Subscription Skeletons: What's $3.99 A Month, Anyway?

 In the lead-up to Halloween I'm sharing some spo0o0o0oky subscription nightmares.

Subscription services are nothing new. When I was young, there was a subscription service where if you filled out a postcard you could get 15 CDs (we used to play music on them!) for $0.15. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Of course, it was!

The catch was they'd continue to send you five CDs every month with no clear way to cancel. And the bills came fast and large.

It was the original subscription creep.

But the model has changed a bit. Now it's 'un-noticable', relatively small monthly charges, seamless auto-renew and the promise of convenience.

Now for some creepy scary bone bone-chilling subscription service nightmare stories...

One cold, dark January night, a frazzled young professional downloaded a "Focus" app, promising clarity and peace of mind. A harmless 7-day free trial turned into a year-long silent money-sucking nightmare as it auto-renewed over, and over, and over again. Victims sleep by a dusty, third-page phone folder, it fed on the promise of productivity... growing stronger with every forgotten $9.99.

Moral: Beware of the silent subscriptions.

Bill and Lila settled in to watch the latest episode of Nobody Wants This on Netflix last Sunday night when the lights flickered. They'd only lost power temporarily, but it wasn't their Smart TV. Lila cuddled closer to Bill as the chill, sunken eyes, watching them, whispered, "Oh, just use my subscription." He froze. "Your subscription?" They stared at each other in dawning horror as they realized they'd been paying for two Netflix subscriptions for years.

Moral: Talk about your subscriptions before they haunt your bank account.

Terrorized by "Free trial to Full Price", a recent college grad signed up for a LinkedIn Premium free trial. It was free! After 30 days, it converted to a $30 monthly fee, and after landing a job, he stopped using LinkedIn altogether until years later.

BOO!

Moral: Spending $360 per year unnecessarily is a fright!