Ah, the free trial. I don’t know about you, but I am a sucker for a good free trial.

But you know the problem with the free trial? No one ever calls to tell me, “hey your free trial is ending and your credit card will now be charged for 3-years worth of our service, all up-front”..AH!!!.

So it’s easy to forget, but then you’re charged, and then it’s a hassle just to get a refund, that is...if you’re not stuck paying. And that’s if you even noticed it in the first place.

Who knows, I probably have some free trial that I signed up for 12 years ago that I’m still paying for...let’s hope not.

Here’s the easy-to-implement tip on making sure free trials don’t turn into paid subscriptions: Mark your calendar.

I recently hired a nanny for my kids, and I used one of those caregiver matchmaker services to find a nanny. In order to use the service, I had to sign up for the paid option, which automatically renews every 3 months. If I don’t cancel my subscription by April, I’ll be paying for another 3 months of something that I no longer need.

This service and millions of other trial period service offerings like it are counting on the fact that I’m probably not going to keep tabs on this, and that I won’t cancel before the renewal.

So, to ensure that I don’t get charged, I marked my calendar for a couple weeks before the renewal date. If you get in the habit of noting the expiration date of the trial period on your calendar each time you sign up for a free trial or an introductory period, you won’t forget to cancel those subscriptions that you no longer use or want.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, budgeting, personal budget, kaizen, subscription boxes, subscription services, free trial