Before anything else, document
Screenshot your account page showing the active subscription, the billing amount, and the next renewal date. Note the date and time of every contact attempt.
If this ends up as a card dispute, this documentation is the entire case. Five minutes now saves a great deal later.
Try the account page first, thoroughly
Cancellation links are frequently buried under Settings, then Account, then Billing or Membership, and sometimes styled to look like inactive text.
Expect at least one retention offer — a discount, a pause, a downgrade. Declining these is usually required before the cancellation actually completes. Read the final confirmation carefully; a paused subscription is not a cancelled one.
Then email, in writing, with a clear sentence
Send a message to their support address stating plainly: 'I am cancelling my subscription effective immediately and withdraw authorisation for future charges.' Include your account email and any customer number.
Written cancellation creates a timestamped record. Keep the sent copy.
If they require a phone call
Call early in the business day when hold times are shortest. State that you are cancelling, decline offers politely and repeatedly, and ask for a cancellation confirmation number before you hang up.
Then send a follow-up email summarising the call, the time, the representative's name and the confirmation number. Phone-only cancellation is exactly the situation where a written record matters most.
Escalating to your bank
If charges continue after a documented cancellation, contact your card issuer. Dispute the specific unauthorised charges and ask about blocking future ones from that merchant.
Cancelling the card outright is a blunt instrument and does not always stop recurring charges, since card networks can update merchants with new numbers. Ask your issuer to place a merchant block rather than assuming a new card solves it.
Where to complain
Consumer complaints about deceptive subscription practices can be filed with the Federal Trade Commission, and with your state attorney general's consumer protection office. Both maintain online complaint forms.
Individual complaints rarely produce an individual remedy. They accumulate into the pattern evidence that produces enforcement, which is a slower and more useful outcome.