The Truth About Free Trial Offers

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If you use the internet, there’s a good chance you’ve come across some sort of free-trial offer. While some of these offers may sound enticing; there are some common misconceptions you should be wary of before opting. Especially if they require a credit card upon completion.

HOW ONLINE ADS WORK

Big companies like Google and Facebook are able to collect data based on your online habits. Other larger and smaller companies are then able to bid on advertisement placements. Google and Facebook use your data to display the ads based on YOUR interests, demographics, age etc. This is why you’ll commonly see advertisements most relevant to your recent search history.

HOW FREE TRIALS WORK

More and more of these ads are coming up offering free trials. These free trials often times have strong testimonials and enticing offers to lure you in. They’ll typically require you to type in your information and ask you to accept some terms and conditions and then after you fill out a few forms they’ll ask you for your credit card.

The problem, is that a lot of people don’t read through the terms and conditions or read the fine print. Commonly, the terms state that you need to cancel your subscription or return the product within a certain time frame. If not, they will charge your card for whatever they charge for the subscription.

 

HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO AVOID TRIAL OFFER REGRETS

  • If it seems too good to be true it probably is; the products being offered are often not up to the standard the ads present them to be.
  • Free doesn’t mean free. If they are asking for you credit card information for a free trial, it is a red flag that they will charge your account at a later date. Understand exactly what those charges will be and when they will occur.
  • Look for who is actually behind the offer. Just because an advertisement appeared on a trusted site doesn’t mean you can trust the company selling the product.
  • We can’t stress this enough: the best thing to do is to always, always, always look in the terms and conditions before ever checking a box.
  • If you do sign up after reading the fine print, set a reminder notification on your phone a few days before the trial period ends so you remember to cancel or return the product and avoid being charged unexpectedly.

You can view more information on the FirstAlliance blog page