Speaker 1: Canceling free trials just got a whole lot ease. You're
Speaker 1: in California. What's going on? I'm rich DeMuro. This is
Speaker 1: rich on Tech. A new California law that went into
Speaker 1: effect on July first makes it easier to cancel subscriptions
Speaker 1: and those free trials that you sign up for. It's
Speaker 1: called California Senate Bill three one three, and it requires
Speaker 1: that companies make it easy to cancel services that you
Speaker 1: sign up for online. This is pretty big because how
Speaker 1: many times have you been tempted to sign up for
Speaker 1: something like a free trial, but you kind of stop
Speaker 1: short at the sign up page because you don't want
Speaker 1: to have to deal with the headache of the cancelation process.
Speaker 1: In fact, there are entire websites dedicated to helping you
Speaker 1: cancel subscriptions, like get human, which provides the phone numbers
Speaker 1: to call as well as the instructions, but it's still
Speaker 1: kind of complicated and time consuming. The new law says
Speaker 1: that California customers who accept an automatic renewal or continuous
Speaker 1: service offer online must be able to cancel the service
Speaker 1: online as well. This makes a ton of sense. I've
Speaker 1: always said, if you sign up one way, you should
Speaker 1: be able to cancel that same exact way. Now, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, lots of online services do make it
Speaker 1: easy for you to pause or cancel your subscription and
Speaker 1: a few clicks. But this new law is going to
Speaker 1: take care of all of those other services that kind
Speaker 1: of make money on the fact that you don't feel
Speaker 1: like waiting on hold forever or finding the right eight
Speaker 1: hundred number to cancel. The new law also says that
Speaker 1: companies must accept a pre written termination email to cancel
Speaker 1: the service, and they can't dispute it. Basically, once you
Speaker 1: send that email, it's done, they have to cancel it. Now.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind this is only for California consumers at
Speaker 1: this point, but other states might see this law and
Speaker 1: take note and then follow suit. It makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense in our on demand economy. Easy to sign
Speaker 1: up for, easy to cancel, and it really puts a
Speaker 1: little more pressure on companies to provide a great service
Speaker 1: because they want to keep those customers. By the way,
Speaker 1: a couple things to know. One service I love for
Speaker 1: keeping track of all of my subscriptions is called true bill.
Speaker 1: What you do is you sign in with your credit
Speaker 1: card and debit card information. Then it spits out and
Speaker 1: keeps track of all of your recurring bills. You can
Speaker 1: literally see, Okay, I pay fifteen dollars a month for Netflix,
Speaker 1: I pay nine ninety nine for YouTube, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: They'll keep an eye on all your monthly rates and
Speaker 1: if they go up, they'll also tell you. Plus you
Speaker 1: also see exactly how much you spend each month on
Speaker 1: all these services, which is kind of scary when you
Speaker 1: add it all up. And that's the other side of
Speaker 1: all this. Subscriptions are so easy to sign up for
Speaker 1: these days, and lots of them require a recurring bill
Speaker 1: on our credit or debit cards, so you might not
Speaker 1: notice an increase in fees automatically because you have to
Speaker 1: really check your statements. I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: I don't get an email every month when Netflix bills
Speaker 1: my card. So another place to look is also your
Speaker 1: iTunes account. I talk about this in my book one
Speaker 1: hundred and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone. Apple
Speaker 1: makes subscribing to things really easy, but when you have
Speaker 1: to find that subscription section to go to cancel it,
Speaker 1: it's kind of tough to find. But it's a good
Speaker 1: idea to go in there and see what you're being
Speaker 1: billed for on a monthly basis. You can find it
Speaker 1: by going into the iTunes store on your phone, scroll
Speaker 1: all the way down to your Apple ID where it
Speaker 1: has your ear Tap that, then tap view Apple ID.
Speaker 1: You put in your password or use your face, and
Speaker 1: then you scroll to the middle of this page where
Speaker 1: it says subscriptions and you can see all the stuff
Speaker 1: that you have going on in there. You can learn
Speaker 1: more about that tip in my book. Just go to
Speaker 1: richon tech dot tv slash book. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you get those subscriptions under control and they're much
Speaker 1: easier to cancel in California. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you real soon.