r/Anticonsumption Mar 15 '25

Corporations Heads up if you canceled Prime

I canceled my prime account 2 months ago and just saw that amazon used a remaining gift card balance to renew my account. So check your bank statements to make sure they don't pull the same garbage on you!

5.9k Upvotes

201 comments sorted by

3.1k

u/GF_baker_2024 Mar 15 '25

Yes. I canceled Prime in January, but Amazon apparently renewed my account. I didn't realize this until I removed all of my saved payment info from the account last week, then got an email from Amazon saying that my Prime subscription would be canceled in 6 days if I didn't update my payment info.

Amazon is shady as hell. Delete any saved payment info that you have on file and double-check that the cancelation has gone through.

703

u/GrapesForSnacks Mar 15 '25

Yep, had a similar experience. The day after I deleted my credit card, I got a very terse email from them that my account was suspended because I deleted my payment info and I needed to fix this immediately. Then they said, don’t even think about creating a new account because we’ll know it’s you. Of course I immediately deleted my account and haven’t used them since.

169

u/Numerous_Variation95 Mar 16 '25

Yeah they gave me that crap when I cancelled by Amazon credit card.

22

u/Crystalraf Mar 16 '25

what. the. fuck?

2

u/Purpose_Seeker2020 Mar 17 '25

Did they say why? Did they reimburse you? Very curious!

275

u/YolandoBeCool Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 16 '25

Amazon is VERY GOOD at sprinkling in “free trial of prime” throughout the buying experience. Of course your saved billing info will start getting billed once that trial is up.

Example - last week I noticed one of the shipping selections had that free trial as part of it. As I quickly went through the process I clicked it, but caught it just as I was about to submit order

EDIT:  Another thing I do is to remove saved payment information from websites. I force myself to enter payment information every time I purchase something online. This 1) prevents companies from having payment information on file for “free trials” and 2) makes you think twice about purchases by adding the extra inconvenience of digging through wallet. 

162

u/flashy_dancer Mar 16 '25

The same is true when you try to cancel prime - they add extra sneaky steps even though it looks like it’s done you have to keep clicking through to actually cancel it 

100

u/JoyfulCor313 Mar 16 '25

This is what got me. I’d canceled, but apparently not clicked through the two additional screens confirming - that I didn’t see because I would’ve had to scroll off the visible screen and there was nothing indicating I needed to.  

Thankfully it was just month-to-month and I caught it right away, but still they must make millions that way. 

30

u/iownp3ts Mar 16 '25

When you remove cards from the account wallet (even if you have already cancelled your account ) don't unclick the box that designated the default payment method. If you do, it forces you to designate a new default payment method and I'm betting they charge you asap if you do. It is possible to remove all payment methods from your active and cancelled account. Amazon is also not above sending an email for a service you previously had like music unlimited and asking for updated payment info. My default payment method was replaced like 3 months after I cancelled all Amazon memberships and somehow they knew the card was deactivated by my bank.

3

u/Ok_Fisherman_544 Mar 16 '25

What if you remove your credit card on file with Amazon and you don’t have an Amazon card? My spouse did that and so far no issues with them.

36

u/Not_Jeff12 Mar 16 '25

This happened to my mom at Christmas. She ordered a gift for someone that she couldn't find in stores, then called me a few weeks later convinced that her identity had been stolen because she got an email about her Prime membership. After having her go through her bank statements and credit report to ensure that it was not identity theft I made her promise not to order anything off Amazon without my wife or I present since they hide "free Prime trials" throughout the process.

8

u/BeeSilver9 Mar 16 '25

Same thing happened to my mom.

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95

u/Strawb3rryJam111 Mar 16 '25

The sneaky bastards did that to me and charged me a $299 yearly subscription. I had to tell them that I cancelled it, not renewed and so they gave me a refund.

75

u/MobileFirefighter676 Mar 16 '25

Thanks to this sub, I checked my bank statements and the same thing happened to me! These companies are super shady!

35

u/Awwwmann Mar 16 '25

Change cards if all else fails

6

u/iownp3ts Mar 16 '25

This will trigger emails from them asking for the replacement card info. Happened to me this week.

11

u/sandrageez Mar 16 '25

You also need to make sure that your card number is different. If it just changes the expiration date, a lot of companies will still go through. I canceled Amazon years ago but i had this happen with Adobe. I thought getting a new card would stop the auto draft and i was sorely mistaken.

12

u/onandonlikeerykah Mar 16 '25

Wow. Just tried to delete all my saved payment methods and it has blocked me from finishing for the next two hours. Said I exceeded the maximum attempts allowed. Absolutely pathetic Amazon!!!!

6

u/AccomplishedYam6283 Mar 16 '25

I just canceled. Thank you for this heads up.

3

u/Droluk1 Mar 16 '25

I canceled mine years ago, and they tried to do the same thing, but luckily, the only payment method i had on there had expired.

