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herbertlyesterday at 3:29 PM4 repliesview on HN

In the spirit of yes, and: how about a subscription similar to a pay as you go phone plan? Pay for the month, and when you don't pay, then you don't get to keep going. After a couple of months, they unsubscribe you, get rid of your account, etc. More often than not, the first thing I do when I sign up for a service is cancel it (after confirming I can use it for the billing period).


Replies

steinsgatezeroyesterday at 3:45 PM

This is one of my favorite things about Mullvad VPN.

RandallBrownyesterday at 7:51 PM

> More often than not, the first thing I do when I sign up for a service is cancel it (after confirming I can use it for the billing period).

That's what I loved about Apple controlling their App Store subscriptions. All subscriptions keep working through the billing period and there isn't really anything an app can do about it. It also gave me an easy centralized place to view and cancel subscriptions.

show 1 reply
EvanAndersonyesterday at 5:33 PM

I used to use one-off "virtual" credit card numbers for this kind of thing. My bank (MBNA, at the time) let me set a balance limit and / or expiration date. It was exceedingly handy, so the feature was axed when Chase acquired them.

michaeltyesterday at 5:08 PM

For quite a few services you can get the pay-as-you-go experience by getting yourself a gift subscription.