The best and worst companies to cancel a subscription with

We’ve all been there – spending hours trying to figure out how to cancel a subscription that took just seconds to begin.

Common irritations around subscription services include being required to provide credit card details for “free” trials, difficulty in identifying how to cancel, answering multiple questions to leave and nagging emails after unsubscribing.

Amazon makes it too hard to cancel an Audible account, a report says.Credit: AP

It doesn’t have to be this way. A new report has strengthened calls for the introduction of an unfair-trading prohibition into Australia’s consumer law to ensure opting out of subscriptions is as easy as opting in.

The Consumer Policy Research Centre has also called on businesses to stop any practice that relies on tricking customers or makes money through customer inertia or forgetfulness.

“What we need to see is businesses treating consumers’ choice with respect and implementing it,” said Chandni Gupta, the think tank’s deputy CEO. “And our research has shown that 90 per cent of consumers would actually be happy to re-engage with a business if the subscription process was easy to leave.”

Gupta’s survey of 1000 Australians found they were frustrated by having to “navigate a really complex process just to extract yourself from something you no longer need or want”.

“Consumers were saying that having to cancel a subscription on a different platform to where they signed up to, that was frustrating,” she said. “And of course, once you have been able to extract yourself out of the subscription process, you may still be defaulted into receiving communication.”

The cost-of-living crisis has caused households to tighten their belts, including in relation to subscriptions. A survey by ING Australia found a quarter of Australians said they were not across all their scheduled monthly payments and took nine months on average to cancel payments for unused services.

The report found that groups with unsatisfactory subscription cancellation processes include food subscription business HelloFresh, podcast and audio business Amazon Audible, networking site LinkedIn, software business Adobe and UNICEF Australia’s Paddington Postcard program.

A spokesperson for UNICEF Australia said: “Like many organisations, we ask donors to contact us directly in the event they wish to cancel their subscription.”

But the report praised streaming giant Netflix for its clear “cancel membership” button; language and dictionary tool SpanishDict, which provides one link to unsubscribe; and charity World Vision, which does not automatically renew yearly sponsorships.

It said subscription best practices included using the same platform to sign up and cancel, offering discounts or reduced rates upfront rather than at cancellation, and not hiding the “cancel” button.

Gupta said Europe, the UK, India and the US had made strides in improving subscription processes, but Australia lagged.

The competition watchdog said that before consumers agree to a subscription contract, businesses must provide clear and accurate information about any automatic renewal of a contract, consumers’ ability to cancel a contract, and any cancellation fees that might apply and when.

An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission spokesperson said it supported covering unfair trading practices under the Australian Consumer Law.

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