Man's Subscription to App That Cancels Subscriptions Auto-Renews at Higher Rate
Trimly, which promises to "find and kill the charges you forgot about," has been billing Kyle Brandt $14.99 a month since 2024.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Kyle Brandt, 31, discovered Tuesday that Trimly, an app he downloaded in early 2024 to identify and cancel subscriptions he no longer used, had been charging him $14.99 a month for 30 months, and that the rate had increased to $17.99 in a notification he did not see because he had turned off notifications from Trimly.
"I opened it once," Brandt said. "It found a gym membership I'd forgotten and a streaming service I didn't recognize. It cancelled both. I felt great. Then I never opened it again, which I now realize was the plan."
According to Trimly's terms of service, the app's core cancellation feature is available during a seven-day trial, after which it converts to an annual "Peace of Mind" plan billed monthly. The app's own subscription does not appear in its list of detected subscriptions, a design decision the company describes as "avoiding a recursion issue."
Brandt said he attempted to cancel through the app and was directed to a page that asked whether he was sure, then offered 50 percent off, then asked him to complete a short survey, then displayed a message reading "Cancellation requests are processed within 30 days," at which point he was charged again.
The company, in a statement, said it takes customer feedback seriously and that "many users find that the value of Trimly becomes clear when they consider how many other subscriptions they would have if not for Trimly," a number the company estimates at "several."
Brandt said he has since downloaded a second app, which cancels the first app, and which he described as "free, for now."