When Sarah Pekkanen let her son sign up for a free trial of an online educational subscription, she figured she would cancel it before charges began and in the meantime, her son, now 12, would learn maths. But she forgot to cancel it and soon the charges started piling up.
“I paid for something that we never used,” says Ms Pekkanen, a novelist from Maryland in the US. When she eventually noticed the charges and tried to cancel, it ended up taking a couple of hours over several days.
With the rising popularity of subscriptions for streaming services, monthly product boxes and more, Ms Pekkanen’s experience is increasingly common.
UBS Group, a financial services company, predicts the subscription economy aimed at consumers and businesses will have an 18 per cent growth rate and be one of the world’s fastest-growing industries by 2025.
Many subscriptions are automatically renewed, which means consumers can waste hundreds of dollars a year on products or services they are barely using.
Try a subscription detox
To put a stop to that kind of waste, consider a subscription detox: eliminate every subscription from your budget as soon as you are able to so you can determine what you truly miss.
“When you cut out all of them, then you can pick and choose what you add back in,” says Allison Baggerly, founder of the money saving website Inspired Budget. She also suggests giving yourself time to be subscription-free before signing back up for anything.
Zina Kumok, a certified financial health counsellor and money coach, prefers to conduct that kind of financial spring cleaning once a quarter.
“The best way to combat inertia around auto-renew is to build awareness around what you are actually using and enjoying,” she says. Ms Kumok signed up for a make-up subscription but then realised she barely used the products, so she cancelled it.
It is also worth calculating what monthly subscriptions are costing you each year because it adds up: a $10-a-month subscription might not sound like much but you might rather have an extra $120 in your bank account at the end of the year instead.
A less radical approach can also work
If a total detox sounds too extreme, then you can try a more gradual method: carefully review every subscription you currently have and cull the ones you no longer want.
“Go through your card statements and figure out how much you are actually spending,” says Delia Fernandez, a certified financial planner in California. She also suggests looking up your subscriptions on the app store on your phone and, if you are an Amazon customer, looking for subscriptions such as Audible or Amazon Music.
The next step, she says, is to manually check each subscription to figure out when it auto-renews and how much it costs, then cancel it if you do not want it any more. Some apps, such as Truebill and TrackMySubs, will do that work for you but they often come with a fee, Ms Fernandez says.
Go through your card statements and figure out how much you’re actually spending. Look up your subscriptions on the app store on your phone
Delia Fernandez,
certified financial planner
Letting go of a subscription can be especially difficult when it is tied to the way you see yourself, such as a fitness-related subscription, says Bobbi Rebell, host of the Money tips for financial grownups podcast.
“You want to be the person who uses them, so you don’t want to cancel them. It is an admission of failure,” she says. To combat that tendency, she suggests cancelling those subscriptions that you have not used in the past month, then adding them back sparingly.
Be careful when signing up for free trials
“Have a high standard for when you are signing up for a free trial,” Ms Baggerly says, and be sure to put a note on your calendar ahead of the auto-renew date so you have time to cancel.
Remembering to cancel can be especially challenging with annual subscriptions, since the renewal date is so far in the future.
Ms Baggerly signed up for a geocaching app that her family used a handful of times, then forgot to cancel, only to be surprised by the renewal charge a year later. If you just miss the cut-off, she suggests calling and asking for a refund, which many companies will provide.
Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, says that as companies become more sophisticated in their marketing around subscriptions, many are using what is called a “negative option”, where the consumer will be charged a recurring fee unless they specifically opt out.
As a result, many consumers might not realise they are signing up for a subscription at all. If you use a credit card, he says, you can also enlist the support of your card issuer by disputing a charge if you did not agree to it.
As for Ms Pekkanen, while she eventually cancelled her educational subscription, she says she learnt her lesson: now, she is "really wary of free trials”.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
Britain's travel restrictions
- A negative test 2 days before flying
- Complete passenger locator form
- Book a post-arrival PCR test
- Double-vaccinated must self-isolate
- 11 countries on red list quarantine
Results
2pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m, Winner: AF Thayer, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer).
2.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: AF Sahwa, Nathan Crosse, Mohamed Ramadan.
3pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,000m, Winner: AF Thobor, Szczepan Mazur, Ernst Oertel.
3.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 2,000m, Winner: AF Mezmar, Szczepan Mazur, Ernst Oertel.
4pm: Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup presented by Longines (TB) Dh 200,000 (D) 1,700m, Winner: Galvanize, Nathan Cross, Doug Watson.
4.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,700m, Winner: Ajaj, Bernardo Pinheiro, Mohamed Daggash.
HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards, often by claiming their phone has been lost or stolen
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
2021 World Triathlon Championship Series
May 15: Yokohama, Japan
June 5: Leeds, UK
June 24: Montreal, Canada
July 10: Hamburg, Germany
Aug 17-22: Edmonton, Canada (World Triathlon Championship Final)
Nov 5-6 : Abu Dhabi, UAE
Date TBC: Chengdu, China
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.
It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.
There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.
In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.
It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl, 48V hybrid
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 450Nm
Price: Dh359,000
On sale: now
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The bio
Who inspires you?
I am in awe of the remarkable women in the Arab region, both big and small, pushing boundaries and becoming role models for generations. Emily Nasrallah was a writer, journalist, teacher and women’s rights activist
How do you relax?
Yoga relaxes me and helps me relieve tension, especially now when we’re practically chained to laptops and desks. I enjoy learning more about music and the history of famous music bands and genres.
What is favourite book?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - I think I've read it more than 7 times
What is your favourite Arabic film?
Hala2 Lawen (Translation: Where Do We Go Now?) by Nadine Labaki
What is favourite English film?
Mamma Mia
Best piece of advice to someone looking for a career at Google?
If you’re interested in a career at Google, deep dive into the different career paths and pinpoint the space you want to join. When you know your space, you’re likely to identify the skills you need to develop.
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Manchester United v Club America
When: Thursday, 9pm Arizona time (Friday UAE, 8am)
