July 5, 2018 • 3 mins
A new California law went into effect on July 1, 2018 that makes it easier for consumers to cancel subscriptions they sign up for online. If you can sign up online for a recurring subscription, you must be able to cancel it online too.Follow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontechEasy ways to listen on your phone or smart speaker:"Hey Google, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Hey Siri, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Alexa, Enable the Rich on Tech Flash Briefing"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Canceling free trials just got a whole lot ease. You're
in California. What's going on? I'm rich DeMuro. This is
rich on Tech. A new California law that went into
effect on July first makes it easier to cancel subscriptions
and those free trials that you sign up for. It's
called California Senate Bill three one three, and it requires
that companies make it easy to cancel services that you
(00:26):
sign up for online. This is pretty big because how
many times have you been tempted to sign up for
something like a free trial, but you kind of stop
short at the sign up page because you don't want
to have to deal with the headache of the cancelation process.
In fact, there are entire websites dedicated to helping you
cancel subscriptions, like get human, which provides the phone numbers
to call as well as the instructions, but it's still
(00:47):
kind of complicated and time consuming. The new law says
that California customers who accept an automatic renewal or continuous
service offer online must be able to cancel the service
online as well. This makes a ton of sense. I've
always said, if you sign up one way, you should
be able to cancel that same exact way. Now, don't
get me wrong, lots of online services do make it
(01:08):
easy for you to pause or cancel your subscription and
a few clicks. But this new law is going to
take care of all of those other services that kind
of make money on the fact that you don't feel
like waiting on hold forever or finding the right eight
hundred number to cancel. The new law also says that
companies must accept a pre written termination email to cancel
the service, and they can't dispute it. Basically, once you
(01:29):
send that email, it's done, they have to cancel it. Now.
Keep in mind this is only for California consumers at
this point, but other states might see this law and
take note and then follow suit. It makes a lot
of sense in our on demand economy. Easy to sign
up for, easy to cancel, and it really puts a
little more pressure on companies to provide a great service
because they want to keep those customers. By the way,
(01:50):
a couple things to know. One service I love for
keeping track of all of my subscriptions is called true bill.
What you do is you sign in with your credit
card and debit card information. Then it spits out and
keeps track of all of your recurring bills. You can
literally see, Okay, I pay fifteen dollars a month for Netflix,
I pay nine ninety nine for YouTube, whatever it is.
They'll keep an eye on all your monthly rates and
(02:11):
if they go up, they'll also tell you. Plus you
also see exactly how much you spend each month on
all these services, which is kind of scary when you
add it all up. And that's the other side of
all this. Subscriptions are so easy to sign up for
these days, and lots of them require a recurring bill
on our credit or debit cards, so you might not
notice an increase in fees automatically because you have to
(02:31):
really check your statements. I don't know about you, but
I don't get an email every month when Netflix bills
my card. So another place to look is also your
iTunes account. I talk about this in my book one
hundred and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone. Apple
makes subscribing to things really easy, but when you have
to find that subscription section to go to cancel it,
it's kind of tough to find. But it's a good
idea to go in there and see what you're being
(02:52):
billed for on a monthly basis. You can find it
by going into the iTunes store on your phone, scroll
all the way down to your Apple ID where it
has your ear Tap that, then tap view Apple ID.
You put in your password or use your face, and
then you scroll to the middle of this page where
it says subscriptions and you can see all the stuff
that you have going on in there. You can learn
(03:13):
more about that tip in my book. Just go to
richon tech dot tv slash book. Thanks so much for listening.
Hopefully you get those subscriptions under control and they're much
easier to cancel in California. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk
to you real soon.
Canceling free trials just got a whole lot ease. You're
in California. What's going on? I'm rich DeMuro. This is
rich on Tech. A new California law that went into
effect on July first makes it easier to cancel subscriptions
and those free trials that you sign up for. It's
called California Senate Bill three one three, and it requires
that companies make it easy to cancel services that you
(00:26):
sign up for online. This is pretty big because how
many times have you been tempted to sign up for
something like a free trial, but you kind of stop
short at the sign up page because you don't want
to have to deal with the headache of the cancelation process.
In fact, there are entire websites dedicated to helping you
cancel subscriptions, like get human, which provides the phone numbers
to call as well as the instructions, but it's still
(00:47):
kind of complicated and time consuming. The new law says
that California customers who accept an automatic renewal or continuous
service offer online must be able to cancel the service
online as well. This makes a ton of sense. I've
always said, if you sign up one way, you should
be able to cancel that same exact way. Now, don't
get me wrong, lots of online services do make it
(01:08):
easy for you to pause or cancel your subscription and
a few clicks. But this new law is going to
take care of all of those other services that kind
of make money on the fact that you don't feel
like waiting on hold forever or finding the right eight
hundred number to cancel. The new law also says that
companies must accept a pre written termination email to cancel
the service, and they can't dispute it. Basically, once you
(01:29):
send that email, it's done, they have to cancel it. Now.
Keep in mind this is only for California consumers at
this point, but other states might see this law and
take note and then follow suit. It makes a lot
of sense in our on demand economy. Easy to sign
up for, easy to cancel, and it really puts a
little more pressure on companies to provide a great service
because they want to keep those customers. By the way,
(01:50):
a couple things to know. One service I love for
keeping track of all of my subscriptions is called true bill.
What you do is you sign in with your credit
card and debit card information. Then it spits out and
keeps track of all of your recurring bills. You can
literally see, Okay, I pay fifteen dollars a month for Netflix,
I pay nine ninety nine for YouTube, whatever it is.
They'll keep an eye on all your monthly rates and
(02:11):
if they go up, they'll also tell you. Plus you
also see exactly how much you spend each month on
all these services, which is kind of scary when you
add it all up. And that's the other side of
all this. Subscriptions are so easy to sign up for
these days, and lots of them require a recurring bill
on our credit or debit cards, so you might not
notice an increase in fees automatically because you have to
(02:31):
really check your statements. I don't know about you, but
I don't get an email every month when Netflix bills
my card. So another place to look is also your
iTunes account. I talk about this in my book one
hundred and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone. Apple
makes subscribing to things really easy, but when you have
to find that subscription section to go to cancel it,
it's kind of tough to find. But it's a good
idea to go in there and see what you're being
(02:52):
billed for on a monthly basis. You can find it
by going into the iTunes store on your phone, scroll
all the way down to your Apple ID where it
has your ear Tap that, then tap view Apple ID.
You put in your password or use your face, and
then you scroll to the middle of this page where
it says subscriptions and you can see all the stuff
that you have going on in there. You can learn
(03:13):
more about that tip in my book. Just go to
richon tech dot tv slash book. Thanks so much for listening.
Hopefully you get those subscriptions under control and they're much
easier to cancel in California. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk
to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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