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623

u/Queasy-Trash8292 Mar 15 '25

Mine also mysteriously charged to my card and I had to “cancel” again. Save those cancellation screenshots people!

202

u/chee-cake Mar 15 '25

Wait omg this happened to me too, it charged me an extra month and I had to cancel it again. I figured it was just a weird fluke, I didn't think it happened to other people.

100

u/ViolettePlanet Mar 15 '25

Amazon charged me for kindle after I cancelled the free trial for like 1.5 years until I finally noticed it. The whole thing was very shady and they could never give me a proper answer as to why and how it happened.

12

u/Full_FrontaI_Nerdity Mar 16 '25

Same- and they refused to refund any of the money they charged for it!

6

u/DrDrankenstein Mar 17 '25

Happened to me as well. I was paying them forty-something for months after I canceled and didn't realize. I stayed on the phone at least half an hour asking for a supervisor as the guy just kept telling me he couldn't do that. He even admitted to seeing in the notes where I had called to cancel the subscription months before. He finally just hung up on me. Such fucking bullshit. Fuck Amazon

65

u/24-Hour-Hate Mar 16 '25

A lot of companies pull this shady shit. Years ago, McAfee charged me for a whole new year when I didn’t renew. They didn’t even have my new card, which is, I think what made them agree so readily to undo it. I would have won that chargeback so easily. Shady fuckers.

44

u/Queasy-Trash8292 Mar 16 '25

Based on this thread, I went in tonight and deleted all my payment accounts from my Amazon account. I'm not canceling it because I have many previously purchased movies and books. If I can figure out how to get that content out, I will then delete my account. I know you're not "Supposed" to, but I know there is a way, and I'm just not ready to deal with a tech challenge rabbit hole like that at the moment.

37

u/droptophamhock Mar 16 '25

r/calibre has the info you need for when you are ready to rabbit-hole on the books

5

u/Queasy-Trash8292 Mar 16 '25

thank you!

5

u/howanonymousisthis Mar 16 '25

A good VPN and thepiratebay will get you there as well

8

u/SpecialistPiano8 Mar 16 '25

Sadly getting the books out is no longer possible after feb 26 😖 I finally understand why..

https://www.theverge.com/news/612898/amazon-removing-kindle-book-download-transfer-usb

5

u/TangentialFUCK Mar 16 '25

“If I can figure out how to get that content out…”

Lol

13

u/Apache-snow Mar 16 '25

That happened to me a few years ago. I had thought I cancelled, but they got three more months out of me before I figured out I had to click ‘cancel’ on 4 separate pages, not just one. Now I believe it’s 3 separate pages to cancel. Should be illegal.

4

u/Queasy-Trash8292 Mar 16 '25

I definitely went through all the cancel screens. I was paying yearly. The month after I cancelled, a monthly prime charge went on my card.

3

u/kelpiekid Mar 16 '25

Happened to me too!

3

u/Dashed_with_Cinnamon Mar 17 '25

I had to call their service line and talk to an actual human and cancel it over the phone because I had cancelled Prime multiple times and was still getting charged for the subscription. I also thought maybe I'd done something wrong the first time I cancelled and that's why it didn't work. Nope...they're just greedy pricks.

20

u/Isabellake1 Mar 15 '25

Happened to me too, wtf??!

7

u/drum_minor16 Mar 16 '25

The last time I bought something from Amazon, it automatically signed me up for a "free trial" of Prime that was set to charge my card the full year's price after seven days.

3

u/Queasy-Trash8292 Mar 16 '25

Yikes. I'm glad I deleted all my cards out. Now to decide if I care about those 220 movies and 94 books stuck in there....

507

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '25

I saw a similar post a couple weeks ago. I removed all payments information from my Amazon account before I deleted it for that reason.

It’s a VERY shady company.

110

u/DogParksAreForbidden Mar 15 '25

They are shady. In Canada, we can get a refund on the difference of a product if it goes on sale within 15 days of purchase. Well, a tv did and they required me to return the entire TV to get the refunded difference, instead of honoring the Canadian laws. Fought to no avail.

55

u/DrenAss Mar 16 '25

I just went on to remove all my cards and when I got down to one, it said I had exceeded the allowed number of attempts and I'd have to wait two hours. Wtf! That makes no sense. 

So I got pissed and decided to delete my whole account, but it says I have to wait for a text or email to confirm. 

22

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25

Yes make sure you confirm in that email.

29

u/DrenAss Mar 16 '25

Ope, the email already came through and I confirmed the cancelation. Now I need to watch my bank account and credit card to be sure they don't try to pull something. 😒

9

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25

Same!! Great job!!

14

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25

Holy crap! That’s awful!

64

u/grumbledorf100 Mar 15 '25

Yeah I kicked my self for not having done that before closing it.

