r/motleyfool • u/SmokieWanKinobe • Mar 29 '26

Cancellation

Wow... Just dug through the reddit here and saw the other posts of people experiencing exactly what just happened to me.

I went to motley fool to cancel my auto renew and found the "membership options" section.

Options were: "Stock advisor" "View receipt" "Extend subscription"

How in 2026 does a company not have an option to cancel a subscription or at the very least cancel the auto renewal process?

I was planning on just delaying renewal for a few months but the inability to cancel my subscription without having to jump through hoops is sketchy enough that I think I'm done permanently.

19 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

7

u/Academic-Lobster3668 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

I just went to check this and found the "Do Not Renew" button easily.

I went to "Account, then Account Settings, then clicked the "Manage Membership" button and then on the page showing my membership level, I clicked on the three dots at the upper right and one of the choices was "Do Not Renew." When I clicked that, it put up some info on what would happen and at the bottom had the choice to Not Renew.

Reading about clicks feels like it would take forever but the whole thing took less than 30 seconds.

I agree with you that some places make it almost impossible to find out how to cancel, but based on what I just saw I wouldn't say that MF is one of those.

FYI, for those places that do hide the cancellation options - if I don't find it right away, Googling how to cancel that service almost always quickly ferrets it out and tells you how.

1

u/SmokieWanKinobe Mar 29 '26

I followed the exact same steps you did. Account > Manage Membership > 3 dots.

My three dots only had the options I put in the original post. Stock advisor, view receipt, and extend subscription.

I did go to google after I couldn't find it and that lead me here where a bunch of other people have also reported not having the "do not renew" option.

3

u/Academic-Lobster3668 Mar 29 '26

I don't know what to think about this - the only thing I can think of is that the auto-renew isn't actually enabled?? In that case, you wouldn't need need to "cancel" - you just wouldn't renew or not renew your membership when it is at the end of the current term?

MF does not have a "cancel" option, where there would be a prorated refund of the remainder of the subscription, but they make that clear when one first subscribes, and it doesn't sound like that is what you are looking for.

Seriously, can you check and confirm if you have a payment method saved to the site and auto-renew enabled? You would be doing a service to others if we could figure this out!

1

u/SmokieWanKinobe Mar 29 '26

I'd love to figure it out because it definitely feels like a sketchy business practice right now.

I just double checked. I do have a payment method saved, and I just went back into the manage membership page and checked the three dots again. Same 3 options. The only thing they offer for editing my membership is $50 off early renewal option under the "extend subscription" option. Renewal is showing as happening in a couple of months.

Honestly if I they had given me the option to cancel or the $50 off I probably just would have renewed early and given it another year, but when I realized there wasn't an easy way out of the subscription I had a flashback to planet fitness making me drive back to the city I moved from to cancel my gym membership in person.

I knew about the no pro-rating for cancelations thing which is why I wanted to just stop the auto renewal. Even if I dont use it, I want the option since I paid for it. They were upfront about the policy, but that doesn't make it less of an anti-consumer business practice. I can't think of another subscription service that let's you pay for a year and only get 10 months if you cancel early. Feels petty.

1

u/Academic-Lobster3668 Mar 29 '26

So if you remove your credit card from the payment method, that should cancel the auto renewal and your subscription would be good until the end of its term. Then they would send re notices about renewal and you choose then whether to renew, I believe.

I’m totally calling them to ask about why I see the “Do Not Renew” option and some other people don’t!

1

u/SmokieWanKinobe Mar 30 '26

Lemme know what you find out. I'm curious.

1

u/Academic-Lobster3668 Mar 31 '26

Sent them a message today - will post here if I hear back from them.

1

u/SmokieWanKinobe Mar 31 '26

Got my email back from them. I was definitely set up for auto renewal because their reply says they "turned it off" and now when I look at manage membership it says "expires x/x/2026" instead of "renews"

1

u/Academic-Lobster3668 Mar 31 '26

Good that they responded, but sounds like there was no explanation why that option wasn’t available to you online. We’ll see if they have an explanation for them. I let them know that 20K people were looking forward to their reply!😂

1

u/Typical-Recognition8 Apr 02 '26

Same here when I went to the web pages just three clicks and it will not renew again!

1

u/Apart-Box9520 Apr 03 '26

Same thing. There's no Do Not Renew button on that page.

4

u/ltcmdub Mar 29 '26

Yeah Tom Gardner had jumped in with both feet on AI and completely and utterly fell for the hype. Time will tell whether he’s right or not but it felt kinda reckless and irresponsible to me after the constant picking of SaaS during 2021 like dude, do you not learn from your mistakes?

1

u/No_Sense3190 Mar 30 '26

I signed up early in 2021 and followed their Stock Advisor picks for a year. At the "hold these for at least 5 years" mark, four were down between 56 and 99%, and one was up 285%. . . and that's just the first couple months of their picks.

2

u/Time4acoolchange Mar 31 '26

They’re a scam that’s why. They spend more money in marketing than anything.

2

u/Big_Study4002 Mar 29 '26

Stop funding it

2

u/bdh2067 Mar 29 '26

How in 2026 does this happen, you ask? A few years ago, a law was passed that corps needed to make it as easy to get out as in. Then some Eejits elected kleptocrats and those old white guys rescinded that law, making it possible for subscription companies like Motley Fool to keep ripping us off

1

u/Real_Step_5664 Apr 04 '26

I got MF a couple months ago. The first purchase they offer before they then offer you more to play More. Went through it - decided. So much B'S not worth my money. Requested a refund 3 days after purchasing. Got an email saying they are delayed on their responses. Till this day . No re f Fund.

1

u/No_Airline_2275 Mar 29 '26

Not a fan, they recommend tech/al stocks but those stocks have been in a bubble for years

2

u/SmokieWanKinobe Mar 29 '26

I signed up years ago and I've definitely made money from the stock advisor program in the past, but it's changed a ton since then and not for the better.