March 23, 2024 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Auto Renew Subscriptions
March 23, 2024 at 10:37 am
Not Microsoft, but another big one. I bought a program, then another one, then another one from that company. That's OK; I thought it would be auto-renewed on three dates. Then, ta-da, surprise. These all renewed on the same date. Hang on a minute. Then, if I bought something for a year and another thing on another date for a year, would one year be shorter than the other year or longer?
However, auto-renewal is a good thing. I almost always forget every anniversary, and yes, the most important one...too. If auto-renewal did not exist (and calendars with alarm functions did not exist), I probably would be sitting now in a dark and cold house without internet, water, or a wife.
March 24, 2024 at 2:02 pm
I never thought of what you brought up in this article, until I read it. I've got auto renewal turned on for some website domains I own. The website registrar inundates me with emails, trying to get me to purchase new domains and other things. There's so much email that I've set up an Outlook rule to automatically move them to a folder. My intent is to review them at my convenience. But ultimately, I never look at them as I've got other, more pressing things to do.
Dang, this is an important issue! What with other subscriptions like streaming services, software licenses, etc. this is going to be harder and harder for all of us to keep an eye on. And I bet not even AI will help, because the vendors of such services will change their email approach significantly enough so any pattern matching will fail to work, over time.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
March 25, 2024 at 8:40 am
Auto-renewal is one of the reasons I avoid subscriptions. With auto-renewal, the onus is on you to remember, not them to remind you. I look for once-off payments or fixed-subscriptions (that is, without auto-renewal) instead. Life is not made easy though.
I am happy with the hassle of being reminded, or even, the inconvenience of being disconnected. I am not happy to learn that I have being paying for the last 6 years for a service that I wanted before the pandemic and then forgot about.
March 25, 2024 at 9:46 am
Something my wife taught me soon after we got hitched which works well for personal finances.
Don't track the emails coming in monitor the bank moneys going out. Its a drag and highly mundane and moneys that you can't explain need to be ruthlessly investigated but it is the best solution I have found and good at catching the oh damn I winked at the computer and now I'm on Amazon prime.
Of course only works if you have access to your detailed cash statements
For those at work chances are you either won't have access to bank statements or there will be too many transactions to monitor in which case I guess its create routines to monitor what you sign up to and then regularly review your personal lists. I guess we could all do with an app that allocates a responsible individual to every bank cost and then allows access by the relevant responsible individual to filtered bank statements. Probably doesn't exist!
March 25, 2024 at 9:49 am
... monitor the bank moneys going out...
This is a very good point. I used to be superb at it. Now I've let this good practice lapse.
March 25, 2024 at 2:47 pm
Auto-renewal is one of the reasons I avoid subscriptions. With auto-renewal, the onus is on you to remember, not them to remind you. I look for once-off payments or fixed-subscriptions (that is, without auto-renewal) instead. Life is not made easy though.
I am happy with the hassle of being reminded, or even, the inconvenience of being disconnected. I am not happy to learn that I have being paying for the last 6 years for a service that I wanted before the pandemic and then forgot about.
I think it depends on what it is. Scheduling stuff out, which is like auto-renew, is convenient and good, but that doesn't remove the onus to track things or pay attention. I think anything that auto-renews ought to have notifications with it. I have a dental plan that lets me know every month they're taking money out. It's slightly annoying, but I appreciate getting that. I wish NetFlix, et al would also do this.
March 25, 2024 at 3:10 pm
Something my wife taught me soon after we got hitched which works well for personal finances.
Don't track the emails coming in monitor the bank moneys going out. Its a drag and highly mundane and moneys that you can't explain need to be ruthlessly investigated but it is the best solution I have found and good at catching the oh damn I winked at the computer and now I'm on Amazon prime.
Of course only works if you have access to your detailed cash statements
For those at work chances are you either won't have access to bank statements or there will be too many transactions to monitor in which case I guess its create routines to monitor what you sign up to and then regularly review your personal lists. I guess we could all do with an app that allocates a responsible individual to every bank cost and then allows access by the relevant responsible individual to filtered bank statements. Probably doesn't exist!
I like that idea a lot!!!
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
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