Subscription charging after you cancelled? The 60-day rule

If a subscription keeps charging after you cancelled, ask the merchant for a refund with your cancellation confirmation, then dispute with your card issuer. On a credit card, the Fair Credit Billing Act gives you 60 days from the statement date to dispute in writing.¹ On a debit card, report within 2 business days of noticing to keep your liability capped at $50.²

Why does a subscription keep charging after I cancelled?

Usually because what you did is not what stops the billing. Four patterns cover most cases.

1. You unsubscribed instead of cancelling. Deleting the app, logging out, or turning off emails leaves the plan active. If you signed up through an app store, you often have to cancel there, not on the merchant's site.
2. There is a second account. It could be an old email, a trial started on another device, or a partner's login that uses your card. You closed one account and the other kept billing.
3. The plan has a term. Cancelling an annual plan usually stops the next renewal, not the current year. Some annual plans bill monthly, and cancelling does not end payments you already agreed to.
4. The cancel took effect later than you thought. Many services end the plan at the close of the billing period. A trial that converted before you cancelled is a real charge.

The first two are billing errors worth disputing. The last two may not be errors at all, so read the terms before you file anything.

The harder part is noticing. In one survey, 74% of people said recurring charges are easy to forget.³ A cancelled plan that bills again hides inside that gap. How much people really spend on subscriptions breaks the gap down.

What proof do I need before I dispute?

Gather it before you contact anyone. The dispute rests on it.

• The cancellation confirmation: the email, the confirmation number, or a screenshot that shows the plan as cancelled.
• The date you cancelled and the email address on the account.
• Every charge after that date: the date, the amount, and the merchant name exactly as the statement shows it.
• The statement date for the first bad charge. This date starts your clock.
• Notes from any call or chat: the date, the agent's name, and what they said.

No confirmation? Search the inbox the subscription used, including spam. Then write down what you remember, with dates, today. A dispute without proof is harder to make, but you can still make it.

Who do I ask first, the merchant or the card issuer?

On a credit card, ask the merchant first. A refund from the merchant is usually the fastest fix, and your request becomes part of the paper trail. Write by email, or use a chat you can save. Attach the confirmation and list the charges. Ask for two things: a refund of each charge after the cancel date, and written confirmation that the account is closed.

The clock does not pause while you wait. Give the merchant about a week, and go to the card issuer when the week is up. Say the first bad charge is on a statement dated September 15. Your 60-day window then closes November 14, and every week of back-and-forth comes out of it.

On a debit card, do not wait the week. The 2-business-day window means you contact the bank the day you notice the charge and write to the merchant the same day. For the wording to use with either one, see how to dispute a charge, with the exact script.

How do the credit card and debit card rules differ?

On a credit card, the Fair Credit Billing Act covers billing errors, and a charge after a cancellation you can document generally counts as one. Send the dispute in writing within 60 days of the statement date. While the dispute is open, you do not have to pay the disputed amount or the interest on it.¹ Pay the rest of the bill as usual.

On a debit card, Regulation E applies, and the money has already left your checking account. How fast you report sets your liability.² Tell the bank the date you cancelled and ask how it will handle the charge. The full debit timeline is in what to do about an unauthorized charge on your debit card.

Read the debit column twice. If you report on day 3 instead of day 2, the cap goes from $50 to $500.

What if the dispute is denied?

Ask for the reason in writing and read it closely. If it says you agreed to the terms, check patterns 3 and 4 above. If you think the issuer got it wrong, reply with anything you did not send the first time: the confirmation, the chat transcript, the merchant's reply.

If that fails, submit a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bureau forwards it to the company and tracks the response.⁵ File it about the card issuer or bank that denied you. Attach the dates, the confirmation, the statement lines, and the denial letter.

If the amount is large, or the merchant sends the balance to collections, ask someone licensed, such as a consumer attorney, before you respond.

How do I keep the next one from slipping through?

Make each cancellation easy to check. Save every confirmation in one folder and note the date of your next statement. When the statement arrives, look for the merchant name. If the charge is there, you are on day one of 60, not day 40.

Then read the rest of the list once a month. One study looked at what happened when a replaced card forced people to re-enter their payment details. Cancellations rose sharply, which shows that many subscriptions survive because nobody is paying attention.⁴ You do not need a new card to get that effect. You need to look. The subscription audit has the questions to ask about each recurring charge.