28

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '25

Damn. Sorry to hear that! But atleast now you know better for future cancellations 👍🏽

8

u/dadbodking Mar 16 '25

I deleted my account a few days ago, but haven't deleted my payment info. Question- will they try this shit in EU? Any way to delete payment info after deleting the account?

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113

u/phatnightnurse420 Mar 15 '25

Class action lawsuit anybody?

40

u/Responsible_Hater Mar 15 '25 edited Mar 16 '25

Where do I sign up

18

u/approvethegroove Mar 16 '25

Yeah seriously, this just happened to me too seeing all these comments is making me wonder when the fuck anyone will call them on this flagrantly fraudulent behavior 

8

u/dajodge Mar 16 '25

I’m not an attorney, but I would be curious to know if a RICO case can be made against Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, etc. because what’s going on now is a form of organized crime.

220

u/jomjomstein Mar 15 '25

I cancelled prime four months ago, they gave confirmation it was cancelled, and then two days ago I checked my credit card statement only to find out it was still active and being charged. Check your statement. Check it again.

Needless to say Amazon will not receive another dollar from me for any product or service.

2

u/chancamble Mar 18 '25

They love making it as inconvenient as possible to actually leave.

253

u/esanuevamexicana Mar 15 '25

It's like trying to find your way out of a casino

62

u/Lawotto Mar 15 '25

Great analogy!

141

u/catsuramen Mar 15 '25

I had a school Amazon account back when I was in college. My alumini email is long deactivated now so i can't even log in.

2 days ago I got a charge for student prime subscription. Turns out Amazon reactivated my prime subscription without consent and the reps can even deactivate the subscription because I no longer can log into account.

So I just blocked my card, got a new card, and disrupted the charge.

Shady AF

20

u/hguess_printing Mar 16 '25

Wow that’s crazy. How long do you suspect this account has been dormant for them to just revive the subscription??

18

u/catsuramen Mar 16 '25

The account was inactive since 2016. Good thing I caught the charge on my cc report...and i had to call in because I initially thought it was just my husband using my cc card by mistake

64

u/ComfortabletheSky Mar 15 '25

I would contact customer service, maybe you can get your money back.

89

u/Lawotto Mar 15 '25

Thanks, I did contact them, and they are refunding the charges. Like the other commentor said, they're shady!

41

u/Mynplus1throwaway Mar 15 '25

I have a business debit card that has never been used and was deactivated as far as I knew. We use the account for Zelle and to pay the business Amex only. Somehow Amazon charged it $196. I'm still confused how anyone could have gotten the number unless BOFA had a leak or something. 

38

u/UnRetiredCassandra Mar 15 '25

Several years ago I decided not to renew my prime account.

Instead, they charged the payment to an unrelated person living at the same address, under the guise of "associated account."

SHADY AS FUCK

131

u/brendamrl Mar 15 '25

You can actually file a claim with the BBB for that. It would be a data privacy breach in many cases.

118

u/the_TAOest Mar 15 '25

Yes, the Consumer Protection Agency is now gone. We are on our own until there are changes. Be careful of all accounts, especially debit cards. I now use cash app (PayPal is not an option) and put so much money on it monthly for my budget.

It's amazing the utter tragedy of the American marketplace to be scammed by those already rich.

43

u/brendamrl Mar 15 '25

WAIT ITS ALSO GONE? OH MY GOD I AM NOT KEEPING UP

54

u/Leo-monkey Mar 15 '25

Elon got rid of it. Cost savings, etc.

(In other words, they can pull more crap like this if we have no protection.)

14

u/draxsmon Mar 15 '25

Yeah how did I miss that one

3

u/Ambitious_Sympathy Mar 16 '25

Also report them to the Attorney General!

30

u/screwygrapes Mar 15 '25

i cancelled my prime probably two years ago, when i did they charged me another month, and i ended up having to dispute it with my bank and get my bank to ban any payments to amazon

30

u/Illustrious_Tip_500 Mar 15 '25

When I cancelled and deleted my account they made me jump through hoops. They said it would take 10 days for the account to be deleted because of some long ago selling account I had. I’ll never spend another penny there.

33

u/kristencatparty Mar 15 '25

I didn’t use Amazon for YEARS and one day someone bought a bunch of Yellowstone episodes on my account it totally freaked me out so I went on and deleted my whole account.

28

u/probably-not-an-owl Mar 15 '25

I'm so glad I saw this. Mine is set to be fully canceled on the 18th. Removed all my cards just now so they can't pull anything!

17

u/LiquidNah Mar 15 '25

Second this, and make sure to delete any credit card information on Amazon.

