Once pitfall is you should never attach a credit card to a service you do this with. Back when I was a student and I re-instated my Chegg subscription with a credit card to study for finals and they immediately back-charged me for the time in between. This was despite being pretty certain I also cancelled from their website, and 100% certain that they had cut off my service for that time period, otherwise I wouldn't have been prompted to renew my subscription.
After a long phone conversation I learned companies don't care about well-reasoned arguments, but they'll flinch at the first mention of a charge back.
-- Provide easy and simple cancellation to the consumer. Marketers should provide cancellation mechanisms that are at least as easy to use as the method the consumer used to buy the product or service in the first place. --
Perhaps that's why the WSJ signup process is so complex? /s
I have an NYT subscription and I have done multiple sub-unsub cycles before so I'm so accustomed to go through this kind of BS, but yeah they can be better.
The screenshot doesn't say that. It says you can cancel at any time and doesn't specify what the method of cancellation is. If you have been alive on earth long enough to have obtained a paid newspaper subscription, you know how this works.
This is an industry standard and it won't change because there isn't a better substitute that offers instant online cancellation.