The recurring nature of payments means the main difference between subscription businesses and other businesses. In the subscription business model, customers pay a recurring amount in exchange for access to a product or service.
Most subscriptions automatically renew unless you cancel them. If you subscribe to a service or free trial and a company asks for the 16-digit card number, it is setting up a recurring payment and automatic subscription renewal (in most cases).
Auto-renewal means your subscription will be renewed at the end of your monthly or annual subscription term.
There is a difference between automatic and manual subscription renewal as well:
Has the free trial ever turned into a four-month subscription?
Most subscription companies process renewals automatically (SaaS companies, streaming music or video subscriptions, etc) and choose to send an email receipt each time the subscription renews. Others, however, choose to renew on the sly without sending customers a reminder that they’re being charged. The worst offenders start their service as a free trial before automatically “renewing” and charging customers for their paid service. While they must legally disclose this when a customer signs up, it’s often easy to miss this warning and assume a service is free until unexpected charges show up (ProfitWell, 2020).
The problem is that customers usually forget about their ongoing subscriptions and they might be charged unexpectedly, which causes customers to be dissatisfied. The other problem is that an unexpected charge shows up on customers’ credit cards without up-front notification.
And we have a solution!
With Revuto you’ll be able to control your subscriptions. The Revuto app will send you an up-front notification whether you want to Approve, Block or Snooze subscription charges or any other recurring payments as they occur. You will know when every service is charging your cards, and you’ll be able to decide if you want to approve charges on the go.
To use the Revuto app for free, sign up: https://revuto.com
