Charged after cancelling: the subscription complaint that can now cost you

On March 11, 2026, the US Federal Trade Commission restarted its "click-to-cancel" rulemaking and cited more than 100,000 complaints in five years about subscription-style offers (FTC, March 11, 2026). App Store reviews tell the same story at the scale of a single app. In three Grumpi studies, where we read 8,693 negative reviews of habit trackers, budget apps and fitness apps, the recurring complaint groups about cancelling add up to 1,187 complaints: 570 from users charged after cancelling, and 617 from users who could not cancel at all.

Key findings:

• 570 complaints describe charges after cancelling, after deleting the app or the account, or during a free trial, in five apps.
• 617 complaints describe a cancel option that cannot be found or does not work, in nine of the 16 apps we studied.
• 451 more complaints describe charges users did not expect: trials that turn into annual plans, $1 trials with hidden charges, bundles of sister apps.
• One habit app, Fabulous, accounts for 900 of these 1,638 complaints. 70 of them say its subscription is billed outside Apple and cannot be cancelled in the app.
• 7 of the 16 apps have no recurring complaint group about cancelling or unexpected charges.
• The rules moved in 2025 and 2026: the FTC rule was vacated on July 8, 2025, California's AB 2863 has applied since July 1, 2025, and the EU withdrawal button has applied since June 19, 2026.

What users report, app by app

By niche, habit trackers lead with 1,025 complaints, ahead of fitness apps (502) and budget apps (111). The habit total is mostly one app; the fitness total is spread across four. Our fitness app complaints study puts these numbers next to the paywall and weekly-price complaints of the same apps.

Charged after cancelling (570 complaints)

The most serious complaint is also the most frequent per app at Fabulous (330 complaints). Users cancel, sometimes receive a confirmation, and keep paying.

I cancelled my subscription over a year ago and they are still taking money out of my account.

despite sending me an email confirmation that my subscription was canceled

In fitness, GetFit (95) and 30 Day Fitness (90) users describe the same pattern, often after deleting the app.

I DELETED and UNSUBSCRIBED to the App and still taking my money.

Rocket Money, a budget app whose main promise is to help users cancel their other subscriptions, has 22 complaints of its own charges continuing after cancellation.

I cancelled my Rocket subscription in April, it’s now August and I’m still getting charged

A cancel option users cannot find (617 complaints)

The second group is about the path, not the charge: hidden settings, many steps, emails that never arrive.

You have to click through nearly a dozen pages before you cancel.

Says it sends you a login link to your email to cancel it but never does.

Charges users did not expect (451 complaints)

These are why users go looking for the cancel button: a $1 trial that hides a larger charge, a weekly price billed as a year, a bundle of apps signed up in one flow.

The $1 trial locks you in for a $50 year membership

Why it happens

Billing outside the App Store

When a subscription is bought through Apple or Google, cancellation goes through the store's own subscription management. When it is bought on a website, it does not appear there. Fabulous has 70 complaints on exactly this point.

The subscription is not present in your Apple subscriptions so you have to visit their website.

Users find nothing in their Apple settings, delete the app and believe they have cancelled. The web billing keeps running.

Deleting the app is not cancelling

Many of the 570 "charged after cancelling" complaints mention deleting the app or the account. For the user, the app is gone. For the billing system, nothing happened. Rocket Money has 7 complaints from users who lost access to an old phone number, so they cannot sign in to cancel while billing continues.

Short trials that convert without warning

Trials are getting shorter. According to RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps 2026 (March 2026), 46.5% of trials last 4 days or less, and 55.4% of 3-day trials are cancelled on day 0 (RevenueCat, 2026). Users cancel immediately because they expect to forget. Those who do not cancel in time find an annual charge. Dollarwise users mention a 3-day trial followed by a charge for a year, and GetFit has 28 complaints about trials converting with no reminder. Paywalls shown before any real use add to the problem; we covered them in paywalls before first use.

Several apps, several accounts

Fabulous sells sister apps and bundles. 210 complaints say users were signed up for more than they understood, which means several subscriptions to find and cancel.

I thought I signed up for one thing and there are like six.

The 2026 rules, dated

This section summarizes public sources as of October 2026. It is not legal advice.

A vacated FTC rule does not mean no rules. The complaints above are what these texts target: no easy way out, charges after cancelling, trials that convert without clear consent.

A trust checklist for indie developers

• Bill through the store when you can. Cancellation then goes through Apple or Google subscription management, which users already know.
• Put a cancel path inside the app. A "Manage subscription" row in settings that opens the system subscription screen answers most "I can't find how to cancel" reviews.
• If you bill on the web, give the web a one-click cancel, and say clearly in the app that the subscription will not appear in Apple settings.
• Say that deleting the app does not cancel. One line on the paywall and in settings costs nothing.
• Remind users before a trial ends, with the price and the date of the first charge.
• Send a confirmation email for every subscription, change and cancellation, and make sure cancellation actually stops billing.
• Show the total price, not only a per-day or per-week figure, and never add apps or bundles by default.
• Answer refund requests. Fabulous, GetFit and Do Habits together have 85 more complaints about refunds refused or support that never replies.

Method

• Data: Grumpi's three studies (habit trackers, budget apps and fitness apps): 17,581 App Store reviews collected, 8,693 negative (1–3★) reviews read, 9,667 complaints, of which 4,056 about pricing.
• What we counted: we read the problem description of the 234 recurring complaint groups from these studies and kept those that clearly match one of three motives: charged after cancelling, cancellation impossible or hard to find, and unexpected charges. When a group mixed "cannot cancel" and "charged anyway", we counted it once, under "cannot cancel". The counts cover recurring groups only, so they are not a share of all 9,667 complaints.
• Limit: reviews over-represent unhappy users. A count measures how often a problem is raised, not how many users have it. The full process is described in how to find app ideas in negative reviews, and the complete niche reports are listed on the pricing page.

FAQ

Why do apps keep charging after I cancel?

In the reviews we read, the common causes are a subscription billed on the app's website rather than through Apple or Google, deleting the app without cancelling, or a cancellation that the app confirmed but did not apply. 570 complaints in three niches describe it.

Does deleting an app cancel the subscription?

No. Deleting an app does not stop a subscription billed by Apple, Google or a website. Many of the 570 complaints about charges after cancelling come from users who deleted the app and assumed billing stopped.

Is the FTC click-to-cancel rule in force?

No. The Eighth Circuit vacated it on July 8, 2025. The FTC restarted rulemaking on March 11, 2026 and closed comments on April 13, 2026. ROSCA and state laws such as California's AB 2863 still apply. This is not legal advice.

What should an indie developer do first?

Add a "Manage subscription" link in the app's settings that opens the store's subscription screen, send a reminder before trials end, and confirm every cancellation by email. These three steps address the most common complaints in our data.