{"id":1441,"date":"2023-07-22T15:47:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/?p=1441"},"modified":"2023-10-26T12:29:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T16:29:49","slug":"free-trials-can-be-costly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/free-trials-can-be-costly\/","title":{"rendered":"Free trials can be costly"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6 class=\"title\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Free trials can be costly<\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Getting free stuff is cool\u2026until it isn\u2019t free. It is decidedly uncool when, after luring you in with \u201cfree trials\u201d for products you might like, a company hits you with surprise charges during the supposedly \u201cfree\u201d trial period.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a complaint filed in federal court, the FTC alleges that NutraClick, which marketed dietary supplements and beauty products through paid subscription programs, broke the law by not making it clear exactly when its free trials ended and the billing began. NutraClick offered samples of its products as part of an 18- or 34-day free trial period to get people to enroll in its subscription programs. But the trial periods included negative option terms, in which sellers can automatically charge people\u2019s cards or bank accounts if they don\u2019t cancel their subscriptions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the FTC, NutraClick broke telemarketing rules, violated online sales laws, and ignored a federal court order, when it failed to properly tell people they had to cancel at least one day before the end of the trial to avoid charges for the monthly subscription. People lost more than a million dollars because of NutraClick\u2019s conduct, the FTC says.<\/p>\n<p>Considering free offers? Keep this in mind:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do some research. Search the product and company name online with words like \u201creview,\u201d \u201ccomplaint,\u201d or \u201cscam\u201d to see what others are saying.<\/li>\n<li>Find the terms and conditions for the offer. If you can&#8217;t find them or can&#8217;t understand exactly what you&#8217;re agreeing to and when you\u2019ll be charged \u2014 including what you\u2019ll be charged for and the date by which you have to act to avoid a charge \u2013 don&#8217;t sign up.<\/li>\n<li>Monitor your credit and debit card statements. If you\u2019re charged for something you didn\u2019t order,\u00a0dispute those charges\u00a0as soon as you spot them.<\/li>\n<li>Read your credit and debit account statements. That way, you\u2019ll know right away if you\u2019re being charged for something you didn\u2019t order.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And if a company didn\u2019t make it clear when they\u2019ll bill you after your free trial, tell the FTC.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">To read full article click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/blog\/2020\/09\/free-trials-can-be-costly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HERE<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>DMCC is a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization committed to educating consumers on financial issues and providing personal assistance to consumers who have become overextended with debt.\u00a0 Education is provided free of charge to consumers, as well as personal counseling to identify the best options for the repayment of their debt. To speak to a certified credit counselor, call toll-free 866-618-3328 or email\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"mailto:contact@dmcconline.org\"><em>contact@dmcconline.org<\/em><\/a><em>.DMCC is located at 1330 SE 4th Ave, Suite F, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Free trials can be costly Getting free stuff is cool\u2026until it isn\u2019t free. It is decidedly uncool when, after luring you in with \u201cfree trials\u201d for products you might like, a company hits you with surprise charges during the supposedly \u201cfree\u201d trial period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-budgeting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5shu1-nf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1990,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions\/1990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmcccorp.org\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}