Cancelled your subscription but still being charged? What to do

A charge taken after you cancelled is the strongest case for getting your money back. Find your proof of cancellation with a date, write to the company once more, and if it stays silent, ask your bank or card company to stop further payments and dispute the charge. Here is what to gather and where to go.

This happened to the wife of the person who runs this site. She signed up for an “AI English tutor” through one of these websites, cancelled, and the charges kept coming. E-mails to support went nowhere. What worked was blocking the card and going to the bank. That is why this article is about what to do when “unsubscribe” did not work.

Why you are still being charged after cancelling

  • The cancellation never finished. The site showed a few “stay, here is a discount” screens and the last “Yes, cancel” button was never pressed. That is the cancel maze.
  • You cancelled in the wrong place. A subscription bought on a website does not show in your iPhone or Google Play subscriptions, and the other way round. Check where you actually paid: how to cancel a subscription bought on a website.
  • There are two subscriptions. After you paid, the site offered “one more plan” or “a bonus book for $1”, and that is a separate subscription with its own charge.
  • You cancelled after the billing date. The company will treat that charge as valid, but there should be no further ones.
  • The company simply did not stop. It happens. Then your bank sorts it out.

What to do now

  1. Find your proof of cancellation. The “your subscription has been cancelled” e-mail, a dated screenshot, a chat with support. If you have none, log in to the company’s site and cancel again, this time with a screenshot of every screen.
  2. List every charge from this company: date, amount, currency, the name on the statement. Mark which ones came after you cancelled.
  3. Write to the company once more, briefly and with dates: “I cancelled on [date]. On [date] you charged [amount]. Please refund it and confirm in writing that the subscription is closed.” Ready-to-copy letter. Give them 7 days.
  4. Ask your bank to stop further payments. Tell your bank you have cancelled and no longer allow this company to charge you, and ask it to block further payments to it. In many countries the bank must do this even if you have not reached the business. Details: how to stop a company charging your card.
  5. Dispute the charge with your bank or card company, online, by phone or in writing. Attach the proof of cancellation, the correspondence and the statement lines. How to dispute a card charge with your bank.

Blocking the card stops the charges but does not end the subscription: the company may keep saying you owe it money. So the cancellation and the letter are still needed, even after you have blocked the card.

What your bank will ask for

Your bank sends the dispute through Visa or Mastercard, and the people reading it look at documents, not feelings. You will usually need:

  • Proof of cancellation with date and time: an e-mail or a screenshot.
  • Your refund request to the company and its reply, or a screenshot showing there was none.
  • The statement line for each charge.
  • A screenshot of the page that showed the price and renewal terms, if you have one.
  • A short summary: “Started a trial on [date]. Cancelled on [date]. Charged [amount] on [date] after that.”

Do not wait. Card networks usually accept disputes for around 120 days from the charge, and your bank may have a shorter window. Consumer protection agencies give the same advice: keep a copy of your cancellation request and notes of every conversation, and dispute with your card company if a company keeps charging you after you cancelled.

What the rules say

Rules differ by country, but in many countries the law gives you the right to get back a payment you did not agree to, and a charge taken after you cancelled is often treated as one. Ask your bank what deadline applies to you. The steps above work almost everywhere. If the bank refuses, you can complain to the organisation that oversees banks in your country (usually the central or national bank, sometimes a financial ombudsman), for example the Financial Ombudsman Service in the UK or the CFPB in the US. More in “Bank refused my dispute: what next”.

If you paid through PayPal

Open the payment in PayPal and use “Report a problem” in the Resolution Center. According to PayPal, you have up to 180 days, and there is first a window to settle with the seller before PayPal steps in. In the same account, under payment settings, cancel the automatic payment to this company so no new charges go through. Check the current deadlines on paypal.com.

So the next cancellation sticks

Cancel in the same place you paid. Click through every screen to the very last button and screenshot each one. Wait for the confirmation e-mail; without it, treat the cancellation as not done. And before the next “$0.99 trial”, see how this trap is built: you can spot it before paying.

Common questions

I cancelled but never got a confirmation e-mail. Am I cancelled?

Not necessarily. Log in to the company’s site or check your phone’s subscriptions and look at the status. If it still says “active”, cancel again with screenshots and ask support to confirm in writing.

Will my bank refund a charge taken after I cancelled?

Your bank will review the dispute and send it through Visa or Mastercard. There is no guarantee, but a charge after a documented cancellation is one of the strongest cases. The key is dated proof of cancellation.

If I get a new card, will the charges definitely stop?

Usually, but not always: card networks can pass your new card number to some companies. Ask your bank whether that will happen, and cancel the subscription anyway.

The company says I “did not cancel properly”. What now?

Send them your dated proof of cancellation and ask for a written reply. Then attach both to your dispute: your bank decides on the documents.

This is general information, not legal advice. Bank and app store rules change and differ from country to country, so check the steps in your bank’s app or with their support.