Subscription Traps and Recurring Payments
Free trials that quietly became paid plans, cancellations the company says it never received, and payments that keep coming after you cancelled.
Your bank
Can cancel without the merchant
14 days
Usual distance-selling cancellation right
Aggregated
Small charges claimed together
What this service is, and what it is not
Continuous payment authority is the arrangement that lets a company take money from your card repeatedly. It is different from a direct debit, and the difference matters: there is no Direct Debit Guarantee behind it, so the protections are less well known.
What most people do not know is that you can cancel a continuous payment authority by telling your bank, and the bank must stop it. It cannot require you to contact the merchant first, and if it takes further payments after you have asked it to stop, it must refund them. That is the FCA's position and the Ombudsman applies it consistently.
The pattern we see most often is the free trial that converts silently. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, a trader must give you clear pre-contract information before you are bound, and where a contract is concluded at a distance you generally have 14 days to cancel. Where that information was buried, absent or misleading, the payments that followed are recoverable.
These are often modest sums that have run for a long time, which is exactly why they go unchallenged. A $14.99 monthly charge running for three years is $540. We take these on because the aggregate is worth recovering and because the same trader is usually doing it to thousands of people.
Business challenges this addresses
Cancellation the company denies receiving
In-app cancellations that leave no confirmation are the usual battleground. Bank records of the instruction to stop payments are often stronger evidence than anything the trader holds.
The bank says to contact the merchant
It does not get to say that. A bank must act on an instruction to cancel a continuous payment authority regardless of your dispute with the trader.
The trial terms were technically disclosed
Disclosure has to be clear and prominent before you are bound, not buried in terms behind a link. That is a legal standard, not a matter of opinion.
Payments spread over years
Long-running small charges feel too small to fight individually. Claimed together, with the cancellation history, they usually are not.
How we deliver it
Every stage has a named owner on our side and a defined output. You always know what is happening and what comes next.
Typical duration: Most cases resolve in 6–10 weeks
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Free assessment
Send us the statement entries and anything you have about signing up and cancelling. We work out what is recoverable and by which route.
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Stop the bleeding
Before anything else, we make sure the authority is cancelled with your bank so no further payments are taken while the claim runs.
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Reconstruct the history
We build the full payment timeline, the sign-up terms as they were presented, and the record of your cancellation.
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Claim
Against the bank for payments taken after cancellation, and against the trader by chargeback for payments taken without proper disclosure.
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Escalation
Refusals go to the Financial Ombudsman, which takes a consistent line on continuous payment authority.
What you receive
- Immediate action to stop further payments while the claim runs
- A complete payment timeline reconstructed from your statements
- Evidence of how the sign-up terms were actually presented
- Claims against the bank and the trader as appropriate
- Ombudsman referral if refused
- Practical guidance on spotting the same pattern in your other accounts
What changes afterwards
The payments stop first
Cancelling the authority comes before the claim, so the loss stops growing while we work.
Years of small charges recovered together
Individually not worth the effort. Together, frequently a four-figure recovery.
The bank's obligation is clear
Payments taken after you told your bank to stop are the bank's liability. That is a strong, well-established position.
Claims of this kind we have run
$1,730 recovered from a subscription cancelled three years earlier
He cancelled in the app and received no confirmation. Payments continued for thirty-eight months. The bank's own record of a phone call turned out to be stronger evidence than anything…
- Recovered including interest
- $1,730 Recovered including interest
- Payments had been running
- 38 months Payments had been running
- To resolution
- 5 weeks To resolution
Frequently asked
Yes. You can instruct your bank to cancel a continuous payment authority and it must act. It is good practice to tell the company too, but you are not required to sort it out with them first.
It depends on the basis. Payments taken after a cancellation instruction are recoverable from that date. Where the sign-up itself was non-compliant, the claim can reach further back. Send the statements and we will tell you.
Often yes, once they are added up. If the total is too small to justify our fee, we will tell you that and point you at doing it yourself for free.
Chargeback still works, because it operates through the card schemes rather than the courts. That is one of its main advantages over suing.
Services that pair with this one
Gym, Telecoms and Rolling Contracts
Minimum terms that auto-renewed, cancellations that were never actioned, and exit fees for a service that stopped working.
Duplicate and Incorrect Charges
Charged twice, charged the wrong amount, or charged in the wrong currency at a rate you never agreed.
Unauthorised Card Transactions
Payments you did not make and did not approve. The law puts the burden on your bank to prove otherwise, and most people do…