These Are The Hardest Subscriptions To Cancel (Other Than Gym Memberships)

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The modern world runs on subscriptions. You want to stream movies and shows? The best streaming platforms require (and sometimes deserve) your hard-earned cash. Plus, you can pay to cut out Amazon delivery fees — and acquire other Amazon Prime perks that are worth your time. But all these subscriptions start to add up eventually.

On average, a person can spend over $100 on subscriptions they use. But the devil is in the details: on subscriptions they use. It's easy to sign up for monthly services — a newsletter here, a streaming platform there — but what happens if you want to save money by canceling subscriptions? Then you might hit a brick wall. Sure, canceling your Xbox Game Pass is easy, but that's an outlier. Gym memberships are notoriously difficult to drop because many force people to send letters (not emails; physical, snail mail letters) or show up in person. It almost feels like they bank on the assumption that if someone is canceling a membership because they don't have time to exercise, they won't have time to visit, either. But gyms aren't the only companies that use every trick in the book to maintain a veritable vice grip on your wallet.

Read on to learn about other subscription services that are notoriously difficult to cancel. Some force you to jump through countless hoops, while others disincentivize you, making continually paying for a service you no longer want or sound like a reasonable alternative. The entries are arranged in no particular order.

The more popular a service, the more it needs to maintain a friendly public face. That means making subscriptions that have worthwhile annual plans and not obfuscating cancellation methods, especially if the subscription is aimed towards the average person. However, companies that provide slightly more obscure services might feel like they have leeway in the cancellation process, especially if they provide a Software as a Service (SaaS).

Two SaaS companies that are notorious when it comes to their subscriptions are Wrike and HubSpot. The former is a project management service, while the latter specializes in customer relationship management. These services are invaluable to most businesses, as large companies need to ensure everyone is on the same page for various projects. Plus, who doesn't want to maintain good relationships with customers?

If you go searching, you'll find plenty of horror stories from people who've dealt with Wrike and HubSpot's monetization models. For instance, Wrike's cancellation policy has a particularly notorious stipulation: You must send a request 30 days in advance, and you can't get a refund for any unused time. If you don't pay attention, even if you do cancel your subscription, you could be on the hook for an entire year's worth of Wrike. And HubSpot isn't much better, as the service doesn't let you downgrade or even cancel your subscription until your commitment term completes. Once you sign up, you must see your subscription to the end — and pay the requisite fees. Although there's one exception to the contract: You can immediately terminate your subscription if you go bankrupt. You might not have any money to pay for HubSpot, but at least you won't go into any more debt.

Many people cancel subscriptions to trim the excess fat off their monthly bills and shore up their budgets. Why pay $70 a month for a service you only used once or twice in the past year? Companies like Microsoft will try to convince you to keep Xbox Game Pass by reminding you of what you'll lose when you cancel your subscription, but then there's Adobe, which says they get to keep your subscription fee even if you cancel.

Even though Adobe is in this article dedicated to services that are infamously difficult to cancel, discontinuing your Adobe subscription is relatively easy and straightforward. However, the process gains notoriety due to Adobe's infamous cancellation fees. If you inform Adobe of your desire to drop their services within 14 days of signing up, you get a full refund. Anyone who cancels outside of that window is hit with late fees of varying sizes depending on the service they cancel. Paid for a month-to-month subscription? Your monthly fee is non-refundable. Bought an annual subscription? You now owe Adobe 50% of what you would have paid them if you didn't cancel the service.

To be fair, some people claim to have found a workaround: Simply switch plans, possibly to a monetarily equivalent one. That way Adobe will consider your new plan within a 14-day trial, so you can cancel without any additional fees. However, you shouldn't need to sign up for a different subscription plan just to cancel and avoid fees. Is it extortion, or just a trick to convince people not to cancel because either way they get the service and Adobe gets their money? You decide.

So far, we've mostly gone over companies that unnecessarily obfuscate the cancellation process. These are scummy practices, but not outright illegal. But then there's Vonage, a communications company that made canceling its services such a chore that the U.S. government stepped in.

Possibly cheating a bit with this entry, but in 2022, the FTC accused Vonage of using numerous anti-cancellation tactics that were downright illegal. According to the FTC, Vonage made cancellations a downright labyrinthian affair. The company allegedly removed avenues for customers, forcing them to cancel by calling a "retention agent," as well as using "dark patterns" (intentionally misleading user interfaces designed to trick people into making choices that go against their best interests). And if ex-customers thought they successfully canceled their subscriptions, they actually didn't, as Vonage was also accused of continually charging accounts even after they canceled. Oh, and Vonage also purportedly hit customers with expensive junk fees for "early termination."

After the accusations, Vonage agreed to a court order that forced it to make numerous changes, as well as pay customers $100 million in restitution. While canceling a Vonage subscription is now easier than ever, the process is still a nightmare. Users have complained about a variety of difficulties, such as the inability to cancel extensions, and even outside of subscription woes, customers have heavily criticized Vonage's customer service. Let's just say we don't expect Vonage to ever appear on any list of the best and most reliable phone carriers.

Not every subscription service delivers digital content. Plenty of companies offer subscriptions that deliver monthly boxes of physical goods right to your door. You've got subscription boxes for clothes, food, and even random curated items (personally, I recommend model kit subscription boxes). However, with all the subscription boxes out there, you're bound to find a few bad eggs.

Let's start with one of the most infamous examples of a subscription box service complicating cancellations: HelloFresh. The company became famous for offering easy-to-prepare meals, because who has time these days for grocery shopping and meal prep? Unfortunately, HelloFresh's popularity might have been exaggerated by all the people who couldn't unsubscribe. In 2025, the District Attorneys of Los Angeles and Santa Clara sued HelloFresh, claiming it deceived customers into auto-renewing subscriptions and refused to provide a simple method of cancellation. HelloFresh agreed to pay $7.5 million in damages.

BarkBox is another constant target of anti-cancellation tactic criticism. The website for the service, which sends you random toys and snacks for your dog, states that if you want to end your subscription, while you can cancel at any time, you must wait until the end of the subscription term for it to take effect. However, according to some, this isn't true and is meant to keep customers "on the hook" for months. Ex-subscribers claim you can cancel a BarkBox subscription early, as long as you're willing to put up with customer representatives who intentionally ignore you and redirect you to promotions you don't want for hours if not months on end. And even then, BarkBox might continue to charge you unless you threaten to report them to the FTC. No, seriously.

Normally, a subscription service is difficult to cancel because the company behind it turns the process into a Gordian Knot of trials. Navigate through a website that tells you 86 times what you lose by canceling the service. Call customer support during February 29 while hopping on one leg. Those sorts of tribulations. But sometimes a subscription isn't difficult to cancel; it's impossible because there are no other options.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are as necessary to modern life as they're notorious. Sure, you can easily find plenty of quality ISPs, often complete with bundles for services such as phone and cable TV. However, according to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, over one-third of all US households can only access one ISP. You would think that major internet providers with glowing reviews like T-Mobile and Verizon would service most of the US population, but according to the Benton Institute, the top 10 ISPs (including T-Mobile and Verizon) only cover around five percent of the U.S..

What happens if you want to cancel your internet? Should you live in one of the locations with only one provider, you'll be shooting yourself in the foot, since if you want internet again, you'll probably need to crawl back to the company you just snubbed. If you live in a region with more than one ISP, who's to say the alternative is an upgrade? The only rival in town might charge just as much money if not more, and that's to say nothing of customer service. ISPs are one of the only subscriptions where cancellation is a bad idea.