If you need to give you Credit Card info for a "free" anything, it's pretty much guaranteed to be one these scams.
this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
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You gave your bank details and didn't see a fee coming?
40+ years and people are still stupid enough to fall for the ol' Columbia House scam.
A free trial that asks for credit card information is not free.
However, if you have a prepaid card around that has like $1 left on it, that's great to use to sign up for 'free' trials.
What if we lobbied to change this so they legally can only ask for the payment info in the last 1-3 days of the trial? 🤔
I won't accept any free trial that needs my card info. Especially as someone who suffers from ADHD; I'll never remember to cancel before the trial runs out.
Heck, I hate it when the free version of a program forces a trial membership that gives you access to advanced (paid) settings, then guts all your settings when the trial runs out. You're not gonna trick me into spending money to get the advanced settings back! I downloaded the free version for a reason!
I'll never remember to cancel before the trial runs out.
Yeah, they're counting on that for their whole business model. It's intentionally predatory.
Yeah, this is one of these things that's simply solved by people not giving their credit card data to random strangers who offer them something "for free" in exchange for it.
I mean, if one has managed to survive one's childhood without getting into the cars of strangers in exchange for candy, it shouldn't be that hard to, in one's supposed adult years, not give access to one's bank account via a credit card to strangers offering you free shit.
Just because the "stranger" is behind a company mask doesn't make them any more trustworthy. One could even say it makes them less trustworthy, since the actual people doing the fishy stuff behind a company mask are far less likely to suffer any personal consequences from it than if they did it directly as individuals.
This is why I always put a reminder in my phone calender... For everything. Always.
Often you're able to cancel it right away and still enjoy the entire free trial period. At least that used to be possible on some of those services offering free trials, I haven't used any for years.
Sometimes, you can cancel it immediately after signing up and still maintain the free trial without being charged. Sometimes.
I still would rather not give them my info. Amazon fucked it up for everyone with how they would continue to try and charge me multiple times after cancelling service (which was already fucking super difficult to do).
No, we need to be able to charge a subscription fee to our data. That's the fucking answer no one's brought up.
30 free trial? Oh you want my CC info? Yes, sure. That'll be $3.99/mo for my CC data, cookies collected for this transaction, PII, etc. I'll need indisputable proof that you and nobody else are no longer using it in order to stop charging you.
It's not a free trial when they ask for cc. It comes with strings attached.
This shit should be illegal.
I’ve downloaded a few apps that offer free trials and then it’s $15 per WEEK after. I think they are hoping people just don’t notice or something. That shit should be illegal.
That's a full Cable TV service price!
Use a virtual card with limits on it.
Some sites let you subscribe and then cancel your subscription right away, but still keep the rest of the trial period.
Worst case set yourself a future reminder to cancel the service before the trial period ends.
Privacy.com's virtual credit cards are pretty great for this. Sign up, pause or one time for the card, and then you don't have to worry about it. I am sure there are other websites that offer similar services.
A lot of credit card providers do this.
Sure, they do virtual credit cards, but I haven't seen credit card companies that do it quite like Privacy does. It's super simple to make individual cards for different 'bills', then pause them or get rid of the card as needed. And you don't even need to use your actual name or information on these virtual cards, so the merchant doesn't get your information.
That sounds cool, I'll have to check it out. It also seems like it would be much more convenient to have them all manageable in one place.
always using an empty virtual card, and watch them send "ooh your card declined :(" emails
Just use a virtual card from privacy.com or the like
Yeah, one time use card is great for things like this. And since you can use any zip code or any information, you can avoid certain additional costs as well.
Can you vouch for this site? I heard of them a long time ago and they're still around which is a good sign. But I still feel wary around a site with a generic name like "privacy dot com" and doubly wary giving out payment information.
I've used them a bunch of times over the past few years. I prefer using their virtual cards over using my actual CC for websites I feel sketchy giving my payment information to.
If you use them, I would recommend making use of the additional options on their virtual cards like a low transaction limit to increase safety.
Has no one ever heard of reminders that you can set on your phone?
That's assuming their cancellation system actually works, though...
I’ve never had a scenario where I wasn’t able to cancel before they started charging me. But that’s just me.
I assure you that it's working exactly as intended.
Damn you guitar tabs enshittified app version
I fell for that one just recently, too
Why not just use browser?