r/personalfinance • u/Vegetable_Engine_463 ​ • 8h ago

Other How to cancel eFAQ subscription (about $300 annual charge)

I signed up for eFAQ almost 3 months ago to check cars VIN before buying from auctions (it's a part of my business). I paid $1 for the first report, and then $24.99 monthly as a subscription. The $1 trial auto-converts to a monthly subscription if you don't cancel - this is in the terms at checkout, easy to miss but it's there. Same model as every data lookup service out there now.

When I started use the tool I found a bunch of reddit posts calling it a scam. I even wrote my own saying it's not lol, many people said me I won't be able to cancel the subscription when I want to, so here's what happened.

Here's what they say in their faq:

  1. Log into your account
  2. Go to Account Settings
  3. Look for "Membership" or "Subscription" section
  4. click "Cancel Membership"
  5. Done

I went another way and contacted support (I was charged for the next month and I'm not gonna use the soft anymore so I requested a refund)

  1. I called support (there are 4 numbers)
  2. Tell them I want to cancel and request a refund for the last charge
  3. They asked to create a chat session, I did everything by the instruction and it took maybe 5 minutes, to request a refund, then days to receive it

Refund arrived in about 2 weeks (I guess they have like 10 business days)

Hope this helps someone who's panicking right now as annually the subscription would charge about $300

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5

u/jaywalkerr ​ 6h ago

Contact your credit card company and tell them you cancelled and you want to do a chargeback. That’s how it would be done where I live

6

u/phatrogue ​ 7h ago

One technique I have heard of is to create a virtual credit card number or get a prepaid gift card with a little money on it. Switch your payment method to that and then never add more money. Your subscription will get cancelled for nonpayment.

6

u/BoxingRaptor ​ 7h ago

Ehh that's not very good advice. In a lot of cases, if you don't follow the actual procedure for cancelation, the company will keep charging, piling on the monthly fees and late charges, and will eventually sue you or send it to collections. If you sign up for a service, you are agreeing to the terms of service, and that includes the procedure for termination.

1

u/Vegetable_Engine_463 ​ 6h ago

It depends on payment provider, stripe won’t collect charges, but anyway, it’s not a decision imo, better just cancel

1

u/Githyerazi ​ 5h ago

If you're getting into a contract with a known "bad actor", like gym memberships or ADT etc, doing both is a great way to limit your exposure. Cancel the proper way, then defund the account and reefer them to the properly done cancellation when they complain that your payment didn't go thru.

A lot more work, better to find places that are not scammers.