Free is good. Actually, sometimes free can be great!
And sometimes, free can be expensive.
By this, I mean free trials of different products or services. What I’ve seen, these often tend to be in the form of a subscription-type of format, where you either:
- Pay up front but have the option to cancel and get a refund within a certain time frame
- Get a cost-free trial period, and then get locked into payments
I have recently had this happen with my own finances. Generally I avoid such “deals” because of a variety of reasons – and I’ll touch on a few of them later. But in this case, against my usual approach, I recently decided to give a free trial a try.
The free trial was a for an upgraded, “Premium” LinkedIn account. Now, I have to say up front that I have found LinkedIn to be a useful tool for helping out with one’s career – and it’s worth a separate post on why. What’s most pertinent in this case is that I thought that by upgrading to a premium account, it would help me give some additional, useful information as well as a few other features.
And besides, I could try it out first before committing to a subscription. Kind of like dating : )
Well, lo and behold, I did sign up and get access to some additional features. However, I then almost started to forget that I had this premium-level account. Frankly, it occurred to me that I’m probably not getting the most out of this upgrade, which is costing me $30 per month.
This means that at this point, I’ve spent about $60 on something that I haven’t fully used. The decision I need to quickly make is this: will I make better use of the features (assuming they truly could be worth it to me), or should I cancel altogether. It’s a month-to-month commitment as it is.
Regardless, this exact scenario is why I generally have avoided such free trials in the first place. It’s free for a while and that sounds great, but you then forget about it. The payments then start to happen sooner than you expect, unless you’re very careful. The next thing you know, you’ve spent money that you could have used for other things. Opportunity cost is often real!
My approach toward these free trials has been – and will again be – as follows:
- If it’s not something that already find to be a clear value for the regular monthly price, I shouldn’t buy it. The value should be clear, and shouldn’t require a trial.
- In the rare event that I do deviate, the subscription should be month-to-month, AND I should set up an alarm or reminder well in advance of the cancellation deadline. At that point, a clear go/no-go decision should be made.
In this case, since I didn’t, follow my usual approach, free became expensive. But it’s an isolated episode : ) Really, all it takes is following a few basic principles to ensure that free stays free!
My Questions for You
What are your thoughts on “free” trials?
Have you ever had something go from “free” to expensive, or simply go against your normal approach with spending?
I generally avoid these like the plague. They count on you to forget all about it. I just don’t think it’s worth it. Good that you learned the lesson, though it cost you a bit.
I actually knew better, but somehow let myself get pulled into this one. My thinking was that this is potentially good for income, so that it could pay for itself. I’ll most likely cancel.
I hate free trials because it means I need to monitor it to avoid the charge. I used Amazon Prime for the free trial period and needed to keep a note to cancel it. I will only use these free trials if it benefits me enough to go through the extra effort to monitor it.
You bring up a good point, and it’s one that I’ve been thinking about. The effort involved is like an “expense” of a different kind, in that it represents time – which has value in its own right.
I’m very hesitant with free trials. I only sign up for things that I want to buy, but need to confirm I’m getting a lot of value from their service.
Totally makes sense!
I try to avoid the free trials unless I think there is a high likelihood I will subscribe (Netflix for example) People forget. It is the reason those buy now – pay later schemes are so profitable for lenders.
Good point, and I agree that it’s best to do them only when you think you would subscribe anyway.
I always love the sales pitch of “you can just go home and cancel it”, because they know you most likely won’t.
I did have the LinkedIn Premium account, and honestly, for job searching, the added features were worth something (though maybe not $30/month). It let me search jobs based on estimated pay (so I actually got to see jobs that I might want to apply for, instead of 40 pages of grocery store clerk positions), and allowed me to reach out to people I didn’t have a connection with via their InMail system, which I used to contact a couple start-up companies I was interested in.
However, there came a point where I realized I wasn’t using those features anymore (this point was about 3 weeks before I got my job offer), so I cancelled the subscription.
Sometimes I think I should have a list of all the subscriptions I have (regardless of whether they started “free” or not) with the costs and terms and when they renew, and then set myself reminders to review whether or not I am using those subscriptions BEFORE I get the email telling me they auto-renewed me.
Good to hear from you. Glad you got some value out of LinkedIn Premium for a while, and were aware of when this value ended so you could cancel. I think the InMail aspect can be quite valuable, though I haven’t really taken advantage of it to the extent that it justifies the cost.
I have done a few free trials. I did the linkedin one as well, but cancelled it. I know eventually they will offer it to me again. Really they are just trying to trick people in to forgetting. Just like an introductory rate for credit cards. They reel you in and then try to get you later on.
People do forget, no question. Another reason why it’s important to check credit card bills every month!
I don’t believe I have ever opted in for a trail that has ever added value, so to avoid being charged extra money for something that I’m not using or doesn’t add anything extra I avoid them now. I have been tempted to opt in for the “Premium” LinkedIn account, but haven’t so far. Did it add any value for you?
For me, it hasn’t added enough value to justify the cost. There have been a few nice things about it in terms of additional information, but I think a real value-add for people might be the inmail factor – which I haven’t utilized to a great extent to this point.
We’re in a similar situation. We decided to give Hulu plus a try. We barely use it and are just paying $7 or so every month for something we don’t use. We always talk about cancelling it but never remember when we’re in front of a computer. I guess we could use our phones…
There’s probably some dollar threshold with each of us where we just forget to take action. $7 as a recurring payment might be easy to forget, but overpaying for something right in front of us, by $7, is probably much different!
I avoid anything “free” if they make you sign up with a credit card: there’s only one reason to do that, and they know you’ll forget to cancel before the billing date comes around.
It’s so easy to forget. I’m hoping that by blogging about this, it will get each of us to take a look at subscription/recurring payments to make sure we’re not spending frivolously.