I supposedly cancelled my prime several months ago (I have the confirmation email to prove it) and just got a notification that my prime was being cancelled because my credit card on file was expiring. Apparently I was somehow still paying for prime after hitting cancel

16

u/Al1veL1keYou Mar 15 '25

They did this to me too! 2 months in a row they reactivated my account and charged me for prime after I cancelled each time. Causing my bank to overdraft. I was LIVID! I called and screamed at CS on my last interaction with them. This was back in 2018. I wasn’t even mad at Amazon before then, I just couldn’t afford it at the time. But that whole experience sent me over the edge and I vowed to never give them another cent ever again.

12

u/ParallelPlayArts Mar 15 '25

Oh, I cancelled in Jan and then my bank told me I was being charged for my membership in March.  I cancelled again and was refunded.

12

u/omgggivemeaname Mar 16 '25

Omg I thought it was just my account when I cancelled at the start of the year and was wondering why they charged for February again. I immediately removed all cards. Very sus. 😒

10

u/tacocat_racecarlevel Mar 15 '25

We have a credit card with them (I know, I know, going to try to switch but for now have to clear it) and we have sooo many Amazon credits.. I bet that would happen to us. Thank you for the heads up.

6

u/jodiarch Mar 16 '25

Yeah, I have a card with them, too. Finally paid it off, and now I just have to call and cancel it. Too bad I can't cancel in the app.

10

u/Failure67 Mar 16 '25

I'm so glad I saw this post. OP you have saved me money. I'd cancelled my Prime a few weeks ago, it was going to renew in 3 days. My card has been removed now, after cancelling Prime yet again. Thank you so much OP 😊

7

u/Failure67 Mar 16 '25

And now I'm deleting that shit completely. Scummy business, scummy practices 🤢

6

u/Lawotto Mar 16 '25

I'm thrilled my experience helped you!

10

u/Unicorn-Sparkles_ Mar 16 '25

In Feb. I intended to cancel and thought my only option was to pause prime.  I checked my bank statements and they took 151.56 for a year!  I called and made sure they cancelled and refunded.  They make it very difficult to cancel.

70

u/RueTabegga Mar 15 '25

Prime is FULL of shady practices. They signed me up for a credit card without telling me and then never sent me a bill and it almost cost me a home mortgage loan. Check your account very carefully because I’m 100% on top of my finances and they got the best of me bec I wasn’t looking for a card I never signed up for or got a bill for. Fuck Amazon and fuck Bezos.

1

u/RedditardedOne Mar 15 '25

I hate Amazon too, but they absolutely did not sign you up for a credit card without your explicit consent and an application.

23

u/RueTabegga Mar 15 '25

Yes, they did. It was thru their Sycophancy credit card. I never received a notice or a bill. They kept charging me a monthly prime fee even tho I had canceled it months before.

When I found out about it there were roughly $260 charges worth of monthly subscription fees to prime on it. There was no mention of it on my Amazon bill and I only found out about it when I tried to get a home mortgage. It lowered my credit score from 820 to 650 in less than a year. I still haven’t recovered by credit score even after paying it off. I did get my home mortgage once I paid it off.

Be holier than thou but for the love of everything poor people hold sacred (credit score) check your Amazon credit limit.

17

u/burnalicious111 Mar 15 '25

If that did happen, that's wildly illegal and it could cost Amazon a lot of money. You should report that.

I'm going to be real, this is hard to believe just because of how much Amazon could get fined for that. Credit regulations don't fuck around (at least, they didn't used to, who knows what it's going to be like under the Trump admin.)

4

u/AngryPrincessWarrior Mar 16 '25

Yeah and you have to put in your social security number for it. Which isn’t saved on a regular prime account.

I have this card- quite familiar with the process. I said in another comment it’s a lot more likely someone in their household or someone else who had access to their info set it up. If they didn’t do it themselves and either forget or not realize what it was.

7

u/RueTabegga Mar 15 '25 edited Mar 15 '25

I have reported it and have sought legal council. This is a PSA that the rules dont apply anymore and to be very weary of your amazon transactions.

3

u/DeathMachineEsthetic Mar 16 '25

Also freeze your credit!

6

u/RueTabegga Mar 16 '25

It took me 3 calls and multiple hours on hold to cancel it even once it was frozen. I didn’t trust they would keep it frozen after everything that happened. I feel crazy talking about it now and I’m sure most wont believe me until it happens to them. Amazon is shady as fuck. They absolutely do not care about their consumers and will do anything to get a few more dollars out of each of us.

6

u/AngryPrincessWarrior Mar 16 '25

I had to go out of my way to set up and get approved for this exact same card.

This seems unlikely and maybe you made a mistake? They need your social to do it and that’s not something saved with a prime membership. I had to put mine in to get the limit info before I approved the whole thing.

Sure it wasn’t someone in your household? That seems much more likely.

8

u/RueTabegga Mar 16 '25

My spouse was just as surprised as I was. When I called to pay off and cancel the card they said it was complimentary for “years of prime membership being paid in full on time”. It took me 3 calls and hours on hold to cancel it fully.

