Charged for a subscription you didn’t want? What to do right now

Checked: October 26, 2026

First, find out who is charging you and cancel where the subscription actually lives: in your phone’s settings or on the company’s website. Then ask the company for a refund in writing. If the charges keep coming or nobody answers, go to your bank or card company. Here is that order, step by step.

This happens to a lot of people, and there is nothing to be embarrassed about. A cheap trial that quietly turns into an expensive subscription is a common trick, built to catch you in a hurry. Your job right now is to stop the charges and collect proof. Everything else can wait a few days. The rules differ a little from country to country, but these steps work almost everywhere, and the organisations named below are only examples: look up the one in your country.

What to do in the next hour

1. Open your bank or card statement. Write down the name on the charge, the amount, the currency and the date. If the name means nothing to you, here is how to find out who is charging your card.
2. Find where the subscription lives. Check the subscriptions list on your phone: on iPhone or in Google Play. If it is not there, you most likely paid on a website, so read how to cancel a subscription you bought on a website.
3. Cancel and take a screenshot of the confirmation screen, with the date and time visible. If a cancellation e-mail arrives, keep it too.
4. Write to the company and ask for a refund. Short, polite, with dates. We have a ready-to-copy refund request letter.
5. If the charges continue or nobody replies within a week, ask your bank to stop further charges to your card and dispute the charge.

Two things worth knowing right away. Deleting the app does not cancel anything: Google says so plainly in its help pages. And cancelling only stops future charges: money already taken comes back only if you ask for it separately.

How to find out who is charging you

The name on your statement is often not the app’s name but the name of a company that takes payments on behalf of many apps. Search your e-mail for a receipt from the same day: it usually names the service and has a “manage subscription” link. Also ask family members whether anyone signed up, and check whether the charge is coming through your phone carrier. The full walkthrough is in “Unknown charge on my card: who is charging me?”.

Where to cancel

Subscriptions bought through the App Store are cancelled in your iPhone settings; subscriptions bought through Google Play are cancelled in the Play Store app. If it is not in either list, Apple and Google give the same advice: check your statement and contact the company that bills you. That subscription lives on the company’s website: look for the payment e-mail, your account area, a “Subscription” or “Billing” page. If you already cancelled and they still charge you, read “Cancelled but still being charged”: that is the easiest charge to dispute.

How to get your money back

There are three routes, and it is worth taking them in this order, because your bank will ask whether you contacted the company first.

• The company. A short letter: when and how much they charged, that you cancelled, that you did not use the paid service, and a request for a refund. If you really did not use it, that is often enough. The letter and what to put in it.
• The app store. If you paid through Apple or Google, each has its own form: how to request a refund from the App Store or Google Play. Google handles refund requests itself only within 48 hours of the purchase; after that it sends you to the app developer, so do not wait.
• Your bank or card company. If the company refuses or goes quiet, your bank can dispute the charge through Visa or Mastercard. You will need proof, and it takes weeks or months. How to dispute a card charge with your bank.

Nobody guarantees a refund: not the company, not the app store, not the bank. But the sooner you act and the more proof you have, the better your chances. Keep it calm and factual: “a charge I did not expect”, not “scammers”.

Why speed matters

• The next charge is close. If the subscription renews “every 4 weeks”, that is 13 charges a year, and the next one may land sooner than you think. Why “$0.99, then every 4 weeks” is a trap.
• Disputes have deadlines. In many countries the law says you must tell your bank quickly about a payment you did not agree to, and gives you limited time to claim the money back. Ask your bank what deadline applies to you. Card networks usually accept disputes for around 120 days from the charge, and your bank may have its own, shorter window. Go in the first days, not months.
• Google Play gives you 48 hours before it sends refund requests to the developer instead.

What to keep as proof

• A screenshot of the cancellation screen or the cancellation e-mail, with date and time.
• Your letter to the company and its reply. If there is no reply, a screenshot showing the letter was sent.
• The statement lines for every charge from this company.
• A screenshot of the page where you entered your card: the price shown and whether the renewal terms were visible.
• Receipts from your inbox for each charge.

If your bank says no

Ask for the reasons in writing. Then 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 CFPB in the US or the Financial Ombudsman Service in the UK). You can report the company itself to your country’s consumer protection agency (for example, the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov in the US, or Citizens Advice in the UK). As a last resort there is court; the rules and costs depend on the country. All the options are in “Bank refused my dispute: what next”.

So it doesn’t happen again

The pattern is almost always the same: a long questionnaire, a tiny price for a “trial”, small print about renewal and a confusing way out. Once you know what it looks like, you spot it in a second. Start with the lessons “The trial trap” and “The cancel maze”, and before your next payment just check the website.

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.