A while ago, I signed up for a Web site called Lumosity. I knew someone who was quite fond of it, and raved about it. So I checked it out and signed up for a year long membership.

The basic premise of the the site is that you play “Brain Games”. It helps improve your memory, your focus, your reaction time etc.  I did enjoy it. Like a lot of things, however, after the novelty wore off, I stopped using it.  I decided to start reading on my lunch hour instead of playing it, and slowly, but surely, I just ended up not using it any more.

And then my March credit card statement arrives, and voila! There’s a charge for 81.37 on it, for renewing my membership for another year.  Of course, it’s not like Lumosity sends you a reminder you’ll be renewed (at least I don’t think so – they send so many emails, I just started deleting them all), and by the time the credit card bill arrives, the deed is already done.

I checked out the site, and did some damage control. I’ve cancelled auto renewal so this won’t happen again, and unsubscribed from all their emails, so I won’t get any more of them. Their policy does say to contact them within 30 days of the billing if you have any issues there, so I’ve just squeaked in, and I’m hoping they’ll  cooperate.

Unfortunately, I do have a bad memory (which apparently playing Lumosity didn’t help ), which is why thinks like this can creep up on me, and I don’t realize what’s happened until it’s too late. Auto-renewal is a very evil thing – particularly with things like a “free trial” that you automatically start getting billed after it ends.  I try to avoid starting things with “free trials” because I know I’ll forget to cancel them!

Have you ever been burned by auto-renewal? If so,  did you have any luck disputing the charges?