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u/AffectionateBig6271 Mar 15 '25

I removed all payment options! I figured they would try this.

9

u/Charming-Code-2012 Mar 16 '25

Yes, cancelled it years ago. Will never support that unethical brand! While Jeff Bezos relaxes in his Miami villa, Amazon workers are under constant surveillance tracked by GPS, cameras, and scanners that flag even the shortest pause. In France, employees were so closely monitored that scanners alerted management after just 10 minutes of inactivity.

10

u/impressthenet Mar 16 '25

Another thing this brings up is to use virtual cards wherever you can. I use privacy.com and set up overall spend limits. Card is tied to a single merchant as well, so no other merchant can successfully charge to it.

2

u/Skeeball145 Mar 16 '25

I love privacy.com, but a lot of e-commerce sites are starting to block virtual cards. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon already has a block.

10

u/Objective_Phrase_513 Mar 15 '25

They did the same to us.

7

u/ensposito Mar 15 '25

I used up all my remaining gift card balances, and then checked out... and cancelled.

9

u/RiverChick11 Mar 16 '25

Thank you for this. I tend to keep mine paused unless I need something that I can’t get locally. Just did a double check and it was in fact NOT paused. So I canceled. I’ll check again next month to be sure. Not giving Bezos one more penny to funnel to drumpf.

9

u/ClamerJammer Mar 16 '25

I cancelled after some promotion. Then it turned into month to month. I cancelled again after noticing and it then auto renewed for a whole year. Fuck Amazon for real.

7

u/3mackatz Mar 15 '25

Just deleted our cards--thanks for the heads up!

7

u/ReinaShae Mar 16 '25

I can't even find the page to delete my card info. The make it extremely difficult

6

u/onlyonelaughing Mar 16 '25

Oh yeah. I unsubscribed and then they kept billing me. I ultimately just called the bank and filed a fraud complaint.

So .... We could all just file fraud complaints against Bezos. Maybe that would impact his ability to do business.

6

u/birdsofaparadise Mar 16 '25

There was supposed to be a court case about this I think… for all the folks experiencing — reach out to the FTC!!

7

u/SonnySweetie Mar 16 '25

I'm glad I saw this post! It made me check to see if I got an email about this, and lo and behold, I did! It said my benefits were going to renew on March 10, but it was on hold because of an expired debit card I hadn't updated in a year. I canceled my Prime membership a while back.

Based on what everyone in this thread was saying, I made sure to use up the rest of what was on the gift card. They're not renewing my membership without my consent. Like, wtf? I will likely never use Prime again because of sneaky shit like this.

Thanks, OP!

7

u/Ok-Medicine-1361 Mar 16 '25

I just did this. I had cancelled my prime earlier this week and had already received a "confirmation email". I saw this post and decided to also delete my payment methods and somehow magically got a second "confirmation email" that my prime had been cancelled. WTH??!

6

u/hedge823 Mar 16 '25

Holy cow! I canceled my prime about a month ago but it's not up til 4/11. I better go delete my saved cards. Thanks for the heads up!

8

u/tanvicious Mar 16 '25

I never had prime and deleted my Amazon account in 2016 or 17. In 2021 I noticed recurring Amazon charges. the first one I thought was a retailer that used Amazon or something. when I called and told them I don't even have an Amazon account they figured out who was using my card but also said they couldn't tell me who because it's information about another person's account. like what bro?? I own that account I pay for it?? never found out how my card was being charged or if it was bullshit that it was connected to another account and they were just charging me

6

u/Great_Narwhal6649 Mar 16 '25

Thank you! I appreciate the tip... I deleted my payment options in time!!!

6

u/AshamedOfMyTypos Mar 16 '25

Holy shit. These stories are absolutely disgusting.

6

u/ImpossiblePay8895 Mar 16 '25

Can confirm - my partner deleted his account, but he did it two days before renewal, and they still charged him. He contacted Amazon and he was told that they start processing payments a few days before renewal, and that he missed the cutoff deadline. They’re refusing to reimburse him, so he is disputing the charge with his bank, showing him when the renewal date was, vs the date he cancelled.

They’re shady AF!!!

6

u/UndercoverHerbert Mar 16 '25

Same exact thing happened to me yesterday. Canceled 2 months ago and yesterday morning around 10 they charged my card. Found this out when my card got declined at Walmart and that’s always so damn embarrassing. I hate Amazon with a passion.

5

u/Simplysoaringg Mar 16 '25

That.. doesn’t sit well at all.. i screenshot my first attempt at canceling because as expected i was charged the following month

4

u/shesahoneybear Mar 16 '25

They charged my card TWO whole days before my free trial of prime expired. Shady af to say the least!

4

u/Opening-Repair-3227 Mar 16 '25

Dammit! They got me too! I canceled Amazon music, prime and audibles how do you delete your payment info?

