I would go a step further, cancel as soon as you subscribe. It's still valid for a month because you've paid for it!
If you ever need to use the service again just re-subscribe (and re-cancel)
In fact, what is stopping you from cancelling all your subscriptions right now? You can always buy back in when you like
Some don't treat months as discrete units. Uber revokes your membership immediately.
I currently do this with language models subscriptions.
Wouldn't this be a good use of a 1 time credit card number?
When I actually use a service, it's more work to resubscribe. But money is also tight enough for me that I'm on top of my subscriptions and don't have any I don't need (and when I'm unsure, I set reminders to cancel)
This is indeed my standard practice. In my head, I just tell myself "I'm buying a month."
The core value for most subscription services is their convenience. There's usually another less convenient way to get the same thing cheaper or free.
Most people are literally paying so they don't have to set all that shit up again and the cost is trivial to them.
If that's not you, fine, but my point is that nobody is "right" about this topic. Services exist because they make money.
I saw some small business owner complain about this behavior on twitter some time ago and he mentioned he only saw non-Americans do this and it made him really mad or something and he didn't provide the service and banned them or something. Funnily enough I do think this happens so sometimes I cancel instantly and sometimes deliberately wait until there are a few days left on the subscription exactly out of paranoia behavior that you'll get a worse service or something, that they must have some database field early cancel and mess with you or something.
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Recently cancelled something early so I won’t forget, they didn’t send my shipment even though I paid for it. They said I cancelled, tried to work with support but given after a point.
So yeah, not all companies do that.