> Recently I encountered a new service called Cushion […] They are pushing a 14-day trial, but halfway through the signup process, they ask for credit card deta

> Recently I encountered a new service called Cushion […] They are pushing a 14-day trial, but halfway through the signup process, they ask for credit card details. This is a show-stopper for me, and I’m willing to bet that their drop-off rate here is huge. They are throwing money away. Well, that's an opinion... maybe they’re actually converting x2 times more... http://planscope.io/blog/why-im-going-back-to-capturing-credit-cards-upfront/ http://planscope.io/blog/why-im-going-back-to-capturing-cred... I guess until you A/B test it you never know! Requiring credit card upfront is not a "Dark Pattern", it's a business decision, and a very effective measure for abuse prevention (among many other things). Maybe it doesn't work for all the businesses, but for others (like Amazon with its Free Tier or the above example) it looks like works wonders!