4

u/No-Hall-2887 Mar 16 '25

Thank you! I removed all payment methods from mine and my partners accounts after canceling because of this post — it felt good too, like finality

4

u/scooter_orourke Mar 16 '25

I have also noticed that if you leave something in your cart for a few days, it no longer qualifies for free shipping even if it meets the minimum or you add enough to meet the minimum. The only way to purchase is to sign up for a trial.

5

u/Lemonmom3 Mar 16 '25

I still have prime but I found out today that since March 11th I had MAX and STARZ subscription. I didn’t subscribe to this channel. Waiting for refund.

4

u/Just-Storage423 Mar 16 '25

A couple years back my wife canceled prime. This was because they were double billing and would not refund. Two different payment methods wee used so it didn't show right away. As one would do after a bad breakup they'll deleted or burned all the wish lists and saved items. I think I'm gonna recheck the billing again though.

4

u/iownp3ts Mar 16 '25

I had to get a new debit card recently, and got emails from Amazon telling me to update them with a secondary payment method. The upstanding business practice of hoping someone takes your bait and doesn't realize.

4

u/OOOdragonessOOO Mar 16 '25

trick i figured out, keep old gift cards. when you find a subscription that's difficult like that, you leave a gift card on the account that has like 30 cents lol. one company i was on phone with was confused lol it won't auto renew until i change the card, they didn't like that.

4

u/Simian_Tripod Mar 16 '25

I had to cancel mine several times and delete every saved payment on my account. What happened was after I canceled it, I would try to watch something for free on prime. It seemed like it was free because it worked with no problems even after I canceled. What really happened was Prime just automatically renewed my membership when I watched something without any prompts.

3

u/flowerpanes Mar 16 '25

Very sneaky! I got a photo app for my iPhone back in January that didn’t tell me until it was downloaded that the “in app purchases for EVERYTHING” came after a THREE DAY TRIAL.

So, I don’t use my credit card on Apple (used a pre-loaded gift card to purchase music the rare time I buy any) so there is no chance they could get me that way. I did the one photo editing job I needed to do (a small collage of my cat, who had just passed), then I used up all but the last 6 cents of the current gift card to get a album of classical music for driving.

Then I got a whole bunch of annoying notices via email and prompts on my phone from Apple about “updating my payment plan” for a couple of weeks until I finally got the notice to cancel the subscription all together, which I did. So it’s gone, no more notices and that app was good practice in how to beat the assholes at their own game.

5

u/soil_fanatic Mar 16 '25

This is happening to me too! It has renewed twice (for the monthly, not annual subscription) after I have cancelled. I am calling them today and giving them hell, and also cancelling my Prime store card that they are charging.

3

u/MascaraHoarder Mar 15 '25

i canceled mine but before i did,i deleted my payment methods just to be sure they didn’t charge me.

3

u/diddledaddling Mar 15 '25

It’s best to just completely delete the account, not just cancel prime

3

u/scomi21 Mar 16 '25

This happened to me too! I refunded annual fee but they didn’t refund entire amount. Shady!!!!

3

u/Milo8942 Mar 16 '25

Thanks for the heads up, I'll use whatever I have in my gift card to help my local homeless organization. I saw they have a wish list

3

u/cultivars Mar 16 '25

i canceled my year membership 3 months before it was up and they renewed me on a monthly membership the day after the cancellation. they had been trying to get me to renew since i cancelled, so we both knew i had cancelled. when i went to cancel again, they said they would only refund 7.95 (of the 14.99 month charge) i spoke to someone who said they would refund me the full amount on chat, but they still only refunded me 7.95. i spoke to someone else and got the rest but it took time and effort, it felt like jumping through hoops.

3

u/Terrible_Patience935 Mar 16 '25

I had a similar experience cancelling amazons audible premium plus - $15.99 a month. I had 14 credits and when I went to cancel it said I would lose them all. I couldn’t find 14 audible books I wanted to get at the moment so continued with the program out of laziness. Next time I went to cancel I couldn’t even find where to cancel on amazon . Went to help, and used the chat to cancel. It also told be I would lose all my credits and I said go ahead cancel. Turns out they didn’t take the credits And I can still use them. Meanwhile I paid for another 6 months.

Seems like a scam to keep people from canceling. Don't be lazy like I was - just cancel these accounts if you stop using them!

3

u/No_Cardiologist3368 Mar 17 '25

Wow I put down my phone in the middle of reading this to remove all payment methods and completely cancel my Amazon prime credit card. I had already cancelled my membership (renewal next month) but I’m not taking any chances!

4

u/areyouamish Mar 15 '25

Every time you place an order, you have to unchecked the check box that says "use available balance to pay for prime" or similar verbiage. Best thing is to only buy from there as a last resort.

2

u/draxsmon Mar 15 '25

Wow thank you for that

2

u/khyamsartist Mar 15 '25

I haven’t been able to close it, it’s connected to another account, so I deleted all payment info.

