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One thing I appreciate about apple is that when you subscribe to services through them and immediately cancel you are allowed to retain the service for the rema

One thing I appreciate about apple is that when you subscribe to services through them and immediately cancel you are allowed to retain the service for the remainder of the period. I now will utilize that heavily; I am okay with paying $4 or whatever for 1 month of an app I will use for a bit knowing I can cancel it right now and it will just stop working when my time is up. If I need more, I can buy more. I think amazon does it as well at least with network video subscriptions. Although in true apple fashion this does not apply to their own services trial periods as far as I’ve tried. If you pay for a month of Apple Music and cancel within the free week they’ll just turn it off immediately and never charge you. Not sure if they do that during the actual month So now I refuse to subscribe to anything unless there’s an intermediary that will allow me to quickly and painlessly cancel. iCloud subscriptions or Amazon account will let me do it with a button click. Whereas in my experience canceling directly with the company in question is often a nightmare

esskay 3y ago
Can confirm that if you get say one of the widely available 2 or 3 month Apple TV trials you can cancel it immediately and it doesn't end early. I'm going on 2 years without ever having to pay for it as someone always has codes to keep it going. UK here though so YMMV.
- bgirard 3y ago
  Their news services cancels immediately. I think their Arcade as well. Feels kind of like an abuse of their platform to use pro-consumer subscription terms for 3rd party services but not for your own services.
- flutas 3y ago
  Eventually you'll run into a "you've used too meany of these codes" error unfortunately.
  - fmajid 3y ago
    Be careful, Google cancels all your services if there’s any issue, and if you’re an Android user that makes your phone effectively a paperweight. I don’t think Apple is that bad but I shudder to think of all the dependencies I have on my Apple ID, and how easy it would be to hijack even if you have Yubikeys set on it because they still allow insecure SMS-based password resets vulnerable to SIM-swapping attacks.
leksak 3y ago
Another approach that I also use is to utilizes an empty Revolut card. Can't be charged money that's not there.
- gnopgnip 3y ago
  Cancelling the payment doesn't cancel the service or the debt
  - leksak 3y ago
    I've tried this with free trial stuff mainly. So, once the trial ends they attempt to withdraw money and they can't so I don't get the service. I have no indication that any service thus far had viewed it as me having an outstanding debt. YMMV
janalsncm 3y ago
It’s the same for Audible subscriptions, you get 2 free books and can even keep them if you cancel.
- whatwhaaaaat 3y ago
  Unless this very recently changed this is not true. Those credits expire. They will give them back if you hit up support but otherwise they poof.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    You're both right. You have to use the credits before cancelling, but if you do use them, you get to keep the books.
    - bryanlarsen 3y ago
      Which is exactly the situation I'm in. I want to cancel audible, but want to use up my credits first, so it keeps rolling over. Anybody have 6 suggestions for audiobooks?
      - freedomben 3y ago
        what type of books do you like?
      - sjpalmer1994 3y ago
        I would recommend the Audible audiobook of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which I think I first saw recommended also on hackernews. Usually I listen to audio books at 1.5x speed but I have been really enjoying the narrator of this series and listened to this and the sequels at 1x speed.
FooBarWidget 3y ago
I just wish their Apple ID interface is faster though. It seems to be a Webview and takes forever to load and update. Last time when I clicked on cancel on a subscription, it appeared to do nothing for 10 seconds, until the subscription information suddenly updates to show that it's indeed cancelled. I imagine people who aren't quite as patient as me, or who think that the Apple ID screen is stuck, will click on things in a rage and perhaps even wrecking things. Heck, even trying to pay for something takes forever. I clicked on an in-app purchase button and then it showed a spinner for 30s before the Apple "touch your finger here to confirm purchase" screen appears. After confirming, nothing seems to happen until a minute later.
- Terretta 3y ago
  "Forever" relative to how you cancel a subscription to anything that's not in the AppleID Subscriptions manager? > Heck, even trying to pay for something takes forever. I clicked on an in-app purchase button and then it showed a spinner for 30s before the Apple "touch your finger here to confirm purchase" screen appears. After confirming, nothing seems to happen until a minute later. That's not normal for most Internet connections and devices.

esskay 3y ago

Can confirm that if you get say one of the widely available 2 or 3 month Apple TV trials you can cancel it immediately and it doesn't end early. I'm going on 2 years without ever having to pay for it as someone always has codes to keep it going. UK here though so YMMV.

bgirard 3y ago
Their news services cancels immediately. I think their Arcade as well. Feels kind of like an abuse of their platform to use pro-consumer subscription terms for 3rd party services but not for your own services.
flutas 3y ago
Eventually you'll run into a "you've used too meany of these codes" error unfortunately.
- fmajid 3y ago
  Be careful, Google cancels all your services if there’s any issue, and if you’re an Android user that makes your phone effectively a paperweight. I don’t think Apple is that bad but I shudder to think of all the dependencies I have on my Apple ID, and how easy it would be to hijack even if you have Yubikeys set on it because they still allow insecure SMS-based password resets vulnerable to SIM-swapping attacks.

leksak 3y ago

Another approach that I also use is to utilizes an empty Revolut card. Can't be charged money that's not there.

gnopgnip 3y ago
Cancelling the payment doesn't cancel the service or the debt
- leksak 3y ago
  I've tried this with free trial stuff mainly. So, once the trial ends they attempt to withdraw money and they can't so I don't get the service. I have no indication that any service thus far had viewed it as me having an outstanding debt. YMMV

janalsncm 3y ago

It’s the same for Audible subscriptions, you get 2 free books and can even keep them if you cancel.

whatwhaaaaat 3y ago
Unless this very recently changed this is not true. Those credits expire. They will give them back if you hit up support but otherwise they poof.
- freedomben 3y ago
  You're both right. You have to use the credits before cancelling, but if you do use them, you get to keep the books.
  - bryanlarsen 3y ago
    Which is exactly the situation I'm in. I want to cancel audible, but want to use up my credits first, so it keeps rolling over. Anybody have 6 suggestions for audiobooks?
    - freedomben 3y ago
      what type of books do you like?
    - sjpalmer1994 3y ago
      I would recommend the Audible audiobook of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which I think I first saw recommended also on hackernews. Usually I listen to audio books at 1.5x speed but I have been really enjoying the narrator of this series and listened to this and the sequels at 1x speed.

FooBarWidget 3y ago

I just wish their Apple ID interface is faster though. It seems to be a Webview and takes forever to load and update. Last time when I clicked on cancel on a subscription, it appeared to do nothing for 10 seconds, until the subscription information suddenly updates to show that it's indeed cancelled. I imagine people who aren't quite as patient as me, or who think that the Apple ID screen is stuck, will click on things in a rage and perhaps even wrecking things. Heck, even trying to pay for something takes forever. I clicked on an in-app purchase button and then it showed a spinner for 30s before the Apple "touch your finger here to confirm purchase" screen appears. After confirming, nothing seems to happen until a minute later.

Terretta 3y ago
"Forever" relative to how you cancel a subscription to anything that's not in the AppleID Subscriptions manager? > Heck, even trying to pay for something takes forever. I clicked on an in-app purchase button and then it showed a spinner for 30s before the Apple "touch your finger here to confirm purchase" screen appears. After confirming, nothing seems to happen until a minute later. That's not normal for most Internet connections and devices.