically for subscriptions. This can help you to manage your cash flow more effectively.
Cancel free trials immediately: forgetting to cancel a free trial is one of the top reasons why people get locked into unwanted contracts. Don’t wait before you cancel a free trial, do it after you sign up. You don’t forgo access to the service if you cancel before the month is up.
Take back the control: review your subscriptions on a periodic basis to see what you’re using, and if there are any apps or services that are no longer useful. You can review your subscriptions as frequently as you wish. It could be every month or every three months.
You can keep track of your subscription renewal dates using calendar reminders, and go through subscriptions regularly and see what you’re using.
How many digital subscriptions do you currently have? Most of us think we have a couple, but when you sit down and start to tally up subscriptions to food delivery apps, newspapers, entertainment and streaming platforms, that number might even edge into the double digits.
Kate Brennan Harding, podcast producer at the Irish Farmers Journal, recently discovered that she had been paying multiple times for the same subscriptions over the past year. She had been paying four times for Adobe (€25 per month) and twice for Apple (€10 per month), overpaying by a total of €85 per month. “I’m mortified,” she says. “I did a purge of my subscriptions recently, and I honestly never noticed the Adobe.”
Payment for subscription services won’t come out of your bank account in a whopping big sum; more likely it’s a couple of quid each month – €5 here, €10 there. These smaller amounts might seem almost imperceptible, which makes it hard to keep track of what you’re spending.
But the cost of subscriptions can quickly clock up if you don’t keep an eye on it. One €4 subscription for 12 months is €48, €10 for 12 months is €120, and so it goes.
And what about the subscriptions that you didn’t even know you had? Like that free trial for which you registered and forgot to cancel, and now it’s a rolling sum. It can be hard to notice these too, because the money comes out of your account in a trickle, dwarfed against the backdrop of big purchases like rent, mortgage payments or the weekly food shop.
Unsurprisingly, digital subscriptions are popular in Ireland. According to the CSO, almost six in 10 (57%) Irish internet users subscribe to a music streaming service such as Spotify or Apple music. Seven in 10 (69%) of Irish internet users subscribe to film, series, or sports streaming services such as Netflix, Disney or Sky Sports. And households with children are also far more likely to use streaming services.
Legislative landscape
While it can be very easy to sign up to subscription services, it is sometimes not so easy to cancel them. Companies can mislead consumers by quietly rolling them onto annual subscriptions through auto-renewal, or not being upfront about the terms and conditions.
In a bid to end so-called subscription traps, only last month, the UK Department for Business and Trade set out new measures to make subscriptions easier to manage or cancel.
The measures include reminders before free or discounted trials end, or before rolling contracts automatically renew, as well as straightforward online cancellations. These measures are expected to come into force next spring, and are predicted to save consumers around £400m annually.
So, should Ireland do more to strengthen consumer protection?
Orla Delargy, deputy director of communications at Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), told Irish Country Living that: “Our view is that it should be as easy to cancel a digital service as it is to sign up for it. Consumers should be given clear, straightforward information about how to cancel or renew a contract, in the same way and through the same channel they signed up. They need clear information on duration, renewals and termination so they can make informed choices and shop around.”
In July of last year, the European Commission launched a consultation as part of its preparations to introduce a Digital Fairness Act.
Orla Delargy of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
“In our response the CCPC highlighted the real challenges consumers face when trying to cancel digital contracts or subscriptions. We stressed the importance of ‘easy in, easy out’ rules, greater transparency around auto renewals, and proportionate obligations for businesses,” says Orla.
‘Easy in, easy out’ refers to the idea that businesses should make it as easy to withdraw from a contract or cancel a subscription as is it is to sign up. In their submission, the CCPC also suggested that new rules could be introduced in relation to auto-renewals, requiring businesses to include termination links when reminding consumers of a renewal date, which could nudge them to shop around.
The European Commission is due to publish a draft of the Digital Fairness Act later this year.
Three tips to keep track
While we wait for new EU rules on digital contracts and renewals, the best we can do, for the moment, is stay on top of our current subscriptions.
Read the fine print: make sure you understand the service’s refund and cancellation policy before signing up. Take a note of the information on the conditions, time limit and what is involved in cancelling a subscription.
Some experts also recommend keeping one email address or one credit card specifically for subscriptions. This can help you to manage your cash flow more effectively.
Cancel free trials immediately: forgetting to cancel a free trial is one of the top reasons why people get locked into unwanted contracts. Don’t wait before you cancel a free trial, do it after you sign up. You don’t forgo access to the service if you cancel before the month is up.
Take back the control: review your subscriptions on a periodic basis to see what you’re using, and if there are any apps or services that are no longer useful. You can review your subscriptions as frequently as you wish. It could be every month or every three months.
You can keep track of your subscription renewal dates using calendar reminders, and go through subscriptions regularly and see what you’re using.
SHARING OPTIONS