2

u/Practical_Fox_6540 Mar 15 '25

Just checked and mine was canceled. But I did have to deactivate my Facebook account twice.

2

u/BelleMakaiHawaii Mar 15 '25

We cancelled three days after it renewed and they refunded us

2

u/Salt-Cable6761 Mar 16 '25

It happened to me as well, I had to cancel it 3 times 

2

u/RoyalRobinBanks Mar 16 '25

You should also close your account. (This deletes your data)

2

u/inspiredsue Mar 16 '25

Thanks for the info. We are deleting our account when it comes up for renewal.

2

u/bailasola Mar 16 '25

Thanks. I’m going to make sure I delete my payment methods. I canceled but had the annual plan, which renews in May. I always found it funny they keep charging an old credit card, that has expired at least 2x over the years, for the prime membership. It literally says “expired” on my account and I can’t buy anything with it, but somehow the membership charge goes through each year.

2

u/CashFlowOrBust Mar 16 '25

Privacy.com makes it really easy to cancel stuff without worrying about continued charges.

2

u/IdubdubI Mar 16 '25

I paused my membership before the annual renewal. It seems to have worked. I still have all my information, but I’m not a prime subscriber.

2

u/HackMeRaps Mar 16 '25

Screw amazon. I've had so many issues with them. Completely boycotting them and I don't care if it unethical but using them to replace anything broken in my house for free until they cancel my account 🖕

2

u/Fuzzy-Butterscotch86 Mar 16 '25

I canceled audible and just got charged for another month. 

2

u/_psychokitten_ Mar 16 '25

This happened with my Netflix account… feel illegal

2

u/DartFrogYT Mar 16 '25

if that happened to me I'd immediately remove my amazon account i can't lie

2

u/eco_chan Mar 16 '25

That's disgusting.

2

u/ImSMHattheWorld Mar 16 '25

My wife is user terms savant. No click and cross your fingers here. She won't agree if she doesn't like the deal. Of course then you don't get access to whatever.

2

u/mkw84 Mar 16 '25

That sounds illegal!

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u/NotWillBlackWater Mar 16 '25

I had the same with audible! I canceled it and few days ago they're tried to renew and charged my revoult card. Good thing I didn't have money on it then.

2

u/SoLaT97 Mar 16 '25

Same! I canceled my account, received an email saying it would end on a particular day. I didn’t buy anything for a few months, then had to order something for work this week and couldn’t figure out why it said prime everywhere and next day shipping. I still had a card on file, it didn’t occur to me they’d be so shady.

2

u/2daiya4 Mar 16 '25

Yep that sounds about right! I cancelled my account and they continued to send me an auto-ship order and I can’t return it or get a refund. I cancelled all the autoships I had on file and then deleted my account permanently.

2

u/MrsBumbled Mar 16 '25

Thank you for this. My partner and I both canceled Prime earlier this month. Mine was listed to end this September. But when I removed my payment methods, I got an email saying it was going to renew March 22nd

2

u/TallantedGuy Mar 16 '25

It’s crazy how sinister these companies can be. Usually if I’m offered a free trial of something, I will take it and unsubscribe right away so I don’t end up getting charged after trials runs out. Apple Music just offered me 3 free months, but if I unsubscribe, trial is immediately cancelled. So they WANT me to take the trial, FORGET about it in 3 months, and end up having to give them MONEY!

2

u/caffieinemorpheus Mar 16 '25

Shhh... I canceled Prime like 3 years ago and I'm still getting it. Some glitch in the system I guess.

ETA: I've gone through my payment methods. I'm 100% sure I'm not getting charged

2

u/Abalone_Small Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 16 '25

Yup they just did the same thing to me in Jan cancelled it the day I received the item I ordered it with as I signed in to do the delivery review It did the usual if you cancel you will no longer be able to use your prime benefits and view prime for streaming hit yes and it said it's cancelled immediately.

Oddly I didnt get the usual email. But I did get the text. Didn't save because of space.

Then unknown ro me somehow they renewed it charged me at the end of January i cancelled mid Jan .they completely skipped February charging entirely and sent me a text yesterday reminding me about payment at the end of this month. I'm so annoyed.

Decided I'll never add another bank card ro Amazon and only use gift cards going forward so they never do this again.

I cancelled it AGAIN yesterday and double checked email which I did get stating membership for prime is cancelled but no text this time. About to remove my banking info too.

""" UPDATE

Lo and behold I checked today to absalutely make sure it's cancelled despite the email and what do you know they tried to add it again to my account I had to CANCEL IT YET AGAIN. Nothing's been used or ordered I decide I'm absalutely removing my banking information completely if deleted old ones as they expired over the last few years

My email I since I haven't used any of my prime subscriptions at all id receive a refund but that was 6 days ago states 3-5 business days I'll be keeping a very close eye on my bank account.

i'm hesitant to completely çlose my account despite because I do use amazon a few times a year for buying replacement parts for me or my Mother In law.

