ExitTerms

How free-trial billing works

A trial bills the payment method on file when the trial window ends, unless you cancelled in the way the offer describes.

By ExitTerms Editorial. .

This is general information, not legal advice. Your plan, billing provider, location, and contract can change what applies to you. Check the provider’s pages and your own account documents before you act.

A trial is a paid plan with a delayed or reduced first charge

Most subscription trials work like this. You accept an offer, you give a payment method, and the merchant agrees not to charge the regular price until a date or until a short introductory period ends. If you do nothing, the payment method is charged and the plan continues. The headline may say “free”. The receipt and the offer terms are what you can check. A trial priced at $0 for a stated window is still a subscription if a later charge is part of the same signup.

An introductory price is a cousin of a trial, and it is not the same thing. One offer charges nothing for a week and then the full price. Another charges a lower price for a month or a year and then a higher price. A coupon can apply to a single bill. Read the length, the price after the promotion, and the date the promotion ends. Those three facts tell you what will happen if you leave the plan in place.

The end of the trial is the date that matters

Count from the end, not from the day you meant to decide. The offer should state when the trial ends and what you will be charged then. Time zones matter when a trial ends at midnight. A reminder on the morning of the last day can be late if the charge runs overnight. Put a reminder a few days before the end, on a calendar you actually see.

The payment method you entered at signup is the method that will be charged. That can be a card, a bank account, a balance inside a platform, or a phone bill. If you signed up inside a phone, TV, or game-console store, the trial may be billed by that store. Read When another company bills the subscription before you hunt for a cancel button on the wrong site. Our Apple entry is the place to read for subscriptions Apple bills.

Cancelling a trial is a cancellation

Deleting an app leaves the plan in place on many services. Signing out leaves it in place. Losing the password leaves it in place, and it also makes the confirmation harder to reach. Cancel inside the account that bills you, using the path that account provides, and save the confirmation the same way you would for a paid plan. How to cancel a subscription and keep proof covers the screenshot, the email, and the note.

Cancel during the trial if you do not want the paid plan. Do it early enough that you can fix a failed page before the window closes. If the confirmation says you will keep access until the trial end and will not be charged, save that sentence. If the confirmation is vague, look at the billing page and, if we have an entry, at the “Takes effect” line.

Where to read offer terms we have already checked

When a provider’s pricing page listed an introductory offer on the day we reviewed it, the service entry’s price table shows the terms and the date. Offers change. An old row is a record of that date, and you should read the live offer before you rely on it. Entries that often include this kind of price context include Peacock, Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+, Crunchyroll, Duolingo, and YouTube Premium. Open the table, read the caption date, and then check the provider’s current page if you are about to subscribe or about to let a trial roll.

We do not fill a gap when the pages we read were silent. If an entry has no introductory offer recorded, that means we did not publish one from those pages. It does not mean the provider has never run a trial. Your own receipt is the record of the offer you accepted.

What the first paid charge can look like

The first paid charge can differ from the number in the advertisement. Tax can be added. An annual plan can replace a monthly trial. A family or multi-screen add-on can sit on the same bill. A partial month can be prorated, or it can be a full period, depending on the terms. How to read a recurring charge on your statement helps you match the descriptor and the amount. The descriptor may be a parent company, a platform, or a shortened name, not the logo you remember.

A second trial of the same service is sometimes blocked, and sometimes it is offered again to the same card or the same email. Assume the offer in front of you is the one that will bill. If you already used a trial, read whether the new screen says the charge starts today.

If the trial already converted

Once the paid charge posts, you are on the paid plan until you cancel it or the merchant ends it. Cancel from the billing account and keep proof. A refund is a separate question. Read the provider’s refund terms, and the “Refunds and other fees” line on our entry when we have one. Some providers refund a first charge in a short window. Some do not. The entry says “Not stated” when we did not find a refund rule on the pages we read. Your receipt and the help page you used are what you can show the merchant.

If you do not recognize the signup at all, save the statement line and search your email for the amount, the descriptor, and the date. A family member, a previous device, or a platform account can start a trial. How to review and audit your subscriptions is the way to list every recurring line before you close cards or argue with a descriptor you have not identified. If you decide a posted credit-card charge is a billing error, the written-notice process is in How to dispute an unwanted charge with your card issuer. Identifying the charge comes first.

A short checklist before a trial ends

  1. Write the trial end date, the price that follows, and which account bills it.
  2. Decide whether you want the paid plan. If you do, check that the card on file is the one you mean to use, and read the renewal period, monthly or annual.
  3. If you do not want it, cancel in that billing account and save the confirmation before the end date.
  4. Check the next statement. A $0 trial can still be followed by a paid line. Match the date to your note.
  5. If the charge belongs to a plan you already cancelled, follow the after-you-cancel guide and keep both the confirmation and the statement page together.

Trials are a normal way companies let people try a service. The part that surprises people is the automatic move to a paid plan. The offer told you that move would happen. Your reminder, your cancel confirmation, and the next statement are how you check that it happened the way you expected.

Service entries mentioned here

These entries are the dated records for those providers. Open one for the channels, notice, and fees we recorded from that provider’s pages.

Something on a service entry look wrong? Report a correction. For the full list of entries, see all services.