Forgot to Cancel Your Free Trial? Here's How to Get a Membership Refund

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My brother groaned into his phone. "Oh, no. I forgot to cancel my membership." Everyone else at the gym groaned with him. We've all been there. You sign up for a free trial, and boom -- a $99 annual membership fee hits your checking account .

"You can probably get a refund," I told him. He looked at me like I'd just told him running uphill was easy. I explained to him what many Americans don't know. He was surprised to learn that many companies will refund your membership fees, even if they don't advertise it.

You can sometimes get your membership refunded after forgetting to cancel your free trial. It's usually straightforward, and it can save you hundreds of dollars in unused subscriptions.

How to get a membership refunded

You may be able to get your subscription refunded by reaching out to customer service ASAP and requesting a refund.

The first thing I had my brother do was search Instacart's customer service number, which took some digging. The app mostly had how-to articles, and the chatbot was unhelpful. We needed a human to help us cancel his membership, preferably over chat or email.

After some digging -- we scrolled through at least a half-dozen web pages -- we found a chat icon. Through the chat, we spoke to a customer service representative. He promptly refunded my brother his $99 subscription fee and unsubscribed him from the service.

A large reason this worked is because my brother reached out to Instacart right away.

Don't wait to request a refund

When we reached out, it had been less than 24 hours since Instacart charged my brother's bank account. Since being charged, my brother hadn't used the grocery delivery service.

This made us credible when we asked Instacart for a refund. We told them we'd forgotten to cancel, and we had no desire to use the service. If my brother had waited a month, or had he used the service after being charged, we would've posed a weaker case.

Request a refund right away. It's the best thing you can do to boost your chances of getting a refund, even if the company says "no refunds" in its terms and conditions.

Be polite but firm with customer service

Customer service often tries to upsell you when you're canceling a service. The same goes for when you're requesting a refund. This can stress people out. The key is being polite, but firm.

How we did it: When the customer representative suggested we switch from an annual to a monthly membership, we repeated we had no plans on using the service, but we thanked him for letting us know. After 10 minutes of back-and-forth messages, he OK'd the refund.

If you don't know how to phrase a refund request, simply ask ChatGPT to whip you up a short draft. ChatGPT helped my brother quickly come up with something polite and professional.

Companies want to leave a good impression

Don't sweat the logic of asking for a refund. Even if the company isn't Costco , the king of customer service, it makes sense for the company to refund your money.

The math is this: If a company refunds you, it will lose money short-term. But long-term, you might be so pleased with the service, you refer two of your friends, a net gain. You might even end up re-subscribing down the road.

On the other hand, not refunding the fee might make you upset. So upset, you tell two friends about your experience and how horrible it was. That's two potential customers who are now much less likely to subscribe to the company. Long-term, it's more profitable to issue reasonable refunds.

That's why some companies with "no refund" policies will refund you upon request . As long as you're prompt, your request is reasonable, and you're polite about it, there's a good chance the company will refund your membership after you forget to cancel the free trial.

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