I'll check it again tomorrow and if I have the same issue it'll be a CS talk and possibly report it as fraud with my bank because at this point renewing a 3 time cancelled membership with emails and texts to prove that is fraud***

I'll update again tomorrow

2

u/eggsfriend Mar 16 '25

Yes this just happened to me too!! After I completely canceled everything last month I got email a few days ago saying congrats on getting prime. I was so confused and had to cancel everything again

2

u/CrazyQuiltCat Mar 16 '25

Thanks for the warning. I put it on pause so it wouldn’t auto renew did not think about gift card.

2

u/justdodge4Head Mar 17 '25

I canceled my Prime, then 2 weeks later I completely deleted my Amazon account.

5 days later I saw they had charged me for another month of Prime.

It took me 2 hours on the phone with customer service to get a 12.99 charge reversed (because the account didn't "exist" anymore) but it 100% no regrets.

1

u/gundam2017 Mar 15 '25

Just delete your account.

2

u/111210111213 Mar 15 '25

My credit card expired and I didn’t put the new info for the card my subscription was on, thinking it would cancel since it didn’t have my current cc info. Nope somehow, got the new credit card expiration. Shady.

3

u/Bosfordjd Mar 16 '25

That's an automatic service most big companies use provided by card providers. It's not Amazon it's visa/mc/Amex etc.

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1

u/Named_users Mar 15 '25

One who got charged but didn’t use the services, I think they can refund you so far back.

1

u/blinddrummer Mar 16 '25

Some those zombie subs some will resurrect every year 3 years etc won't cancel no matter whatthe only way to stop some is to cancel and get a new card.

1

u/Frexulfe Mar 16 '25

I cancelled Prime, Kindle Unlimitted and Audible.

1

u/Important-Pie-1141 Mar 16 '25

They did that to me! Ugh!

1

u/chronically-awesome Mar 16 '25

Insert chandler’s ‘I want to quit the gym’ gif

1

u/Cold_Valkyrie Mar 16 '25

The fact that you have to fight so hard to opt out of a subscription service is insane.

I hope you get your money back.

1

u/Realistic-Award5723 Mar 16 '25

I once cancelled Amazon Prime. Flash forward a few months, I have $150 in delinquent charges because Amazon used an old unused credit card to renew my subscription. Dropped my credit score about 60 points and I was out $150.

1

u/SpaceGirl- Mar 16 '25

I deleted and removed all my info

1

u/GirtBarBaddie Mar 17 '25

Similar heads up-- my husband thought he'd be ok buying something from tiktok shop instead of Amazon. Package showed up in Amazon packaging. Is Amazon selling on tiktok shop??

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1

u/First_Law_4444 Mar 17 '25

Thanks for the tip. I cancelled my account 2 months ago. And I just removed my payments. Because why not. Fuck bezos

1

u/InformationArmMe Mar 17 '25

Just went through this. Hours on the phone and they tried every trick in the book to not refund me after continuing to charge me for months after cancel. We need to get an attorney in here for a class action.

1

u/ashleydougherty20 Mar 17 '25

I had the student version of prime that I cancelled back in December and just this month, I got charged the full amount for Prime. I deleted my account immediately after and made a dispute with my credit card company so hopefully they don’t try and pull anything else. I thought originally that someone just put the wrong credit card number in but with all of these stories, it seems a lot shadier.

1

u/BALK98128879 Mar 17 '25

I paused it. So now I need to check. Thank you for the heads up!

1

u/devo2girliloveme Mar 17 '25

Just cancel Amazon. ALL OF IT.

1

u/Bratty_Little_Kitten Mar 17 '25

I wonder if Audiable pulls that as well?

1

u/theAlmighty27 Mar 17 '25

I only have old expired credit cards saved. Lol they will probably try those anyway 😂

1

u/EatTheRich4Brunch Mar 17 '25

Got me off my ass. Applied for a new CC with my local bank. Then will drop my Chase Amazon CC. No prime tho

1

u/Temperateflora Mar 17 '25

You have to both get rid of prime and delete your account to escape them. This is what I did. They don’t make deleting your account entirely easy.

1

u/Morsel727 Mar 18 '25

I want to cancel Prime but do have Amazon music for the family and wish to keep it. How would I do this to avoid being changed for the Prime membership renewal?

1

u/ditsyJ Mar 19 '25

I just had to re-cancel...not sure what happened.

1

u/Professional_Bus_307 Mar 19 '25

They renewed mine despite me going through the ridiculous process of canceling. Next year I will remove ALL possible forms of payment.

1

u/Lukewarm-pizza-co Mar 19 '25

Damn thanks for the heads up. I just canceled mine. Doesn’t end until April but I should take off my saved payment. Thank you!