Are there often legal issues around not paying for services with annoying contracts? In the US it is not super uncommon to pay after consuming (this is how electricity typically works for example) or for services to offer some grace period where they'll keep providing service with the expectation that you'll pay back later. Hypothetically these companies could I guess sue you if you don't pay back later (I'm not sure actually -- more likely I guess they'd send it to collections). But if the default way to cancel a service was to just stop paying for it, then I guess companies would change how they billed (fundamentally I think paying beforehand would be more convenient for most consumers).

For subscriptions like newspapers, I think it is reasonable to expect a grace period equal to at most the billing period.

But stuff like this should be enshrined in law. See also AWS billing nightmares.

I accidentally dinged myself with a couple hundred dollar AWS bill -- surely nothing nightmarish compared to what others have gotten, but it sure was annoying.