Beware the financial impact subscription costs

[ATCclears]

This article may not share properly - WSJ doesn't seen to be providing their enhanced link.

Net. Keep an eye on all the little subscription costs. Companies have found a new way to get $ from consumers.

Subscriptions Boldly Go Where No Company Has Gone Before

Recurring payment plans are good for business, and businesses are subscriptionizing more than ever before

www.wsj.com

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[Provincial]

I didn't read the article. I don't like the WSJ paywall.

I am very leery of automatic payment schemes. I limit my online payments to systems that I initiate, rather than automatic withdrawals.

Automatic payments are convenient for people with a guaranteed flow of income. They have risks.

You are entrusting access to your finances to the vendor (and generally a subcontractor that does the actual transactions), so it is another (or several) chance(s) of being hacked.

If you have an interruption of cash flow, and don't get the automatic withdrawals stopped in time, you get penalty charges at least at the vendor, and probably NSF charges from your bank. It also affects your credit worse than if you missed the payment, or made it late.

I'm probably an unusual person, having spent most of my life with a fluctuating income instead of a steady paycheck. Subscription payments don't work for me.

 

[ma96782]

LOL.........I thought it was going to be something about, Microsoft Windows 11.

Aloha, Mark

 

[Alexx1401]

I didn't read the article. I don't like the WSJ paywall.

I am very leery of automatic payment schemes. I limit my online payments to systems that I initiate, rather than automatic withdrawals.

Automatic payments are convenient for people with a guaranteed flow of income. They have risks.

You are entrusting access to your finances to the vendor (and generally a subcontractor that does the actual transactions), so it is another (or several) chance(s) of being hacked.

If you have an interruption of cash flow, and don't get the automatic withdrawals stopped in time, you get penalty charges at least at the vendor, and probably NSF charges from your bank. It also affects your credit worse than if you missed the payment, or made it late.

I'm probably an unusual person, having spent most of my life with a fluctuating income instead of a steady paycheck. Subscription payments don't work for me.

I don't EVER set up any auto pay that will not use a credit card. I have auto pay for several things like the cable, tolls, some streaming ect. All of it is set up to go from a credit card for just that reason. No way in hell I would let them have access to my bank accounts.

 

[Flopsweat]

This article may not share properly - WSJ doesn't seen to be providing their enhanced link.

Net. Keep an eye on all the little subscription costs. Companies have found a new way to get $ from consumers.

Subscriptions Boldly Go Where No Company Has Gone Before

Recurring payment plans are good for business, and businesses are subscriptionizing more than ever before

www.wsj.com

Kinda feels weird reading it on a site that has a paywall.

Just sayin'

 

[s1xty7]

The economy at large has realized subscriptions make more money than traditional product sales. They do this in software and even hardware now. Want the latest Adobe Photoshop? That'll cost you every month. Want your server to be able to use more than X number gigabytes of RAM (that it already has physically installed!!!)? That's a subscription. My mom wanted Microsoft Solitaire on her Windows 8 machine. That's only available as a subscription now too. More and more video game consoles are switching to digital content only. I still go out and buy the physical media because I want to buy something tangible, but I think I'm in the minority. Just wait until the company shuts down or at least shuts down the servers. You have nothing to show for it.

As for subscription payments, even though I have a steady income, life events can change and I want to be the one to decide when my mortgage or water bill get paid (or not). Too much auto-pilot for life. Same type of people that trust cars to drive for them.

I feel like I might be too young to say "Fooey!!!" and shake my cane at the world, but here I am. 41 and an angry old man. You young whipper-snappers!!!